Stupid off-leash dogs and their owners!

[disraeli]

Wow, so sorry Milo has had to run into some many obnoxious children.

Luckily, most of the children in our (large and mostly young professionals) apartment complex are really young and Rhys loves them! He likes the fact that the parents are generally willing to let the child pet the dog (they always ask first). The only problem we have run into was a little girl who was fascinated by his ears and pulled on them! But her Mommy interrupted and corrected her (well, after I told her not to pull his ears and pulled him closer to me, of course!).

Rhys loves attention so much I don't think he really minded the ear-pulling, though.

[sweetlychee]

Rhys has great neighbors - that's why.

We got crummy neighbors. And guys, my landlord doesn't speak English - maybe broke English. Just Spanish she speaks. And I have never ever seen that nasty poodle! I hope we don't have to see her dog again!

[corgimom]

Well, I guess that doesn't help you much if she speaks Mostly Spanish

As for little kids, three and under, it is a hard age group because their attention span is so short and they don't have the capability of looking at things as adults do - you can remind them of something and you turn around and they are doing the same thing 5 minutes later. It is constantly reminding them on how to behave, especially around a dog they do not know and teaching them the appropriate way to be nice to a dog. If a 5 or 8 year old is picking on or kicking a dog, that is just plain bad and they should know better.

[Chip's Mom]

We had a little boy come visit us one time with his aunt and uncle. He stomped right on my rottie's leg on purpose. Poor Aladdin had arthritis real bad and his legs always hurt but he just laid there. Needless to say the little boy sat in a chair for the rest of his visit at my house. Can you imagine if that had been an aggressive rottie.

[Jespah]

It is very hard when you are dealing with very young children and with parents who don't understand that pets are our family - not some kind of accessory without feelings both emotional and physical. Unfortunately, if Rupe had reacted by biting or being agressive to the kid - Rupe could have been subject to a muzzle order and have a "strike" against him. Three "strikes" and he's put down. I can't even imagine having to go through that because of some stupid kid/parent - when a child is that young, they need to be supervised when out in the neighbourhood. But, if the family has no respect or understanding for animals, there's not much you can do. There seems to be more and more people in my neighbourhood who do not tolerate dogs as for them it is a cultural or religious issue.

We dog owners have such a responsibility in that we must keep our dogs safe, but we seem to have become responsible for the behavior of other people's kids somewhere along the way.

[corgimom]

You are right Deb. I find myself not only training Cody when I am around little kids(my next door neighbors), but at the same time, I am trying to correct the little kid and tell him what to do and what not to do, because his own parent doesn't have a clue. Doesn't mean they don't care, but they have never been dog owners and really don't always know what a dog will tolerate and what is safe to do around a dog.

In my case I am referring to the little 2 year old kid sticking his face right into Cody's and roaring at him - which I posted about earlier - the mom just sat there and thought this was okay.

[sweetlychee]

I don't think the parents don't know how to control or discipline their children when handling animals. They just seem to me very insensitive and rude. I don't care if they can communicate or not. You can tell by their gesture. If they yank their kids away, it shows discipline. If they just stand there and do nothing, something worse can happen.

The poor Rottie already is suffering. There's no need for some dumb child to taunt and hurt the poor dog. I think there are some parents who lack disciplinary skills. I would not allow my future kids to be disrespectful to people AND animals.

[Karysmith78]

It was a bit of a relief to read this thread and know that I'm not the only one who feels this way about neighbor kids. I've already decided that I won't let Ein around the kids in my neighborhood, because of the actions I've observed. I live in a new construction neighborhood, and all the kids run around willy nilly and I never EVER see an adult watching them...they'll go on new construction sites and climb on things, and throw things in the road and I've even seen them break building materials. They do this day after day after day with no parental supervision. It frustrates me to no end. I'm obviously not letting my dog (or any future children probably) around kids with no self or parental control.

[adkmehrman]

I hate to ask, and I am sorry for all of your seemingly endliss problems with kids and people but where do you live sweetlychee so I can put it on my list of places to never live or visit. I have never had any of these problems grownups and kids all love Koda and are generally polite in asking if they can pet him first before they do anything. I guess I am just lucky.

[corgimom]

The best thing to do is keep your dog on a leash around little kids. If they ask to pet the dog, and you don't want them to, just say "not right now, I am working on training him, and I don't want to distract him."
(I have used this myself, depending on what we are doing)

most of the kids I have run into seem more than willing to listen to me when I tell them how to approach Cody because then they get to interact with him. I have never had a kid smack him right after I told them to pet him a certain way.

Nor have not had any out of control kids hurting Cody. My neighbor next door has 4 children - the older 3, ages 10, 8 and 6 are all very gentle with Cody and sit quietly by him and he just loves them. The two year old is a toddler and doesn't know any better; he doesn't realize that dogs can bite, but with constant reminders from me and his mom(who I also have to remind) he will learn to understand how to approach Cody in a respectable manner, and age and maturity will help with that also. Kids under 3 do not intend to hurt dogs;They may do things like squeeze them too hard when they hug them, they don't realize that dogs can hurt them and think that they can handle a living dog as they would their stuffed animals.

We have to teach them that they are not the same; because in the end, if the child gets bitten, we will be responsible for the dogs actions; the toddler/young child will not be expected to be responsible for his actions that may have caused the dog to bite. In other words, we will be the ones getting the "warning, or worse". It is our responsibility when we bring a dog into our home, that we manage them properly so they never injure anyone.

[Chip's Mom]

Well said Linda.

[sweetlychee]

Linda: I agree. Once I was walking Milo and waiting for fiance to buy groceries. A 3 year old girl came up to Milo. Milo was good but alerted. She asked if she could pet him. I said yes and Milo licked her of course. Then she said if I could bring him around the corner to meet more friends. I nicely declined and said maybe next time, we're busy.

If someone is nice, I am fine with that. And I do believe there are nice people out there.