...to be cross with this dog owner.

[EvilTwins]

Have just come back from our local park with my DTs (3.4) We went to feed the ducks, and go on the swings. Whilst we were feeding the ducks, an enormous dog suddenly appeared (it did seem to come from nowhere - the duck pond is in a dip, surrounded by bushes, so we didn't see it coming, and anyway, we were engrossed in conversation about the ducks) My girls are not used to dogs, as we don't have one, and none of our family do. They are usually a bit wary anyway, and I try to deal with it with as little fuss as possible. Anyway the dog in question was huge (I'm not a dog person, so couldn't say what breed, but it was nose-to-nose the same height as the twins, and, on hind legs, would have been taller than me) and the first we knew of its presence was when all the ducks suddenly scarpered. The dog then tried to get the bread that my one daughter was holding in her hand. Not surprisingly, she thought it was trying to eat her hand. Both twins were pretty hysterical, so I was holding them both tightly, trying to to calm them down (and prevent them from flailing around and falling into the pond) Meanwhile, the owner of the dog was nowhere to be seen. I then spotted two women standing on the path above the pond, obviously looking for something, so I shouted "Is this your dog?" They meandered down to the pond, and despite the fact that they could see the twins in a state, did nothing to take the dog away. In fact, rather than grabbing the dog's collar, she grabbed one of my daughters. I got really shirty then - told her to let go of my child and take her dog away. At this point, another woman, who'd seen what had happened, came past and told me that it was ME scaring the children, NOT the dog. I was speechless. All three women and the sodding dog then wandered off,complaining loudly about what a hysterical so-and-so I was. I was livid. The twins were really shaken and both crying.

On the way out of the park, I noticed that the sign by the gate said "Dogs must be kept under control. Do not allow your dog to frighten children" so I did feel slightly vindicated.

Sorry for long post. AIBU to be cross?

no and that's what happened to my ds, he's now terrified of dogs.

YANBU. But you knew that didn't you?

Irresponsible owners are what give the rest of us, good owners names.

Why on earth was she grabbing your daughter btw?

YANBU!

bad names.

That's awful! Hope the twins are ok now, owners like that shouldn't be allowed dogs!

I know when I was walking dogs with my friend someone sle's dog came over and tried to start on our dogs, luckily our dogs are brilliantly behaved and wouldn't fight back. But the owner wouldn't even call their dog off till we told them to!

The subject of Dogs is a bit like Marmite on MN.

I wasn't there obv but the way you write the scene sounds to me like you overreacted a teensy bit and perhaps need to introduce your DTs to a nice friendly mutt so that they don't think every one sniffing round them is trying to eat their hand.

Having said that the women should have seen you / they were scared and reacted accordingly, so YANBU about that!

"Do Not Allow Your Dog To Frighten Children"

Really? Have never seen that before.

yadnbu
i think such people should be banned from parks if they cant control their dogs, or it should be confiscated from them. but then i hate dogs. i would have been extremely angry in your position

So what's the form with politely asking people to keep their dogs under control, then?

I was in a park with DS1 and DS2 on Sunday. Small park with big playground in the corner and three boys, aged probably 4-9, playing tug of war with a boxer by the path. The boxer (a youngster I think) was thoroughly excited and ran up to my DSs - bypassed DS2 (fortunately, since it was bigger than him) and leapt up at DS1's face.

Now, luckily, our whole family is very used to dogs and DS1, although disconcerted, stood his ground and went off to play quite happily. But I can see that if he'd been smaller and/or a bit timid with dogs, he'd have had seven fits.

So I went up to the boys and said: 'I can see he's a nice dog, but you shouldn't let him jump up at people, you could get into trouble.' At which point the older two said he wasn't theirs and the younger one said proudly: 'he's mine.' When I asked where his parents were he pointed at his mum, sitting on a park bench, staring into the distance and nattering on the phone.

I kind of gave up at that point, TBH, because I couldn't think of a way to raise the subject with her that didn't sound really aggressive. If there is a polite way to inform someone that her dog is going to get her into strife, I haven't thought of it yet - maybe you lot have some better ideas?

YANBU. It is the responsiblity of every dog owner to make sure their dogs do not have a negative impact on other people (especially children) in any way. They should always be under control in any public place and under strict close control around children.

In fact this is the law. Under the Dangerous Dogs Act it is illegal for any dog to cause fear or apprehension.

Quote from the Fylde Borough Council Website:

'The dog is not required to cause injury if the dog causes fear or apprehension that it may harm someone, then the dog may be prosecuted under the act. If the dog causes injury then it may be found guilty of an aggravated offence.

Any dog that is prosecuted under the act and found guilty, may receive an order from the court to be destroyed, and the court may sentence the owner for up to six months custodial sentence and give the owner a fine up to standard scale level 5 .

Although The Dangerous Dogs Act names specific breeds of dogs, it is not confined to these breeds. Any dog that causes fear,apprehension or injury to a person may be prosecuted under the act.'

As the owner of 3 dogs myself, I take this very seriously, both in terms of not wanting to cause anyone else, particularly children, distress and also because (thanks to this very rushed and badly worded piece of legislation - that's a whole other thread though) if I did allow my dogs to rush up to strangers, or appear to be out of control in a public place, I could potentially be prosecuted and jailed and have my dogs destroyed.

I am not a big fan of the Dangerous Dogs Act myself (as you will probably have guessed), but despite that, I have been known to quote it to other dog owners when I have seen them allowing their dogs to be out of control and frighten other people.

I honestly think that a well-trained, well-behaved dog can be an excellent ambassador for dog ownership in general and also help to balance out some of the hysterial anti-dog stuff that seems to be gaining ground these days.

Whilst I am not advocating you run off to report the dog owner, it might be useful for you to be able to quote some knowledge of the DDA in future, as most 'doggy' people are well aware of it and 'should' be suitably worried about the potential consequences for themselves and their pet should they fall foul of it. (They should of course care about the effect their dog is having on others in the first place, but sadly this is not always the case.)

yanbu.

Drives me mad.

I am trying to get dd3 over her fear of dogs after being bitten by a dog on a lead that chased her!

So in park dog not on lead goes up to her, she backs away and tried to hide behind her bike, dog continues to follow her until dd is hysterical and runs away screaming the place down, dog follows!

Owners ask if she is okay I explain not really it would have been better if they'd called their dog away - then I got a mouthful of abuse.

So yes yet another encounter when those owners verified to my dd that she should be frightenend

My brown lab is 6 months old, and is still pretty inclined to jump up at people, so I don't take her to places where there are going to be children. Once she is trained to come back to me as soon as I call her or whistle, and to leave anything or anyone on the command 'Leave!' then I will take her to more places.

But she will always be my responsibility, and if she were to frighten a child or an adult or to upset them, I would apologise and do what I could to rectify things.

I am lucky that we have some fields and a loch near here where lots of dog owners take their dogs for a good run off the lead. It is a recognised dog walking place, and not somewhere that people seem to go just for a walk, if you see what I mean.

I do let the puppy off the lead there, because everyone who's there is a dog person, and understand that she is still learning - but I still do my best to make sure she behaves.

So no, you are not being unreasonable. If an animal that could look me in the eye came up, seemed to be trying to bite my hand and wouldn't leave me alone, I'd get pretty upset, so I don't blame a child for being upset either!

These kind of dog owners are too deluded to think their ickle psycho rover is capable of doing anything bad.

I would put them in prison and t hrow away the key, seriously, no loss to the rest of us.

Yanbu. My boys are not scared of dogs per se, but obviously balk at an excited animal 3x their weight bounding up to them, let alone trying to eat what they're holding!

(Doesn't sound like this dog needs prosecuting though tbh)

Seriously though what percentage of people in this country train their dogs properly?

Ime about 5%.

I stop my car if I ever see a dog coming to heel at a curb just to congratulate the owner on being such a rarity.

As a dog owner (and owner of a very excitable 1 year old border collie at that) it drives me MAD when people don't have their dogs under control. While our family are all cool with dogs, we know that other people aren't and keep an eye on ours when she is off the lead to make sure that she isn't terrorising anyone. If she does go up to someone who obviously doesn't like her we call her back and then apologise.

However (!) I am equally annoyed by people who over-react (not that I think you did, EvilTwins - have been on the receiving end of an out of control staffie before and it's not pleasant) - we've had people grasping their little darlings to their bosoms and shooing the dog away when she's nowhere near, and even when she's on the lead we've had evil looks as if we shouldn't even dream of bringing our werewolf out on the streets. It's every dog owner's responsibility to make sure their dog is OK with people, but equally I feel strongly that it's every parent's responsibility to do what they can to ensure their kids are OK with dogs (flesh-eating, marauding Hounds of the Baskervilles excluded!), especially if they are planning to take them to parks where dogs are going to be out and about.

Having said that even when we have thought a parent (usually) is being a tad hysterical we would never have a go at them - we still apologise...and save the back chat until we are well out of earshot!

yanbu op

I think they ought to bring back the dog licence. And it should cost a reasonable fee to purchase one. Does anyone know why they got rid of it in the first place?

ime a high percentage of dogs jump up on kids.

They should be trained not to do this full stop. It is NOT *** acceptable.

1000 times I've heard from, tbh, people like you:

"Oh he's so friendly!!!!!!!"
"Oh he wouldn't hurt a fly!"
"Oh he's just excitied!"
"Oh don't worry, he won't hurt your child!"
While said mutt jumping all over child, getting child muddy, knocking child over (happened to ds twice)

"Oh he's ONLY a puppy, we got him last week!"
Well put him on a * lead til you can control that horrible stinking mutt then!

You wouldn't let another child lick your child's face and push him over would you? Why a dog then?
Train them or don't have them!

The dog licence didn't involve testing the owner's ability to look after or train a dog properly, though - it was a licence to possess, not a licence showing the ability to control - more TV licence than driving licence, if you see what I mean.

Honestly it makes me so angry, I spend so many hours a week cleaning dog crap off my boots and buggy wheels.

Why can't we just have a country where Landowners, the police and the blind have dogs.

The rest of you are just too bad at training them for the privilege.

I'd vote for a party that banned most dog ownership!

They have a licence here - Northern Ireland. It's five whole pounds a year. Gasp. Although I heard a rumour it's going up.

I am fed up of stupid dog owners. They make it hard for all of us.

Not all people with dogs want their own kids scared out of their wits buy huge animals either.

My LO is very used to dogs but both me and him would be freaking out if a mahoosive hound appeared over the brow of a hill and started nicking his bread!

That said I am sad when I see a child hysterical over the sight of any dog. Its a shame and must cause considerable distress to everyone involved. Because dogs are unaviodable.

I dont allow my (miniscule) dog to run up to children or jump on them. I dont think its polite and I dont want a child having an accident because of my dog.

I am not sure what I can do if I am walking down the street with my dog on a lead and a child yards away starts running in the road at the sight of him .

BTW I grew up with a fantastic but impeccably trained dog whose behaviour was so perfect she never impinged on anyone else.
You just hardly ever see dogs trained like that any more ime.