To not understand what this parent was thinking?

[Frequency]

While out with my rottweiler x this afternoon, I noticed he was panting more than I was comfortable with, so I abandoned our walk and took a detour to the nearest shop to buy him a bottle of water.

I crouched down at the edge of a very wide path to give him a drink. I wasn't paying attention to what was around me because I was watching the dog, and no one had any reason to be near us anyway. The pavement is about 8 feet wide on that street, if not wider. We were right at the edge, by the shop window.

The second I stood up, there was a toddler, eye-to-eye with my dog. He must have run up behind me while I was kneeling. He was literally nose to nose with the dog, reaching his hands out to grab/stroke the dog's face.

My dog is friendly but a little wary of small children, so I tend to keep him away from them.

Luckily, DD was with me and had spotted the kid and managed to hold his hands before he grabbed the dog's face and loudly told him, "Sorry, he's scared of kids, and he's just trying to have a drink, can you leave him alone, please?" She had to say it loudly because his mum and her friend had continued walking and were now a good 10 feet away from us. At this point, the mother then shouted at her other small child (around 7 or 8) to "get the baby," so the dog now had 2 kids to contend with while the mother kept walking away, ranting about how the young girl was supposed to be "watching the baby."

DD has anxiety and was really shaken by it, and can't stop thinking about how much worse it could have been if our dog were not friendly, or if the kid had managed to grab the dog's face and spooked/hurt him.

I still just cannot fathom what the mother was thinking, allowing her toddler to run up to a strange dog who was obviously eating/drinking, get nose to nose with him to try to grab him, and then send a second child over after she's made aware he is not a friendly dog?

Surely it is common sense to know that nose-to-nose with a strange, large breed dog, who is eating/drinking, is not a safe place to be, no matter how friendly the dog is?

From someone who has a litter ankle biter... so true 😂

Yep, my dd was bitten by a small yappie breed when she was 3 and we were camping. It was near her eye. It was running around uncontrolled. She's now terrified of dogs, despite our best efforts to help her get over her fear.

Rotties are usually just lazy rather than aggressive!

That toddler could just as easily have run into the road, the mother was clearly in the wrong.

But op, if your dog is wary of small children, please muzzle him in public. There are some idiots around and, regardless of who was at fault, your dog is a lethal weapon in the wrong situation.

Why do people adopt animals from abroad when there are so many shelters here? We have a dog from Romania next to us and it's forever barking. I just don't understand. Surely there is much higher likelihood of a traumatised or diseased animal from abroad? It uses resources to get it here and there are dogs dying unwanted much closer to home.

I do think it's a dog owners absolute responsibility to keep everyone else safe from it. I don't think that there should be an absolute right to a pet and that everyone else should move over for it. I do like dogs myself and had one as a child but animals in captivity are a choice I think and perhaps not even a great one.

It is primarily the dog owner's responsibility to protect children from their dog, not the parents

Your comment is more aggressive than most Rottweilers. People ignorantly find themselves intimidated by all sorts of things, should everyone just pander to prejudice?

My dog seems to like kids and is good with them. Even so, I'm wary of her around babies and toddlers who don't understand they can't pull her tail or ears. I'm happy for a child to say hello but I'd keep her on a very short lead and expect the parent to be similar with their child so the interaction is closely supervised. At the end of the day, although she's very chilled, she's a dog and who knows how they'd react if her tail was pulled or something?

He’s lovely. Ignore the idiots, there is a massive section of mumsnet who seem to take delight in being anti-dog. I presume they are sad, miserable individuals.

The women is clearly a neglectful idiot, but unfortunately it seems to be fairly common these days. People don’t want to actually parent their own kids.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me, and it doesn't matter in law - YOU will be held responsible if your dog attacks someone, especially a child. Especially if you knew he was nervous wary, and especially if you don't have a complete history for how he's been treated. That's just fact, not my 'dog-hating' opinion or anything you'll be able to argue against with 'oh you just don't like dogs' at the police station.

'Watching out' isn't good enough - and 'I didn't think I needed to' certainly isn't. You want to talk about common sense?? - If your 'brakes' aren't good enough, muzzle your dog.

And yes, I read that you're just thinking about other dog owners, not you, and how the child should be taught not to do it in case there's a problem another time. Sure, in an ideal world all children would behave perfectly and all parents would too. But your utter lack of accountability for your own actions here is astounding.

A child was recently killed by a bus in my town. He fell into its path while walking unsupervised in the road. Dead because his mother didn’t watch out for him. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault, if you have a child your job is to protect them.

Odd parent.

When I was out with young children and I saw someone walking towards me with a Rottweiler or similar looking dog… I would cross the road to extend the distance between my children and the dog (and very often the owner too!)

If you have a dog who you know can be unsure around kids it's your job to muzzle them. Stop skirting the issue.

Adorable dog OP. Shocking behaviour from the toddler’s parent. I think this is very much on the increase though. We were walking in a city centre yesterday and parents were allowing children no older than 2.5 to run around a pavement right next to a main road junction. Buses were thundering past and nobody had a handle on these loose toddlers. DH very nearly tripped over one as she ran right under his feet.

Don’t be ridiculous. Would you apply that logic to traffic or knife weilding thugs . It’s absolutely the parents responsibility to protect their children from harm , injury , death .

Just a very good reminder that a large proportion of parents are monumentally shit. I really don’t understand why they bother having kids if they aren’t prepared to undertake the most basic level parenting.

He's gorgeous O.P and as he is a rescue dog, I am sure he is having a very happy life with you. You also sound like lovely, sensible and responsible dog owners.
Ignore any ignorant comments.

Those ears 😍😍😍😍

But surely, it is the parents responsibility to ensure their toddler does not run up to dogs they don’t know and try to grab them?
OP was in fact keeping a close eye on her dog - the toddler was running unsupervised.

Have a day off.... jesus wept

If you are concerned that your dog might bite a child then it really should be muzzled on walks. Lots of dog owners use muzzles. You should also avoid areas which are highly trafficked by children (like parks) if you do not intent to muzzle it.

I’m not in the UK so this isn’t particularly relevant, but just as a point of comparison…Where I am there is a restricted dogs list and the breeds on it must always be kept muzzled in public and on a strong, short lead by someone who can control them.
Rottweiler crossbreeds are on the list.

Vet's daughter here, used to work at his surgery. In many years, we NEVER had an aggressive Rottweiler. Most are complete gentle giants. The ones I'm wary of are small terriers, some of which can be really nasty.

Is this a joke? 🤣 so when I'm out with my kids and there are dog walkers around I can just crack on with my day as they are no longer my responsibility.... righto 🤣🤣

You know the disdain you feel for those ignorant people tarring big dogs under one brush? How annoying them making assumptions because of sterotypes and a lack of intelligence/understanding is?

Small dogs have this reputation because of owners who don't understand what their breed needs (in the case of chihuahuas and other toy breeds, very early training that big hands near their heads is a good thing and extensive socialisation). The problem is shitty owners who think a small dog barking or growling from terror is 'cute' and who treat them more like an accessory than a dog, making them miserable.

Our smaller rescue dogs have always needed far more work than the big ones around making them feel safe in the world and not experiencing fear aggression. Our chihuahua from a puppy has been the most trainable, loving dog (we often have people saying 'I don't usually like small dogs but...'.

Negative breed/dog stereotypes are usually 80% down to shit owners.

The dog should be muzzled if it is reactionary and potentially dangerous. I have a very large dog which has grown up with small children but I'm still not that selfish to risk another child's face purely because it would be the other person's fault for approaching. I also wouldn't risk my dog being put down because someone let their child startle her unmuzzled. A dog with that many triggers is a dangerous dog and should be treated as such in public.

Something is really weird about this

You make your daughter sound like a child herself. She’s 23? No wonder she has anxiety. You are blowing this out of proportion. She did nothing wrong. However you’re dragging the exchange on by labouring the point through online forums, when it should be a non-event with no need for continuing to discuss it with strangers. There’s also no need for anyone to be shaking over this tbh, and she would likely process this easier if you didn’t make it such a big deal.

Plus your expectations for other people are too high. I can assure you that no one is thinking about being “nose to nose” with your dog, it’s just not going to cross the average person’s mind. You keep repeating this oddly specific phrase as if non-dog owners see the world in that way - they don’t. You need to take responsibility of your dog instead of assuming others will.

If you think there’s a reasonable chance that your dog will bite a stranger, then you do need to muzzle it. Someone being in proximity to your dog, doesn’t then make it okay that your dog bites. It doesn’t absolve you of responsibility. So the responsible thing to do is just muzzle it for the edge cases.