dogs at school gates

[southeastastra]

hi im really livid but would like to hear all sides.
took my ds4 to school this morning - outside the school (not in school grounds) someone had tied up a dog I would say it was a cujo type dog (sorry dont know much about breeds). It was tied right by the entrance that we have to go in which is very small and also the nursery entrance.

im not saying this dog is dangerous it just looked big and to my son scary. I am so fed up of people taking these animals, even tied up, to the school.

Am i over reacting? my son is scared of dogs, and i have tried to tell him they're nice etc, but this is now getting on my nerves, it seems so irresponsible for parents to do this, should i call school? this dog was not on the school grounds but very near!

Thanks Im just so angry.

mili: I had realised that Muslims didn't really want too close contact with dogs - wasn't there a boy who backed off a cliff to avoid one a few years ago? I keep mine on a short lead when near any of the people in my area who I might reasonably assume to be Muslim - and I have often found people crossing the road to avoid me / him - but it's usually done in a fairly unobtrusive way.

The only exception was one old bloke I met on a reasonably narrow footpath. The dog was on an extendable lead and I didn't see this man coming immediately, until I turned a corner. There was very little space to avoid each other - and he raised his stick to guide the dog away. I appreciate that he didn't do it aggressively (and didn't touch the dog) - but someone seeing it from a distance might have put a different interpretation on it. And had a go at him.

I have quite a lot of familiarity with dogs RZ, had one as a pet when a child, my DB has a dog and I've mentioned my friend's dog who is always around (though I'm more careful about him being with the kids now because of a Mumsnet thread where someone advised that biting is a learned behaviour and that a dog which bites once is more liable to do so again - since then I've never left him alone with them). Plus other friends' dogs. No need to be so stroppy, I did ask what the child's problem was, whether it was the existence of the dog itself, or the fact that it was running after him. You were too busy going on about welsh boot camps (why welsh???) to notice that bit. I know you can't train dogs to come back to you unless you let them off leads, that's obvious; but my post was saying that if you haven't yet trained them, you shouldn't be letting them off leads around children. There's a time and place. And yes I have clocked that your dog was on a lead I'm talking about a principle not your incident.

for what it's worth (as a dog owner) here is my two-pence -
dog owners - dogs should be trained to come back to you when you call them - if your dog seems boisterous then walks on leads would be a good idea unless there is somewhere that the dog can run amuck without causing havoc.

parents - dogs are animals and should always be treated with respect no matter how docile they seem - so take reponsibility for teaching that to your children and letting them know that it is not okay to go up to a strange dog without the owner present.

as for the school gates - a quick word in a pleasant chat with the dog owner may be all that is needed.

I think its the kind of incident that Caligula mentioned that would stop me from tying up a dog anywhere. I wouldn't expect any dog not to react if provoked enough, but whoever's fault it was, if something nasty happened there is a high chance that the dog would end up being muzzled or put down. I wouldn't take the risk.

(Obviously guide dogs are different and more highly trained than any dog that I will ever own unless I actually have a guide dog)

Caligula: "You were too busy going on about welsh boot camps (why welsh???) to notice that bit..."

You really are quite patronising, aren't you? The Welsh bit was just a turn of phrase, incidentally. I could have used another part of the country as easily.

You may have thought you communicated a general principle, but your original post certainly didn't convey that. A bit more punctuation and altering a couple of words might have done it.

Dogs and man have grown together throughout time and have a special bond.

Now we've concreted over so much of their environment and cut it up with roads so they have to walk on leads and be tied up outside places for their own safety.

On reflection it was a bad idea to tie up a dog outside the school gates. Poor little thing. Tied to a post with an unruly mob and a bunch of irrationally scaredy-cat parents flooding past glowering at it and making a fuss. It must have been very frightened.

I love dogs and I think it's a sad thing that so many people have so little experience of them.

it looked happy to me

Gosh you are annoyed about this aren't you redzuleika? Yes I am patronising if I feel the occasion calls for it, and so are you. So shall we agree to stop patronising each other (on this thread at least - we may find others where the urge is irresistable)? I'm game if you are.