Dog barked at child

[Lifewassupposedtobebetter]

Out with dog (on lead). Stopped by woman with children. Young girl (age 8 ish) was flapping her rain coat at dog. Dog eventually reared up and barked quite aggressively at child. I'm worried?

Did you or she say anything?

So, child was winding dog up...and dog got wound up? That wouldn't worry me. Barking isn't always aggression. My dogs tend to bark most when they're excited.

Sounds to me like he was telling her to fuck off with her raincoat.

The child was being an idiot and the adult she was with should have given her a bollocking.

The dog gave an ample warning.

I was chatting to the lady and was distracted, but realized child was annoying dog too late to stop her getting to the barky stage. I'm probably overreacting. She's never barked at a child before.

Even if it was a go away bark rather than a this is an exciting game bark...that's ok, you know she barks go away instead of going straight to doing something aggressive.

The bark was more likely to have been a 'get this flappy, scary thing away from me' bark than a 'go away child' bark.

If she has always shown now signs of nervousness or aggression towards children before I would put it down to the first.