I was walking with my young toddler in the park, just a few metres away from a gated playground, when a border terrier belonging to an older group of people suddenly came running straight toward us. Because the dog was large enough that its face was level with my daughter's face and throat—and since I didn't know the dog—I instinctively scooped her up to keep her safe.
The moment she was in my arms, the dog began jumping frantically at her. I firmly told it "no," and the owner finally came over and retrieved it. My daughter was very upset, so I walked away with her crying in my arms. Although she was wearing trousers that prevented the dog from breaking the skin, she was left with many visible red marks on her legs, which she mentioned still hurt later that afternoon when I was changing her.
Shortly after, the owner approached me to "explain." He claimed his dog was actually very friendly and good with children, and that the aggressive behaviour was entirely my fault for picking her up. He explained that his dog "has a thing" about children being held in their parents' arms, and claimed he had been about to warn me not to pick her up. He offered no apology, repeating only that he wanted to justify his dog's actions.
I responded that if his dog couldn't cope with children being held, it shouldn't be off-lead in a public park near a playground. I pointed out that the frightening incident could make her fearful of dogs—noting that a relative had a similar childhood experience that caused their fear of dogs which would be sad because she currently loves dogs.
He dismissed my concerns, arguing that they don't use a lead because incidents like this "don't happen often, maybe once a month." He reiterated that the dog was friendly, that local children regularly pet him, and that the fault lay entirely with me for picking my daughter up. He even mentioned they had looked it up online and decided the dog was showing a "protective instinct towards the child."
At that point, I suggested that if the dog truly was friendly, they could hold it on a lead for a moment so my daughter could see it was safe and had just been "playing" or "protective." The owner refused, saying the rest of his group had already moved on—which only made me question how friendly the dog actually was.
Ultimately, no apology was offered. The owner's stance was that it is a public park and they therefore aren't required to use a lead, that the whole thing was my fault for picking up my child, and that my daughter wasn't really all that hurt or upset and they don't have to have it on a lead and then he left. Was it so unreasonable to expect a dog that is known by their owners to jump at children in arms to be on a lead?