Staffordshire bull terroir around baby

[Ray88]

Our case is about to go to courts, my x partner is taking me for contact with our 16month old, even though I have never stopped contact. I have never left her with him fully as of yet as I have always taken her to a local play centre where I still at the opposite side of the building but I won’t leave here as I have concerns over his family and who she will be around. I won’t get into that too much on this thread but at court I am going to request that my baby is never to be around his brothers dog. His brother laughs that his dog snarls are his young daughter and him and his partner think it’s funny that their little girl ‘winds’ the dog up and is a little ‘bugger’ with the dog. It
Gives me chills every time they used to talk about their dog loosing its patience with their daughter. They never say to no there daughter. But I don’t understand is why they let her treat the dog that way when it will be the poor dog who is put down if god forbid things go too far one day. I know dogs can be wonderful around children but it’s up to adults to make sure children respect dogs. To just laugh at the fact it growls at her and let her carry on really worry’s me. It worry’s me
That my x will take our baby to his brothers house and naturally as a toddler she not know how to behave with a dog and that worries me as it could be any day now when the dog has had enough. Does anyone have any advice on what the courts may say? I have no evidence that the dog is known for any aggressive behaviour and obviously I don’t want any harm to come to the dog but I would like to request that my baby is not around the dog, not just unsupervised but at all. I know he could still take her and until she is talking I wouldn’t know but at least if it’s in a court order it might make him think twice as all the blame would be on him if anything ever did happen. Has anyone been though this? Thanks

Hi, sorry no advice. I’ve reported the thread so it can be moved to the appropriate board x

your concerns are reasonable but it is unrealistic to expect the courts to agree to restrict contact on the basis of what might happen with your ex's brother's dog. not that it isn't a serious and realistic concern but that 'supervised visits only' ruling is an unrealistic response.

your statement to the courts needs to be along the lines of "my only concern is my daughter's safety and wellbeing. I am very happy to facilitate contact between them but I am concerned that (ex) has a dangerous attitude when it comes to supervising the child's contact with a potentially aggressive dog. (give examples, including dates, any physical evidence eg photos, texts etc). I have restricted contact to supervised only because the risk of this situation resulting in a potentially fatal dog attack is unacceptably high. if the court could order that (ex) attends a training course on management of safety of children with dogs, and satisfies the court that he understands the risks and how to manage them, that would allay my concerns."

Your fears are reasonable - children should be closely supervised around dogs and a dog that is growling st a child is clearly communicating his distress.
If they continue to ignore his communication, he'll Eventually escalate his behaviour to show how much the child worries him and be aggressive

Children and dogs should never be left unsupervised. I am not sure courts are the answer, but Social Services might be as endangering children and the RSPCA.

The poor dog being teased by your bil's child and your bil encourages this. I really think a report to the RSPCA wouldnt go amiss before this becomes one of those cases where the child is maulled (or another child) ... proving the case it is the owners who are at fault.

Do you have a solicitor? Maybe someone on the legal board can help you. I think you need to phrase this carefully because you don’t have any evidence that the dog is a danger and it’s not your Ex’s dog so you don’t want to be seen as obstructing your DDs relationship with her father.

you don’t have any evidence that the dog is a danger
a staffy growling at a child who is not being immediately made to stop doing that and leave the dog alone is definitely a danger. The growl means "if this doesn't stop, I am going to start biting" - if the responsible adult is not taking it seriously and finds it funny, the child is in potentially lethal danger.

Even well trained and well behaved dogs can bite under sufficient provocation. It doesn't sound like this dog is well trained and well behaved.

Thank you for the replies. There are a few reasons why I have never left the baby alone with him fully to date. But I will raising those concerns in court and hopefully they will be addressed. I wouldn’t stop contact or insist it be supervised because of the dog issue but I hope the courts could maybe make it a condition of the order such as when baby is alone in dads care he agrees to keep her away from the dog or something along those lines.

I was ready to come onto the thread and say not to worry, as staffies love children, but that tends to be within the family. When babies and children visit staffies, the dogs can get very jealous, and they are strong.
When my son was a baby, my staffie was so lovely around him, but we still never them alone. However, my mum had a staffie too, and he had to be locked away when my son was a baby and we visited - the dog was fully prepared to eat the baby!

EluesPichulobu I am not sure that is evidence that will stand up in court and will be strong enough to convince the court to impose conditions on contact, but as I said the OP needs legal advice.

I have no evidence, and I think my x will talk it down a lot in court and make out like I am just tying to make contact difficult. If I could trust my x completely to be sensible and to ensure his brother is putting the dog outside when he visits with the baby or to invite his bother round to his dads house instead (x lives with dad) then I would have no issues him having contact alone. But sadly all I get is that I am overreacting and acting spiteful. He refuses to listen to anything I express.

OP I completely believe you and agree with you that a dog that growls at children should never be with children, even supervised. However, from the court’s point of view it could end up being ‘she said - he said’. Have you had any legal advice from a solicitor?

I have to wait until new year to have my first appointment with solicitor now as I can’t afford the £200 to see one before Christmas and the court hearing is only in feb so at least she’s safe with me for now. I will definitely see what solicitor says in the new year. I’m going to be sure to log it with everyone I can including police and social and make sure my x knows my concerns are all logged, hopefully that will act as some kind of warning for him that if he does go against my wishes on this and anything ( feel sick even thinking about it) did happen he would likely be charged with neglect as it’s his responsibility to keep her safe away from a dog he has witnessed growl at a child himself.

I would contact your local council and RSPCA. The courts may just ignore that completely unless it's proven.

It's more bad press for staffies because of bad owners though ☹️