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Took my two young (9 and 7 years old) kids for a kick about over the local park earlier, my son also took his bike. There was a youngish lady walking a golden retriever (probably not a year old dog) and the dog came over and tried to get to the ball and then got excited round my son, who in turn got pretty scared and did the whole running away thing, which then excited the dog more and turned into a short chase with some jumping about.
I got in between the dog and my son and held the dog away, the dog owner couldnt call the dog away but managed to come over and hold it, but by this time my son was in tears.
Now, I realise the dog is just being playful and is probably unlikely to go for my son, but he's 7 and his instinct was to run away.
About 3 days before the same woman was walking the dog over the park and it went for our ball then and the lady was on her phone and couldn't be less interested which was pretty annoying.
This time I made a point of saying her dog should be on a lead if it can't be controlled round children. She was obviously upset about it and told me her dog has as much right as my children to be off the lead in the park. I walked away to avoid more conflict.
It's a crap situation because the dog is friendly, I'm sure, my son shouldnt have run away, but he's 7 and the dog was nearly the same size as him. I'm annoyed because I was polite but to the point and my instinct is to protect my kids.
How should I have handled it better and are dogs supposed to be on leads in a park? (this in on the fields where there are football pitches and regular matches/training).
I feel bad for my son, he was scared and it's gonna probably play on his mind now. My daughter just hid away when it happened!
Either report her or kick the dog until it keeps away.
Full disclosure: I have children and I don’t have a dog. And I’m a massive optimist.
This sounds like a thing you and the dog owner could bond over. She’s struggling with the dog. You’re struggling with the kids and the dog. Could you all try somehow to get the kids and dog to be super new friends?
Will take a massive amount of effort and more expert advise (which should be round here shortly)
Don’t kick the dog, it’s not at fault snd is a truly epic dick move. The owner is the issue here.
Edit - Goldfishes plan sounds great
Gokdfish's suggestion must already be the plot of a 16 episode Netflix series. Probably in Korean, set in Seoul.
tj - wrong way round; kick the owner and report the dog...
+1 kick the dog. It will learn faster than the owner.
I don't mean kick to death, or even to cause serious injury. But a boot in the chops will be understood.
You really are shit scared of dogs aren’t you tj?
told me her dog has as much right as my children to be off the lead in the park.
Pretty sure the law says otherwise.
Yeah I'm not sure this woman will want to come near me again, I was polite but she was upset, I was upset, my son was crying. Not a good combo.
I'm hindsight I should have used it as an opportunity for my son to try and be introduced to the dog, but my son was too upset by then.
I think the woman won't want to speak with me if we see each other again.
My son has been fine with dogs before and it's not ally my daughter who will avoid them at all costs.
Kick TJ then have a word with the owner.
No
I just want the smelly unpleasnt things to stay away from me. If the owner wont train it then you have to and the easiest way is by making it clear to the dog that coming up to you hurts.
Perfectly legal btw.
You are allowed to defend yourself from a dog. You do not know if the dog will bite
Kick TJ then have a word with the owner.
Im well trained🤣
Lols at Frank as well😎
I’m hindsight I should have used it as an opportunity for my son to try and be introduced to the dog, but my son was too upset by then.
I wouldn’t feel guilty about that, Yeah doesn’t really sound like this was a situation for your son to be making best friends with this dog. Sounds like you got out of the situation and showed quite rightly your disappointment to the owner. A dose of agression from yourself in the situation is understandable, I’d be the same.
I was initially disgusted by the comments
Suggesting boot->dog interface but there is a time and a place where your children need to be protected from a dog that might not be under control.
Still… is there a positive way forward. Owner is struggling with the dog, even if they don’t know it. Could they be befriended, play with the dog. It won’t be easy.
Kicking the dog will, in the long run, teach the dog to defend itself. That’s not a good outcome for anyone. If you honestly think kicking a boisterous lab or retriever is remotely sensible then I’ll get another warning if I continue typing my thoughts out!
The woman was in the wrong on all counts. The dog didn’t do anything wrong and doesn’t deserve to suffer from violence as a result.
You are allowed to defend yourself from a dog. You do not know if the dog will bite
Agree on the first but you can see danger from a mile away. What the OP describes is a million miles from that. I’m the proud owner of two small humans and wouldn’t think of kicking the dog as described in the OP. I’d be having polite yet firm words with the owner. Probably offer help with the dog too.
She is very much the wrong side of this.
In public places, you must keep your dog 'under control'. Generally, this means close to you and ideally on a lead. If they're not on a lead, they need to be under control in another way, such as paying attention to your voice commands.
It’s a criminal offence to allow your dog to be ‘dangerously out of control’ – this counts in both public and private areas (such as inside someone's home). This could be anything from your dog chasing a person or another animal to physically harming them. It can also be if someone feels at risk of being injured by your dog. Either the owner or the person in charge of the dog can be charged. If this happens, you may have to pay a fine, compensation and costs. If your dog hurts a person, unfortunately they can be seized by police and may even be humanely destroyed.
God love you teej, but your anti dog extremism is hilarious. What you suggest is absolutely legal, but not particularly nice, and certainly (in that situation) overkill.
FWIW, OP handled it pretty well. Owner should have been more on the ball, and then more appreciative of her responsibilities as a dog owner, and was certainly wrong in her exertion of equal dog/child rights. In fact, that’s hilarious too.
And might end up with you being on the receiving end yourself.
Unless you only boot labs owned by women...
God love you teej, but your anti dog extremism is hilarious. What you suggest is absolutely legal, but not particularly nice, and certainly (in that situation) overkill.
Kick a dog that's friendly then you've a pissed off dog.
And potentially a owner who'd kick you in the chops.
However Tj is right as always🤪
You're best stopping and just showing your not that interesting and or nice.
As a toddler, my daughter was knocked over by a dog. If there are small children about, my dog stays on a lead.
Hopefully the lady will have a think about what happened and be a bit more considerate in future.
No the dog shouldn't run up to your kid and should be under control. 100% agree.
However (and almost certain this will lead to accusation of victim blaming or similar)
Like it or not not all dogs are well behaved, and so knowing how to act around an excitable or curious dog to stand the chance of de-escalating that situation is worthwhile talking to your kids about. Dogs love a game of chase so if you run away you're joining in. Stand still, turn your back, fold your arms and ignore it. It sends the not interested message and enables the owner to become the most interesting thing in the park again.
Kicking out risks getting bitten, risks the dog turning from over-excited to aggressive, and longer term might train it to avoid humans, but might also train it that they hurt them and the best way to deal with that is by getting your retaliation in first.
That^
I take my dog to a local park and there are sometimes people there but it's mostly quiet.
We were there one day, she was pottering about and all of a sudden a group of young children and adults came into the park and the young kids started rolling down the hill. It was the Easter holidays.
Doggo got excited and ran over to the little girl, seven-ish.
She jumped up and was a bit scared.
Dad immediately called out:"Stand still, put your arms by your side" which she did. Doggo then went over to the Dad who gave her a fuss. This took seconds, all the while I was making my way over to get doggo and put her on a lead. I apologised and we went on our way.
Obviously, I should have been a bit more on the ball and noticed the people quicker but things happen. I thought it was a great response by the dad. Maybe try that?
As for kicking an exited dog, it's really not a good idea and it's not at all fair.
In the OP's example, yep, woman was totally in the wrong.
Pretty sure the law says otherwise.
This is the bottom line.
I like the idea of trying to get the dog and lad to bond, but owners need to u derstand their legal and moral responsibilities.
And can we stop with baiting TJ. He likes it 🤣
Is there a working kill file for Safari? Asking for a friend...
People who just let their dog off the lead and do naff all to control the bill my piss.
The owner is wrong in so many ways. Her dog does not have any right to be off the lead, whereas your family do have rights. She’s an idiot of the highest order, and I say this as a dog owner who is not particularly fond of children.
I’d say the law is quite clear here, but it isn’t. However the various grey areas are very much in your favour and out her in the wrong.
I would also say ignore any advice to kick the dog unless it is genuinely being aggressive - and even then it’s often unwise. It’s I’ll conceived at best. You would not be ‘teaching’ the dog anything other than humans can attack unpredictability. Doesn’t take a genius to see where that would lead.
Dog owner completely in the wrong
And dont train dogs to be fearful of people by kicking them
Take a sheep with you, and a gun.
When you see the dog, put down the sheep, shoot the dog, pick up the sheep.
Say to the owner it was worrying your sheep.
Walk away
Problem solved.
Owner needs to control her dog.
Kicking a dog will only teach not to trust people and could result in you being bit. Sounds to me like you handled it pretty well.
Does either the dog or the woman look like a Louise?
On all the football pitches near us, dog owners are asked to keep their animal off, as they foul the pitches where young children play.
Too many dog owners think they can just let their pet do what it likes on a green space. They don't understand that there are many people (not just children) who are scared of dogs, having had a bad experience with one.
That’s a grim situation. Dogs that aren’t under control shouldn’t be off lead.
For your son, do you have a friend or neighbour with a calm, well behaved dog that he could be introduced to? It’s not that he should like dogs, just maybe that it would nice for him to have a positive dog interaction?
Owner is a dick.
We have a young puppy and he won't be going off the lead until his recall and behaviour is good enough that he won't go near other people unless i let him.
Apart from our dog there is only one other dog in the planet i actually like, the rest are all smelly creatures that can stay the hell away from me. But the very least someone can do is train their dog to not jump at people
Dogs that aren’t under control
shouldn’t be off lead.in a public place put the owner on breach of the Dangerous Dogs Act
Iirc
As a new dog owner recently, I've started actually paying attention to park dog politics. TBH the attitude of a handful of other dog owners is starting to annoy me - mainly because I think I will get tarred with the same brush.
95%* of people (in parks, near my house) seem to love dogs. In fact, most people are pleased that a puppy has come to say hello / are disappointed when I call her away. So that can lull you into a false sense that, as a dog owner, you can relax because the risk is low and you may well know that your dog won't bite. Unfortunately, small kids don't always know that and as TJ demonstrated nicely, some adults are weird about dogs, too ( 😛 ).
We taught our son from a young age to 'be a tree' around dogs he didn't know - it's very effective and probably worth teaching your kids.
Not that this exonerates the owners at all - in your case the owner sound like a clown.
We have a young puppy and he won’t be going off the lead until his recall and behaviour is good enough that he won’t go near other people unless i let him.
This is tricky because they need to learn to return to their owner at a young age, and depending on the breed if you leave it too late (3mo + ?) they might never have perfect recall. IME if you ask fellow dog owners, they can usually recommend some fields with robust fences that are good for training away from distracting problems like other dogs or small kids. That's what we did, anyway.
* Made up stat, obviously
Wahey! The regular 'Dog' thread, just in time for the weekend! Its like Batman vs the Joker, the same story played out time after time, just with a different cast.
2 pages, 1 ban hammer.
Aye, my Grey has been attacked twice by off-lead dogs. She's only three, very gentle-natured, but excitable off-lead (sprints around like a loon) so she stays on lead at all times in public (we take her to some dog woodland near us for off lead zoomies).
Some dog owners are useless or incapable of understanding the need to manage their dog appropriately.
But worth teaching your little human some techniques for keeping safe because that's all that's in your control. Relying on others to keep your kid safe is optimistic.
Those that think otherwise I assume you don't teach your kids to cross the road safely and rely on drivers to do the right thing?
It's happened to me a few times where the owner has none or very little control over their dog.
My kids are bigger now and have both got better at being around dogs.
Try to introduce your kids to neighbours/friends/families dogs to try to help them to be around dogs better.
Sadly because stupid/entitled/ignorant dog owners are not going away any time soon.
Dogs that aren’t under control shouldn’t be off lead. in a public place put the owner on breach of the Dangerous Dogs Act
Not quite but close.
A dog out of control alone (for example, refusing to come back to it’s owner) is not a breach of the dangerous dogs act. It has to be both out of control, and causing reasonable apprehension that a person or persons will be injured for that.
The scenario OP described would fit, and of course the law is very much open to interpretation… but a dog which is misbehaving off lead and not causing concern is not breaking any law.
Before all the dog lovers chip in with
"this wouldn't happen with my dog, it must be the kids fault by exciting the dog"
Sobering reading.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/dogs-killed-22-people-seven-22133952
We taught our son from a young age to ‘be a tree’ around dogs he didn’t know – it’s very effective and probably worth teaching your kids.
This is the advise that I followed. It did not work for me!
(Apologies if you’ve heard this before):
I was walking along the beach minding my own business. Dog owner about 100 m away from me, oblivious to their dog (large boxer type). The dog ran towards me. As it got closer, I stood still. It continued to approach me. I remained still, arms beside me. It came right up to me, opened its mouth and put my genitals in its mouth. I stood there frozen to the spot. It ran off! The owner remained oblivious.
I ****ing hate dogs and 98% of their owners.
It wouldn't, she's not off the lead near other people. 😉
Much easier to control her if people want to say hello, or if she's not interested ask people to leave her alone.
Not sure why many dog owners make life so hard for themselves.
Before all the dog lovers chip in with
“this wouldn’t happen with my dog..."
I'll side with the OP here!
Speaking as a dog owner if your dog isn't trained very well, it should be on a lead. Simple as that. Especially in a park or play area where it might jump on kids.
The owner needs a good slap.
Sobering reading.
There are 12.5 million dogs in the UK. 1700 children injured. Every one of course to be regretted and avoided, but even if that figure is 100x understated, and each incident was a different dog, that's 12.33 million dogs that didn't injure a child.
I remained still, arms beside me. It came right up to me, opened its mouth and put my genitals in its mouth.
I've been trying to train the wife to do that for 25 years. I've offered her biscuits, tried tickling her behind the ears, still hasn't sussed it.
Belly rubs mate, always works.
I’ve been trying to train the wife to do that for 25 years. I’ve offered her biscuits, tried tickling her behind the ears, still hasn’t sussed it.