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?

You did not overreact. I'm 4 foot 11 and have been bitten by a dog jumping up at me.
I love animals but that scared me.

OP has said she's not going to say again that it wasn't a spaniel, so I'll say it for her. It wasn't a SPANIEL!

It wasn’t a spaniel. It wasn’t little. It didn’t just come up to sniff some food. It had jumped up several times at my baby. We weren’t in a situation where we could easily stand up and there’s nothing funny about an owner that doesn’t have their dog under control.

It was a spaniel mix 😂

Too scared to quote me? Sad :(

Your responses are embarassing attempts at humour, you might want to try harder next time. "Haha all dogs should be muzzled and I would shoot them!! Lol!!!" - it's a yikes from me

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.

yup

It wasn’t that either. That was if I had to guess but I don’t know dog breeds. But sure, if it makes you feel better, it was a spaniel
mix.

You can't argue with stupid, don't bother

You need to get a life instead of trying to police other women's comments (and failing).

Likely the unpopular opinion here with all of the dog worshippers excusing the terrible owner and lack of training, but if this had happened to me and I thought my baby might potentially have their face bitten off, we would've killed the dog right there and then to be honest

My puppy is huge. And I mean huge. She also has terrible manners and when asked if a child can stroke her I usually say no.as she jumps up, licks and sometimes even bites (not hard but still uses teeth). Once we said yes to a 2 year old while I was fully restraining her and she still tried to rear up and knock him on his little bum. This is why, always and forever, she will be on a lead. I can't teach her manners fast, but I can adapt to her/act on behalf of her. The woman was so, so in the wrong. And I say that as a woman who's dog would have tried to snatch as much food as she could, and probably smack your baby with her fat paws too!

Baby was probably more frightened by the parents carry on than by the actual dog!

Not unreasonable.
however you loose brownie points for kicking the dog.

Yeah you don't know the dog. I had similar actually, having a picnic with a friend who'd popped round the corner with her baby. Random off lead dog ran up and started jumping at us trying to get my son's pasta out his bowl. I had to hold its harness to hold it back - owners were older couple, man on a mobility scooter and a woman who didn't have any walking aids. It was the man who slowly drove up then slowly came to get the dog - no apology or anything said to us.

Same dog then came back AGAIN when my friend and her baby were also there, jumping up at the little ones and the food. Even if no biting it's just unhygienic. Same thing happened, I had to hold the dog back again, no apology or word said to us and took them a long time to get the dog. Bloody annoying. And my family had dogs growing up as well.

Wasn’t frightened at all and loves dogs to this day, but thanks for your concern.

Very sensible, your puppy sounds like a cute menace!

Well the dog owner has to take responsibility for that. I say that as someone who has been bitten by a dog and it was nasty.

Your baby wasn’t frightened by its “screaming” mother? Unfortunately op, it will have been.

To be honest, you would've been within your legal rights to do that. I’ve been reading the law tonight and it genuinely doesn’t matter if the dog bites or not, if you feel reasonably threatened you can take action. If I knew that as a dog owner I would be taking more precautions, not blaming other people.

No they weren’t. They were busy trying to eat.

I wish I had kicked the dog that attacked me!

Unlikely, biology says babies respond to screaming mothers, but if you are right, no harm done then?

Hope you're ok now. I love dogs and most animals, and I'm also fine with touching spiders and field mice etc, but I still freeze for a panic stricken second when a random dog runs and jumps at me.

The exact same thing happened to us on a beach many years ago when I was nursing my 6 week old daughter and we were eating a picnic. The dog bounded up to us and was running around us, it was wet from being in the sea and bit a chunk of the sandwich I was holding and pushed its nose towards my nursing baby. My 4 year old was frightened and was crying, my husband also kicked the dog as it wouldn't go away and the owner just stood and looked rather than trying to recall it. He didn't apologise either so no, you are not being unreasonable.

Surely you would have just stood up so that your child was out of reach or the jumping dog?