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?

Personally, I’d die of shame if my husband kicked a spaniel mix type dog. Not that he would, he isn’t aggressive like that. He’d have just stood up with our baby and walked away.

Ok by that logic, you clearly didnt think it was out of control as you didnt report it under the dangerous dog act!

Im a facial surgeon and have managed lots of dog bites, from a whole range of breeds on babies and young children. Generally bigger dogs cause worse bites but on a small baby a spaniels bite can still be pretty nasty.

Dogs bite. A strange dog jumping up at your baby could bite, and is not an uncommon scenario. Its absolutely not unreasonable to be worried about that and react accordingly. Everyone always says "oh hes never bitten begore" "oh it was unprovoked". You have absolutely no idea if that dog has a history of aggression or biting and given how shit the owner was chances are its not very well trained. Kicking an animal thats jumping up at your baby, that could significantly harm your baby is reasonable and natural and its the owners responsibility to prevent

What kind of an idiot would let an untrained dog off its lead in a public area? Why aren’t you asking that question?

Not unreasonable at all. Last summer I was having a picnic in the park, next to the playground, with my young children and some friends. Without warning a dog came charging through the children, across the picnic mat and starting eating all the food. The owner's response was 'well if you will have food in the park...'

Another time a dog pissed over my kid's bike which was propped up against the goal posts while he was playing with his friends. Owner again blamed us.

It boggles my mind. Absolutely selfish behaviour.

How horrible. Some people shouldn't own dogs. I am glad your baby is ok. I am not sure why so many people care more about the aggressive dog than your baby, but you can now see why you encounter these people and their dogs.

I do know someone personally who was nearly killed by a dog. She jumped in a river to get away from it. It then went after a small child and only prevented from hurting this child by a passer by. The dog is still alive and owner fighting its sentence after being heavily fined etc.

I look forward to all these weirdos telling me why my friend and that small child deserved to die.

Any dog that jumps up should be PTS. It is clearly not under control of the owner. Unless the owner told it to jump up.

It wasn’t a spaniel, so…

You can use reasonable force to defend yourself against a dog.

Former neighbours of mine had to have it pointed out to them by the dog warden that they could have ended up with a dead dog

You can’t control other people. You can only control your reactions. Screaming and kicking a spaniel mix type dog is grim 😬

Like I said, dramatic! Your child did not get bitten. Or injured in anyway. No one did. Nothing you’ve said suggests this dog was trying to bite.

Eh? I didn’t report it because I didn’t feel like it needed escalating. The owner wasn’t that apologetic but muttered ‘sorry’ and put her dog on a lead after that. Nobody there thought my DH used unreasonable force and everyone was really shocked at the owner.

Wasn’t a spaniel…

You said it looked like a spaniel - so it is probably more likely to be a spaniel mix than an XL bully.

Does it really matter?

The dog wasn’t aggressive, but your husband was.

This is really important because I think the people defending the owner don’t realise they are actually putting the dog in jeopardy. That dog could do that to someone else and end up dead if the person it happened to felt that that was necessary to defend themselves/family. And that’s legal.

You know you said this right?! I dont get why you're getting wound up by people saying Spaniel mix! 😆
"I wouldn’t like to say what breed it was as I’m not that familiar with dog breeds. I’d say it was slightly larger than a spaniel and had floppy ears like one, so possibly a spaniel mix."

lol yeah, right.

I think people should be wary of all dogs. Especially around children. This one was friendly but the damage they can do with their claws can be more substantial than you would expect.

Yes, possibly but I don’t know. And now people are fixated on it being a spaniel.

Its up to the judge to decide on reasonable force. Could go either way.

Nope, nobody has ever been charged for killing a dog in order to defend themselves. But plenty of dogs have been put down if someone has perceived them as a threat.

Legally, it almost certainly was.

If they were just finding the dog to be a nuisance, then it would not be.

But they were reasonably worried about the risk of injury to the baby, there's little doubt it'd be viewed as self defence (or rather, defence of others), and that the dog was dangerously out of control.

The dog could end up DEAD?

Fucking hell.

I’m not sure it’s legal to beat a dog to death because it could smell a snack. That’s horrific.

But not everyone is used to dogs, so knows they can block with the knees, body etc. It's totally the owners fault. A good owner should make sure their dog is safe. This dog owner didnt and as a result her dog got hurt. Don't get me wrong I feel for the dog. But the OP and her husband aren't familiar with dogs and didn't know the dog at all. For all they knew the dog could bite the baby. I don't think it's fair to blame the op and her husband for their reaction.