Coco22

Well hi all, Was quite a surprise to log back in to 6 pages of debate! If Im honest I wasn?t intending it to be a debate ? it was more of a polite request, but let me clarify a few things Firstly, made me laugh lots, but whats all this stuff about middle class namby pamby nonsense? Im a 43 year old ex boxer from East Croydon !!!!!(currently unemployed if you must know!!!) Im as far away from middle class as you can get trust me!!!!! Secondly, to the person who wants to tell me to my face that my 4 year old son needs to ?man up? when a huge dog jumps all around him and barks in his face when hes calmly walking home from school on path at side of the park, then by all means do private message me the where and when- Id be happy to facilitate this meeting ;-) No seriously though, I assure you my son is far from nanmy pamby. He meets dogs all the time and is fine with them. Both the occasions I?m referring to Id describe the dogs actions as quite aggressive (especially to a 4 year old!), and it certainly wasn?t under the owners control. My only action was to scoop my boy up to reassure him, and then look around for the owner. Im not scared of dogs and Im not sure how a parent comforting their child can be interpreted as me instilling a fear of dogs in him! To be honest I did try a call to say ?don?t worry hes just saying hello? but itd gone to far ? he was panicking/ dog barking and chasing him in circles/ so I quickly figured best to pick him up and then try and educate him from there, which I did mention I think. If you are a parent Id hope you understand why I did this! Again if Im honest Id have been up for the owner calming the dog down and letting my boy see his was friendly to help with this education but I found the owners attitude didn?t really allow for this- in my case a middle aged woman who was incredibly defensive when I asked ?is this your dog?. She was shouting for the dog but from miles away so I did know it was hers so I guess my question was yes in expectation of an apology..but no ?and to be honest she still couldn?t calm the dog down even when she caught up! My sons take on it was "that wasnt a friendly doggie was it daddy"! I had the same kind of reaction from the owner of a previous dog and I didn?t say anything at the time ? again a lady who just slowly walked up. She saw it feverishly sticking its head in my sons school bag and jumping up (the bag was on his back!), the dog was going bonkers and the situation only ended as the dog carried on being bonkers in another direction!. That one was outside the cafe. Again, clearly the owner had no control, and on both occasions I was left feeling pretty miffed (son crying in my arms, not even an apology and just attitude) For this reason I made what I though was a polite request on here for those with ?lively? dogs (not all dogs) to be conscious of this kind of thing and maybe have them on a long lead or whatever until trained. Yes Ill promise to keep my kids well behaved too (hes not so easy to train in some areas either trust me!)! On a final note- and in attempt to keep things positive ? I must inform you there was a lovely lady who private messaged me asking if she'd like my son to meet her dog in the park, to help him get over any fear. I politely declined as I don?t think he is that fearful (clearly I gave that impression in my original post to be fair, so sorry for that as not the case). Anyway, to her, and to the people who made serious comments of understanding (or tried to), and more importantly to any ?lively? dog owners who read this and say ?fair enough Ill be more mindful in future?= thankyou! All the best Ty

For the 2nd time in a few months someones dog has bounded over to my 4 year old whilst we are walking home from school, which has scared him (the first one was twice his size and jumped all around him, the second one was ?vigorously investigating? his school bag). This has made him panic and run ? only for the dog to ?playfully? chase him and therefore terrified him. In both cases I ran to pick up my son and intervene, only for the owner to then amble up from quite far away and essentially say the dog was "only playing? Now I?m unsure of dog etiquette as I don?t currently own one, but I make no apologies for being pretty exasperated when this happens given its terrifying for the kid (he was crying and very scared), and how on earth does a stranger know if it wont attack (we?ve all heard the stories ) I did used to own a dog and I accept they are only playing/investigating most of the time, but at 3.30 when the kids are walking home in the park shouldn?t dog owners at least be a bit more mindful and put dogs with this kind of personality on a lead ? We?ve had 2 separate incidents now and Ive also seen it with other kids in the park before In both our cases the attitude of the dog owners was essentially that we should have somehow automatically known he was playing / and they were defensive towards the dog! We have spoken to our son to try and get him to understand that most of the dogs just want to play so he inadvertently avoids making matters worse by panicking/running..but to be fair he?s 4 and I can imagine why he panics?I assure you both cases were more than a friendly meet and sniff, which hes been fine with! I hope any 'lively dog' owners understand this side of the story too and put them on a lead, especially at school times Thanks

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