Earlier today whilst at a local country park a dog jumped up into Ava’s pushchair on to her face and I had to pull it off before its owner caught up with it, who then not only didn’t check to see if she was ok, walked off without even a sorry!
Fuming is a understatement to how I feel about it. Luckily Ava is ok, shook up, mud and a little scratch on her face but it could have been much worse.
Obviously and I’m pretty sure every parent would feel the same, this is totally unacceptable. We were doing a Halloween trail, there were lots of children around and the dog, who I think was a puppy, was totally out of control.
As the man walked off with the dog he clearly had no idea what to do with it as it jumped up at two further children on its way past them. Now I know there are a lot of responsible dog owners out there but this clearly wasn’t one of them.
I have no idea what the solution is. As a dog owner would you keep your dog on a lead in a busy area with lots of children?
Should there be designated areas where dogs can be off a lead?
I’m annoyed with myself which I know I shouldn’t be as I would usually have her in the sling and then it wouldn’t have happened. BUT I should have every right to be able to push her around a country park without being in fear of a dog jumping on her face.
Equally, responsible dog owners should be able to walk around the country park too.
Judging by the reactions of the concerned families around us who very kindly came to check she and I were ok it was just as shocking to witness as I felt it was. It’s a horrible slow motion feeling when something like that happens and you think someone you love is in danger.
My shaking legs after was I’m sure a mix of anger, fear and adrenaline and my poor baby girl clung to me not letting me put her down for the rest of the walk back to the car, burying her head into me letting out the odd little sad sob.
I can only hope that the man learns to control his dog so that next time it isn’t more serious!
I’ve since looked up the Law and discovered this from the Gov.UK website;
Your dog is considered dangerously out of control if it:
injures someone
makes someone worried that it might injure them