Maybe this post is going to alienate a few people. But I am not sorry, I am just angry.

My question is: Why do some dog owners not put people, especially children, before their dogs?

My son is 4, he is terrified of dogs. It doesn’t matter whether they are small, big, tall, short, thin, fat, bald, furry or talking – hang on there – talking dogs are OK (apparently Scooby Doo is not scary!)

I am not talking about normal terrified, I am talking REALLY TERRIFIED.

Why then do many (not all) dog owners insist on coming up to him with their pets while he is screaming “GO AWAY GO AWAY” and say “This one is safe, he won’t bite you.” Incredibly, they think this will calm him down. I feel rude just walking away from these people with my child in my arms, but what am I supposed to do. I want to yell at them too “GO AWAY GO AWAY”

When the dog is not on a lead, it makes things so much worse.

We have tried everything we can think of to help him, he only has to see a dog in the distance and his heart rate leaps. He hasn’t always been this way. He was wary but OK, until a dog OFF THE LEAD came bounding up to him, jumping at him. To a 3 year old this must have been terrifying. The dog was bigger than him, and yes probably would not have bitten him – but he didn’t know that, he just saw a monster jumping at him.

How many times do you read in the press about a dog who bites someone, then the owner says, “They had never done that before.” Of course they hadn’t, if they had they would have been put to sleep. A dog does not get 2 chances to bite people. Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs. I just think some dog owners just get it wrong.

Imagine my alarm then when nursery said the Dogs Trust were going into nursery to see the children with a dog. His teachers knew of his fear and said I could stay with him for the visit.

Well, as the talk began, my 4yo, jumped onto my lap.

However, soon after he was quite transfixed. Sebastian, the dog, was old and quite sleepy. We learned how dogs end up in the care of Dogs Trust. We learned how to care for dogs. We learned what to do if we see dogs and are scared.

Then my son did the most amazing thing. He said he wanted to stroke the dog!

You could see he was nervous, but he did it. I was SO proud of him. He overcame his fear. I really need to thank Angela from the Dogs Trust. She was brilliant in explaining everything to the children.

What I am trying to say is this. Some dog owners are wonderful and so are some dogs. However, some owners are NOT responsible. They don’t think about how other people might feel if their dogs run up to them. To a scared child, a dog is a monster.

Please please please – if you own a dog, keep it on a lead when you are out in public places. If a child looks scared, don’t think you will make things better by approaching them with your dog.

My child is scared of dogs – UPDATE – see how things turned out!
More info from Dogs Trust