Dog and Children

Ever since I had Cheska, I spend a lot of time reading dog forums to learn about raising a dog, because my experience with raising a dog was only about putting them into cage, feeding them left over human food and bathe the dog once a month. No playing, no training and no walking. Now I know why did my dog run away.

I am glad to say that Cheska learned ‘sit and stay’ when she was only 8 weeks, ‘paw’ and ‘sit up’when she was 11/12 weeks, now she is learning ‘leave it’ command; basically she has to leave whatever she is holding in her mouth on command, she is getting there now.

I came across a post on a forum one day:

Very scary thing happened today, and I'm stuck wondering who would get in trouble at the end of it. I was at the local shops, standing inside and talking to a friend. I notice a border collie tied up outside the doors. Lieing down, head on paws, watching the doors intently for its owner to return.

Theres a cafe right near the door that has a outside sitting area, a few people sitting around the table having a chat, one of them with a young boy.

The boy (was maybe 5-6?) was wandering around the tables poking at things, picking up salt shakers and shaking salt everywhere, moving chairs, and every so often his mother would tell him off, he would come sit down then move off again.
The boy then sees the dog, starts staring at it, Very intently.
Dog doesn't notice
Boy continues staring at dog, makes a banging noise
Dog looks at kid then away at doors.
Boy starts walking towards dog, still staring at him, and starts making growling noises
Dog looks at kid then away again, but kept glancing back at him
Boy makes louder growling noises and starts stomping, still staring at dog and moving closer to it
Dog is looking at kid now, ears back, unsure, hackles a little bit up
Boy makes even louder growling noises, lifts his arms above his head and stomps really close to the dog
Dog gets up and backs to the end of his tether, ears flat now, scared
Boy stomping and growling right next to the dog, arms raised, staring down at the dog.
Dog pulls back on tether, starts curling its lip, growling at the boy.
Boy laughs and growls more, stomping his feet and goes to move closer to the dog.

At this point, (note this all happened in the course of around 10 seconds, and I had hoped that his mother would stop him) I took off at a run towards them, grabbed the back of the kids shirt and pulled him backwards, away from the dog who starts barking.

Mother at this point Finally notices, sees me pull her kid and starts yelling at me to let him go. "How dare you touch my son rarara"I point out the dog and tell her what her son had been doing, how he had been acting and that if I hadn't pulled him back theres a high possibility that dog would have bit him.

She glares at me and says that if the dirty mutt had bitten her son would have sued the owner and gotten the horrible dog put down.I answered that her son still would have been scarred mentally and physically, she would have been killing a beloved family member and it would have cost thousands of dollars in hospital bills and court costs. I then preceded to stand there, and basically guard the dog untill his owner came back (about 5 minutes) The lady stormed away with her son in tow.

I told the owner what had happened, he thanked me and said that would be the last time he left his dog tied up anywhere.

If this dog Had bitten this boy, who would have been to blame?

The man, for leaving his dog?

The mother, for ignoring her sons behavior

The child, for acting the way he didOr the dog, for reacting the way he did


And this is my reply:

I think it will be the owner's fault in the end because no one will blame the child, definitely not the court.

But i will be very angry at the mom, and definitely make a scene so that everyone at the cafe knows how irresponsible for her to leave her child unattended. AND that will teach her to be more careful when she takes her child out again.Same to the owner, he has to be more attentive as well if he wants to bring the dog out. Dog is still a dog no matter how well trained is that dog, we can't expect a dog to think like a human all the time.

Matt and I hate parents who do not control their kids in public. We hate walking through the children’s department in Ikea. Some parents can simply leave their kids climbing, running, screaming while they browse for furniture. For God’s sake, if you can’t control them and not letting them to disturb other customers, put them with the crèche!

Screaming kids in supermarket, “I WANT ice-cream!” “I WANT chocolate!”, throwing a fit in the trolley is still OK, because I can walk past the trolley without having bump into a screaming kid. BUT…. Some children will just sit on the floor and cry! Oh MY GOD…..

Once, we were queuing at the cinema to get some tickets. There were 2 ladies buying tickets and two children running around (definitely children to them because they talked to the kids), the kids not only ran around but started playing with the barrier, those stretchy straps they used to make the lines for the queue (if you know what I am talking about!). Those bloody kids managed to find out how to unlock the straps and started releasing them and then put them back, they kept doing that several times and the parents just did not stop them though everyone in the queue was already staring at the kids.

Matt was closed to walking to the kids to say something but I stopped him.

I know I am not a parent, and I have no idea how difficult is to have a kid, but if you have one and you want to bring your child out, make sure your child in ‘public trained’!