AIBU to be upset after a dog jumped at our baby?

[KellyK2026]

Okay, so myself, DH and baby were at a country park the other week. Baby was getting hungry so we sat ourselves down on a park bench and got some food out. A woman was walking with her family and dog and the dog must’ve smelt the food as it suddenly
comes bounding over and is jumping at baby (who is on DH knee) to get the food. We don’t know this dog and don’t know what it's capable of. I scream at the owner that we have a baby and to get her dog under control. At this point, she’s pretty far away and is taking her time to come over. My DH then kicks the dog to get it off them as it just will not stop. The woman wasn’t particularly apologetic and seemed shocked. Did we overreact?

I didn't say screaming abuse, I said screaming, which is the word you used in your OP. The dog can't speak English, it doesn't matter what words you are actually saying.

And you’re very black and white. We felt threatened, as I’ve said. We felt our baby was at risk, as I’ve said. We reacted how we reacted in a situation where we felt our baby could’ve been harmed due to someone else’s poor judgement. That’s not on us.

Well I wasnt shouting to the dog, I was shouting at the owner. So the dog not being able to speak English is neither here nor there.

Aw thanks for your response. It’s awful
that you feel that you can’t go for walks because of out of control dogs, but I suspect you’re not alone.

Of course the owner needs to keep their dog under control - but I am utterly baffled why neither you nor DH stood up and held the baby out of the dogs reach. The mind boggles.

tbh I think that you’re not going to get far with this thread now. You can tell by the poll the majority agree with you.

I’ve got a (beautiful gentle) lab and I would totally understand someone kicking him away if he was behaving that way! Tbh I would have been absolutely mortified if he’d gone up and sniffed your baby and would have apologised profusely for that. Also some dogs are incredibly bouncy and mouthy - I wouldn’t be thrilled with that type dog bounding around my baby at all, especially if it was a strangers dog.

Sigh. As I’ve explained many times my husband was straddling a park bench. If he had stood up he would’ve had a bench between his legs and then had to remain balanced and swing the other leg over as a dog was profusely jumping up at him. Frankly, if he had stood up and been knocked over while holding the baby the responses would be ‘WeLl WhY did YoU StAnd Up WheN you knEw iT wasNt SaFe?’ And people would still be defending the dog.

Your reaction is absolutely on you. You asked if you overreacted- the answer is yes. Also it's not good for your kid, will teach them to be afraid of dogs and potentially overreact too, which may also make them less safe, not to mention causing distress. Unless the dog was being aggressive you were over the top.

That doesn’t explain why you didn’t stand up and take the baby from your DH though. You just remained sitting on the bench too.

I have mobility issues and physically couldn’t.

Most people that I didn’t. And my kid loves dogs. A lot of people I’ve met are scared of dogs because they’ve been chased or jumped up at (read this Thread), not because a parent shouted to an owner to get their damn dog.

Ok but do you understand that the dog also doesn't know who you are screaming at? It's not generally a good idea to scream around animals but I understand that you don't want to learn this and would rather be right. You are right, well done.

Aw thanks for your kind response and you sound like a responsible dog owner. I agree, it’s the same small handful of people commenting to.

Well I am going to alert the owner to the situation. How they deal with it is on them.

Not at all ridiculous.

The dog was out of control - not responding to a recall, off lead in a public place.
The dog gave the people involved reasonable apprehension of injury to themselves/their child.

That constitutes an offence under the dangerous dogs act.

I will say that yelling and kicking is likely to escalate a situation more than resolve it, and standing up, lobbing any spare food, grabbing the dogs collar or firmly yelling 'SIT' would all have been better options, I would not expect non-dog owners to think of any of those, and it is the dog owners responsibility to keep their dog safe and prevent their dog harassing and potentially injuring other people.

Absolutely NU. A kind of sickness has gripped the west regarding dogs. A human baby's safety was in question and people are more concerned about the dog. Even if the dog was friendly, people deserve to eat a picnic in peace. It really is quite simple to leash a dog and it should be done if they have crap recall and will bolt for food. Was it a shame for the dog to be kicked because it wasn't controlled by its owner? Yes. But if more people acted this way then maybe more dog owners would take care to control their dogs.

Wow, baffled and boggled, we just need bamboozled, then the trifecta will be complete.

Yes because this is mumsnet where people are very wound up about dogs.

Dogs are a fact of life. So are children. We all have to learn to live together. There's no need to be afraid just because a dog jumps-
especially if you have food, that's perfectly normal dog behaviour . If the dog was being aggressive then your reaction would have been entirely understandable. As it was you unnecessarily escalated the situation.

Yes the owner should have been in control of the dog, but dogs and their owners are not 100% perfect 100% of the time. Stuff happens despite good intentions. Same as parents. Etc. better to get a grip and not respond aggressively/ hysterically.

Well then the owner should controll them.

Exactly this. I’ve never owned dogs but I have owned other pets and I’ve always operated from the position that the people around me might not like my animals, don’t know anything about the animal, or even have an active phobia of the animal. I would never think to just put my animal on someone’s knee because I think they are adorable. I think every dog owner should assume that not everyone wants a dog jumping up at them and train them accordingly.

We didn’t escalate the situation. The kick was the only thing that got this dog under control because the owner certainly wasn’t doing it.

Op, you’ve obviously had a scare and that is awful. But, nothing terrible happened to your child, you just had the misfortune to come across a shit dog owner. And unfortunately, that happens. And currently, there is no way to prevent it. So, the best thing you can do is learn how to deal with it in the future, which is to remain calm, stand up (sacrifice your picnic if you are that scared, food can be replaced) and walk away. Should you have to? Absolutely not. Would my dogs do this? Absolutely not. Is the owner in the wrong? Absolutely yes. But, people can be shit at times and the more prepared you are for that, the better you will be.

but why wouldn't you want to help yourself to be able to handle these situations better? It would benefit you and reduce the risk.

But OP's approach worked, they got the dog away from baby. The advice on this thread is to have a stern word with the dog, which isn't going fly with parents seeing a dog in their baby's face.

Yes, of course. But as I say, personally I prefer to be safe than right in some situations and this would be one of them.

If this was in an enclosed no dogs allowed picnic area I’d be a bit upset. But you sat on a public bench (I hope you cleaned it) in a park where you could visibly see well behaved dogs off the lead. Then you kicked a dog. You overreacted, you know you overreacted because this happened a week ago and you’re still thinking about it. Maybe next time you eat al fresco you’ll think about the location. A park bench is probably as dirty as a train seat given the amount of dogs that wee up them.