to consider this dog is in fact dangerous?

[WinkyWinkola]

My 3 yo dd put out her hand to a dog in passing waiting outside the supermarket today and it just bit her. No provocation other than a little girl putting out her hand. No blood but her hand has swollen up.

She didn't even touch it. I don't let her touch strange dogs but she put out her hand too quickly for me to stop her.

Apparently, according to the owner, it's not a dangerous dog and my dd should have been better controlled.

I suspect this dog might be a biter because the owner wasn't at all surprised or sympathetic to my howling daughter.

Wouldn't you, as a responsible dog owner, muzzle your dog if you're going to leave it outside a supermarket where lots of little kids are walking past? You're not even there to supervise the animal.

I have a dog and I love it very much.

Therefore, obviously, YABU and of course everything that happened was your fault.

sarcastic emoticon

dogs should be banned from outside supermarkets!!

all that yummy food toing and froing...

Good post booyhoo.

Today I walked past a dog I have met, interacted with and gone past many times before. I'm no novice to dogs, I own and work with them and have done for more years than some MN-ers have been alive. This dog has health problems and I know to be vigilant and gave her a wide berth yet she came at me, teeth gnashing. I stood still, faced her and roared NO, scaring the next town no doubt. She backed off. Had I not, I could have been in trouble.

I repeat... this is a dog I know, have stroked, whose health can make her unhappy, and I am a middle-aged, dog-experienced woman. No-one should ever expect a dog which they don't know to accept anyone, adult or child, to get too close and not react. In a perfect world of course this should be the case, but the fact is that it isn't. And, as I said, the dog in question could have reacted for a myriad of reasons. NONE of us know what those reasons were or what the general temperement of the dog is.

The fault lies not at the end of the lead, but at the top... with the person holding on to it, or, in this case, who tied the dog up.

"The fault lies not at the end of the lead, but at the top"

Absolutely!

The fault lies at the the top, but it's still true that the danger lies at the end.

So while it may be more just to do something about the bad owners, in practice we have to deal with the dogs.

Some good stuff about why dogs might bite and from MillyR about what to do if attacked, but it only highlights the need to keep dogs capable of doing serious harm off our streets and away from our children.

I don't think they you say it had no provocation. Because you don't know how many people had maybe hit it, shoves past it etc.

I used to wait outside supermarkets for dh when I couldn't drive & often saw dogs tied up. Kids (talking early - mid teens, probably) would bash into it as they walked past (on purpose) some hit hit on the head. One even kicked it.

So your daughter's hand could have been the last straw, if you like.

Tying a dog up in a public place is cruel, because it cannot escape from taunts etc.

If it were dangerous, it would have drawn blood & done a lot worse.

I never let my dds anywhere near tied up dogs.

onagar, I work in rescue. I have 2 large breed dogs, one of whom is considered by some a dangerous breed (and indeed if I lived in Ireland would be subjest to specific laws and regulations). Tomorrow I will have another of the same breed as a long term foster.

I would sooner my boys than a certain Jack Russell I know of and know which my own 2 DC are safer with.

I AND my DC have seen and worked with dogs which have come into rescue because the owners have claimed they are a danger to their families... and I have seen those dogs go out to new homes and remain there, loved, happy and NO DAMN PROBLEM IN THE RIGHT HOMES!

An extreme example happened just this weekend. A large dog was adopted by a family who were, as is the custom, told not to let the dog off lead for a good time until they were totally confident that the dog had good manners and command and would return to recall.

They let the dog off lead on day one. She bounced around as the breed does and knocked the new owner's 8 yo child over in the park. At 9 at night the owner called the rescue's volunteer to take the dog back IMMEDIATELY (or the dog would have been at risk) as they considered her to be a danger.

And you're telling me that it's not the bloody owners?

Sorry, that strop is not aimed at you, it's from a rescuer who sees this sort of idiocy SO fecking much it makes her blood boil.

I don't think that you can say it had no provocation.