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?

In what world do you imagine that "screaming" and kicking isn't escalating a situation?
Unless the dog was being aggressive, screaming and violence is absolutely an escalation.

We didn’t just kick a dog, so let’s not rewrite the narrative.

Because it worked. And alerting the owner that we had a baby is actually really important.

Dogs aren’t saints despite what you want to think. My elderly dad was walking past a house in his village on the opposite side of the road and the dog jumped over a wall and attacked him unprovoked. Defend them all you want, sometimes they harm people, fact.

How is a dog getting in a baby's face 'well behaved'?

This place is unreal 😮

And what do you think OP did to the bench that it needed cleaning?

You didn't overreact but your DH did. Kicking a dog is not okay unless it's trying to attack. He should have taken it by the scruff to move it away until the owner arrived, and her callous behaviour was utterly disgusting. I'm not surprised he kicked the dog in the heat of the moment but still wasn't the appropriate response.

Though her reaction is what would bother me most. A dog of any size jumping up at a baby could be fatal in some circumstances. I hoenstly think dog ownership should require a licence. It's not the dogs fault the owner hasn't trained it and had it off the lead, much like it isn't a child's fault when they grow up behaving badly because they weren't raised well.

I think in future, given that you cannot control other people's behaviour, you need to keep yourself and your baby as safe as possible by sticking to child-only areas of parks and not places where dogs are free to roam off-lead. Sorry this happened to you though, it would leave me very unsettled, too.

I know. It’s apparently our fault for sitting in a public park on a picnic bench next to a children’s playground. The mental gymnastics is baffling.

Kindly, you can’t classify a dog with no recall who is food driven as dangerously out of control!
I agree the dog was not correctly under control, should have been on a lead, should not be jumping up for food. The owner should have been extremely apologetic and was totally out of order.
Dangerously out of control, would be attacking people or dogs and unable to be contained! The police are not going to intervene for an over excited dog and poor owner.

people deserve to eat a picnic in peace

Can someone tell the seagulls this, please.

First post nails it. I’ve had dogs all my life but the behaviour of dogs and their owners since covid is so much worse!

Out of control collies rounding up children on a beach, labradors harassing horses out on walks, owners nowhere to be seen, letting dogs into children’s playgrounds where there is clear signage that dogs shouldn’t be there… and so on!

A whole new generation of dogs, not trained properly, not socialised, with owners who seem to believe that they are “fur babies.”

I imagine she would have apologised if it weren't for the screaming and kicking; and she did apparently apologise just quietly/
quickly and dashed off- which is a normal reaction to a stranger screaming and kicking.

I really wish there was a law that all dogs had to be on a leash & muzzled in public at all times... perhaps their owners too.

Right 😂.

Oh I agree with the license bit. This was a family park and we were sat next to a children’s play area which had toddlers roaming about. This wasn’t a dog park by any means but dogs are allowed. The thing is if it hadn’t happened to us and a toddler happened to be stood in the play area eating a sandwich and it jumped up at them and knocked them over it could’ve been much worse. I don’t think any untrained dog should’ve been unleashed there at all.

Her family saw it unfold and they genuinely looked embarrassed for her. That’s how you know you F’d up.

We didn’t but technically we could’ve reported it under section 3 of the dangerous dog act 1991.

Yeah I get that and agree completely. I think the ultimate issue here is that if she had had her dog under control and was a sensible owner, this would not have happened. It was the fact she walked over and didn't run at the speed of light that got me. If my OH was here and this happened he would have probably done the same in the heat of the moment, again why I'm not surprised. Not everyone handles things well under stress and that's what happened here. Again, would just be more vigilant in future, even though it should be the dog owners responsibility to keep people safe from their dogs, but sadly, so many don't (as we've seen here).

In these situations I wish my handbag was large enough to hold a double-barrelled shotgun.

Enjoy prison x

She's exaggerrating for hyperbolic effect. Not meant to be taken seriously.

Is your handbag a bowling bag perchance? 😂

Is it a competition to see who can give the most hyperbolic response. Is there a prize for it maybe?

in real life little spaniel dog comes running up, ears flopping trying to get to food. Parent stands up, holds baby out the way, says shoo, laughs, pets dog.

on mumsnet, panic, scream, straddle baby, kick dog, wish you’d a gun so you could kill it.

its insane.

Not an overreaction and just because most spaniels are fine doesn’t mean the one in your face is fine. I had a spaniel come up to my toddler and snarl at him on a walk. Its owner wasn’t much interested in recalling the spaniel as she was busy wittering to a friend. Told me I was cruel for having our larger (still in training) pup on a leash. As a dog owner I second that some dog people these days are mental and not willing to train.