Owners Of Large Powerful Dogs - Do Not Let Your Kids Walk

[Salukifan]

Have had a GSD tow a young child into my dogs and I've had to intervene, grab that dog's lead and string the dog up to stop it aggressing.

Father/owner abused me, wrenched the lead out of my hands and got bitten by his own dog redirecting. Did he think I had it strung up for fun?

Agree that the solution is two leads on the dog.

Hope you and your dog are OK Labradore - its bloody frightening stuff.

Yet to see a child under 10 pick up after a dog and I have seen a few little dogs run almost to exhaustion by kids without parental supervision.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Haredown Whippets

[Dame Aussie]

I see it a lot, so stupid. I'm glad you're both ok

[labadore]

Thanks to all who have responded in this thread, I appreciate your thoughts, concerns and advice :) .

With regards to children walking dogs/being in sole charge of the lead, I personally believe this should not happen until they are of teenage years i.e. 13 and over for small to medium dogs and older teenagers for larger/stronger dogs. In all cases of kids walking dogs, I believe they should have either attended dog handling classes to teach them how to have effective control over their dog and how to react in certain cirumstances when out walking their dogs or taught all this by responsible dog knowledgeable parents. In addition, the body size, strength and maturity of the teenager needs to be matched with the dog type/size and strength of the dog they will be walking and I believe that any teenager walking a dog should walk during daylight hours for both their own safety as well as their dog's safety.

The rules applying to teenagers to have effective control over their dogs also applies to adults as unfortunately many of us have witnessed adults who do not have effective control over their dogs. with their dogs dragging them around by the lead or have been let off lead with no recall and some with aggressive tendencies.

Whilst I appreciate there are times when our dogs will catch even us most vigilant owners off guard when they pull or do something unexpectedly, we need to be able to react quick enough to regain effective control over the dog.

My breed, Labradors are extremely strong dogs, particularly males and even more so, intact males who have been allowed to develop as nature intended as I believe they are actually stronger than males who were neutered before they were fully developed (i.e. before 3 years of age). Majority of Labs get very excited when encountering other dogs that they want to meet and greet and they can easily drag adults around letalone kids, so Lab owners need to be aware that adolescent Labs still have a lot of growing to do and very quickly develop into big strong dogs which can be too much dog for even a teenager to walk by themselves. The amount of teenagers and pre-teens that I see out with their dogs being dragged over by their dog to meet my boy (who for friendly dogs luckily drops down to the ground waiting for the dog to approach and he has done this since a pup) is frightening and I normally have a friendly chat with them about this to try and get the message through to them that not all dogs want to be approached by an excited and seemingly out of control large friendly dog.

[spikey]

We were out walking our girl a couple of years ago - heading along the home stretch on the footpath next to our local park with her on the lead, when I saw a woman and young boy of about 8 coming towards us with a massive black Great Dane. The dog was on a lead which was being held by the boy ... who was riding a BIKE. I'd seen the dog before and always avoided it as it was quite aggressive towards other dogs - sure enough, his body language changed immediately to an aggressive posture as soon as he saw our dog and I thought "oh crap", no matter how this goes it is NOT going to end well. The safety of ourselves and our dog is our priority, so we decided to cross the road to put as much space between ourselves and them as possible. And yep, you can probably guess what happened - the dog charged forward, pulling the kid (and bike) with him and then dashed out on to the road - the kid and the bike went sprawling, luckily still on the footpath, but the lead was obviously wrapped around his hand/wrist so the dog was effectively "tethered" to him and was almost dragging him out on to the road as well. The mother (who was also on a bike) was screaming at the top of her voice, it was absolute chaos. Thankfully she managed to grab the dog and haul it back in before it either (a) dragged her kid under a car or (b) got loose and attacked our dog - and she then proceeded to get an earful from me about what what a stupid thing it was to do to allow such a young child to have sole charge of a dog that size ... and whilst riding a bike FFS. You really have to wonder whether some parents have any brains at all. Luckily the kid wasn't badly hurt, apart from some grazes and bruises, but he got a very bad fright and was extremely lucky to get away with such minor injuries.

[*kirty*]

I'm glad your boy is ok. It's such a horrible thing to happen. My standard poodle was attacked by a staffy mix at my son's footy game last year. The dog was being held by a child no more than 3 years old... It dragged the child across the concrete before she finally let go of the lead. It raced over and launched an attack on Toby before she even saw it coming. I was livid and the owners admitted it was dog aggressive! I am just so grateful that it wasn't my 6kg Italian Greyhound who I almost took instead of Toby.

[The Spencinator]

Very sorry this happened it really is so distressing. I hope your boy is ok too! Just for anyone reading this thread and looking for ideas, I once saw a lady and her daughter walking their large dog with 2 leads attached (one for the kid and one for the mum). Appeared to work really well from where I was standing, gives the kid the novelty of walking the dog but parent stays in control if need be.

Edit: Whoops just realised someone already suggested this!

Edited November 20, 2014 by The Spencinator

[labadore]

We were out walking our girl a couple of years ago - heading along the home stretch on the footpath next to our local park with her on the lead, when I saw a woman and young boy of about 8 coming towards us with a massive black Great Dane. The dog was on a lead which was being held by the boy ... who was riding a BIKE. I'd seen the dog before and always avoided it as it was quite aggressive towards other dogs - sure enough, his body language changed immediately to an aggressive posture as soon as he saw our dog and I thought "oh crap", no matter how this goes it is NOT going to end well. The safety of ourselves and our dog is our priority, so we decided to cross the road to put as much space between ourselves and them as possible. And yep, you can probably guess what happened - the dog charged forward, pulling the kid (and bike) with him and then dashed out on to the road - the kid and the bike went sprawling, luckily still on the footpath, but the lead was obviously wrapped around his hand/wrist so the dog was effectively "tethered" to him and was almost dragging him out on to the road as well. The mother (who was also on a bike) was screaming at the top of her voice, it was absolute chaos. Thankfully she managed to grab the dog and haul it back in before it either (a) dragged her kid under a car or (b) got loose and attacked our dog - and she then proceeded to get an earful from me about what what a stupid thing it was to do to allow such a young child to have sole charge of a dog that size ... and whilst riding a bike FFS. You really have to wonder whether some parents have any brains at all. Luckily the kid wasn't badly hurt, apart from some grazes and bruises, but he got a very bad fright and was extremely lucky to get away with such minor injuries.

I'm glad your boy is ok. It's such a horrible thing to happen. My standard poodle was attacked by a staffy mix at my son's footy game last year. The dog was being held by a child no more than 3 years old... It dragged the child across the concrete before she finally let go of the lead. It raced over and launched an attack on Toby before she even saw it coming. I was livid and the owners admitted it was dog aggressive! I am just so grateful that it wasn't my 6kg Italian Greyhound who I almost took instead of Toby.

Wow - what is wrong with these parents putting their kids into potentially dangerous situations . All these parents including the ones involved in my incident have failed to anticipate the unpredictability of dogs encountering other dogs and the potential of real harm to their child that is holding the lead of their dog singlehandedly. It is actually very frightening

[Yonjuro]

I do the 2 leads when my almost 7 year old daughter wants to walk my Husky. I always take up slack or take over completely when we approach traffic, people, dogs or birds I let her try on her own when in a fenced in area with no other dogs or people. If a husky took off, I don't think there are many kids that could hold a lead, in fact some adults would find it difficult. We put the work in right from the start for good loose lead walking, but I would never trust a kid under 16-18 to be able to stop a launch from Ronin if he decided to go.

So sorry that labadore had to go through such a frightening experience

[Malakita]

What a frightening ordeal for you and your poor dog . You are right, things could have been so much worse.

So glad your dog is ok but sorry to hear your pain has been made worse.

Your post highlighted something for me. Complacency.

The owner you encountered that night wasn't your typical dog owner. He sounds like a responsible guy who unfortunately became complacent.

He didn't think of his dog, his child or the public. But I am pretty sure he will in the future.

Responsible owners are different, they are humble enough to learn from a wake up call.

[dee lee]

Awful situation!

I'll admit, I let my 10 & nearly 12 yo kids hold my GR's lead when we all go out walking, but I'm always within grabbing distance. She is also quite placid. But I wouldn't let them walk her on their own.

I agree with whoever said it's not just kids who can be a problem, but the elderly & frail.

I have had the misfortune to come across a large rude adolescent Great Dane in my local park, being walked by an elderly couple, the man being in a wheelchair. The dog tried to bully & chase my dog, who was clearly frightened, & it got quite dangerous for me when she tried to hide behind me & had this immense dog nearly running into me. The man obviously was in charge of the dog, trying to command it to stop, but was physically restricted being in a wheelchair, so instead his silly old wife was ineffectually trying to chase and grab it. I came across them twice with the same result & after that watched out for them & would leave if I saw them. Stupid idiots, I think he actually thought he was some kind of dog training expert.