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?

The dog should have been on a lead. It should respond to recall and not jump up. All of that.
But, a spaniel. I think they are more likely to lick you to death.
Your husband kicking the dog does seems like an overreaction to me. Before a firm ‘no’ , standing up and trying to get him off.
In your situation I would have dropped the baby bag too. And taken the baby. So your husband can try to restrain the dog. More important than the bag.

I think it depends if the kick was more like a push to move the dog away (fine) or something to actually hurt the dog (not ok).

I routinely do. Dog body language is quite easy to read if you know a bit about dogs! Whenever we have a picnic we have dogs coming over, it’s food outside so we expect it. The dogs are invariably friendly, and clearly so, so I will hold onto them or crouch down to block them and make a fuss of them to distract them till owners come. No screaming or kicking has ever been required.

I love my dog but I’m 99% sure safe wouldn’t do this. If she headed to you, I would have called her back before she had any chance to jump up. Some owners just suck I’m afraid. You protected your baby and dog owner was a twat.

Dogs that jump on people or steal food also need to be on a lead at all times.

I do think as well this kind of hysteria around dogs is why you end up with some of the kids I see that are shrieking and crying as a dog walks past them totally uninterested in them. Dog shouldn’t have come over and the owner should have got her shit together asap, but the screaming and kicking and panic was OTT. Just a bit of a shambles all round IMO for what is a kind of everyday minor inconvenience when out and about in the world 🤷‍♀️ Seems like a stressful way to exist!

If you can't train your dog and recall them immediately, you shouldn't be allowed one frankly. At the very least, should be on a lead.

Not sure kicking a spaniel is strictly necessary, but he shouldn't have been allowed to come near you like that, so who would say you are BU?

I feel sorry for the dog, but he has shit owners. Or crap dog walkers, it's insane the amount of dog walkers with too many dogs and they don't know how to handle.

That profession should really get some regulation, it's a recipe for disaster

No you absolutely were not unreasonable to do whatever you needed to do to get this strange dog away from your baby. That’s completely unacceptable of the owner and she would have been getting a mouthful from me. Dogs can be reactive around food, they can be aggressive, dirty, frightening, boisterous and there are not many people who would want a dog they don’t know jumping all over their baby. I say all this as a dog owner. Really shitty and irresponsible behaviour from the dog owner.

a dog is still a dog, when you don't know them, you have no idea what to expect.

I am sure you can google a lot more example.
I have dogs, I dont' allow them to jump at strangers

abc7chicago.com/post/springer-spaniel-attacks-toddler-bites-her-head/1040290/

As a dog owner I would be mortified if my dog did that and I wouldn’t even mind if you ‘ kicked’ my dog as it would be 100% my fault ! granted there’s kicking and kicking , a shoo away with your foot would be acceptable in circumstances , no need to be booting him/
her .
Anyone who says or thinks differently shouldn’t be owning a dog .

Mine would never approach someone either, but I have to say I would be a bit … not amused as such but a bit perplexed I suppose if I saw that kind of production over a dog wanting a sniff of some food. We seem to have lost a lot of sight of proportionality in recent years when it comes to stuff like this. But accept I may be in the minority, I will just carry on as I am and leave others to it!

Yes kicking a dog that fancies a bit of your ice cream is an over reaction.

I said that I’m not familiar with dog breeds at all. That was a guess based on size (which I said it was slightly bigger than a spaniel) and its ears. It could’ve been anything. It wasn’t trying to get a lick of an egg sandwich. It was actively and relentlessly jumping up at my baby.

100%
We have dogs and I’d say I was fairly confident around them. But if I was out with my baby and an unknown dog came jumping up, I wouldn’t be putting my hands and arms near its head / face to grab its collar. You never know how they’ll react with being grabbed at, or even accidentally nip you when trying to grab food.
I would probably have gently kicked or pushed it away with my foot too.

Oh, I could’ve handled if it wanted a sniff. We don’t routinely go around kicking dogs. But that was not what this dog was doing at all.

you are missing "while you are holding your baby" which makes all the difference.

Like I said earlier, a spaniel mix was a guess based on its size and ears. I’m not familiar with dog breeds and can probably name a grand total of 7 different types of dog. So it could’ve been anything.

I love dogs, but an unfamiliar, uncontrolled dog near my baby would absolutely get kicked. I don’t care one jot if that’s unkind. Of course, I would kick as gently as possible to get the dog away - could well just look like pushing the dog with your leg more than an actual kick. But it takes a special kind of wet to think being kind to an unknown dog should trump your baby’s safety.

Oh come on - its 2 adults and one child. Surely one parent can just walk away with the baby while the other holds the dog.

Then the owner should have got an earful as they were in the wrong. But still - kicking the dog is not necessary.

Like I said before, I don’t know if it was a spaniel. A spaniel mix was a guess based on size and ears. I don’t know dog breeds so it could’ve been anything.

Absolutely no chance I'm going to try to hold a random dog.

I’m not touching a dog that does not respond to recall and is acting out of control. I was sat on a bench trying to shield my baby from a hyperactive dog who would’ve been fairly
tricky to grab hold of considering it wouldn’t stop jumping up and down. Why is it my responsibility to control someone else’s dog when I have absolutely no idea whether it has a history of aggression or not?

Its not your responsibility, but sometimes things happen and people are not perfect! Most reasonable people would look for an option that doesnt involve hurting an animal (i'm assuming it was a proper kick due to the lack of reply to people asking if it was a gentle push).

I was having a picnic a few years ago when a toddler came over and started to grab my dogs tail. Not my responsibility to control someone else's child, but i went with the calmest option as i know life isnt perfect!

Exactly this. The dog wasn’t trying to ‘sniff an ice cream’ it was actively jumping up and down at my baby and putting its paws on them. The way it was throwing itself around at them it could've easily unbalanced my DH even if he had tried to stand up from a straddling position on the bench. I don’t understand how some people are reading that and getting that it was just trying to sniff our food.

oh come on. It's a bad owner problem here.

There's no "parent should do this and that" when they were minding their own business with their baby and, very reasonably, felt the dog was a possible danger for said baby.

It's not them who need to be trained on how to handle a dog! It's the shit owner.