Family Issues

Dad11

Evening everyone. I am interested to read people's opinions.

The story goes like this. It was a nice evening my wife and I decided once I finished work we would jump into the car with our two year old son and bring him outdoors (Park, National Park etc). I arrived home and called my wife to see where they were. My wife was down the road in outside her sister's house with my son and her sister. I drove to collect them. When I arrived I had to pick up some of my son's belongings from her Sister's house. I walked into house and picked up the stuff. When I turned around there was a huge Dog at the end of the driveway staring at me. As I walked towards my car the Dog started barking and became aggressive! I ignored this and put my son's belongings into the car. The Dog was getting closer and showed its teeth. I saw the owner across the road. I said "I am sorry but I think your Dog should be on a lead" The owner didnt hear me immediately. After a minute or two the owner started calling the Dog. The Dog was completely ignoring its owner. After the third attempt the owner came out to get the Dog but it ran away from her. I actually felt threatened by the Dog. My thoughts during this moment was concern for my son who is 2, my own safety. I told the owner straight and a directly quote myself "The dog should be on a lead and that there have been too many stories of Dog's attacking Children over the years and especially recently". My wife and her sister turned on me then and told me to shut up that I was overreacting because my son is familar with the Dog. I have to say I completely disagree. You can never trust an Animal. I also am disgusted my my Sister in law even got involved. As for my Wife well words fail me!

Opinions please!

December2012

If your primary concern was to get the dog away from you, then you should have asked the owner to call the dog instead of complaining about the lead.

You can understand your fear, but others won't, because you may have come across as a busy body with the giving out about the lead comment.

Your sister in law has a right to comment because
(A) everybody has a right to make an observation, and
( it's with her neighbour.

You should've been clearer and you might've been understood better.

Tokyo

Seeing as we're only getting your side of the story regarding how aggressive (or not) the dog was, it's hard to say. But considering you have a "You can never trust an Animal" attitude, I suspect that the story may be biased in your favour slightly. Assuming your wife is a good mother (and I see no reason to think otherwise), I doubt that she would say that you were overreacting just for the sake of it, at the expense of the safety of your child?

Is it possible that you may, as your wife and sister-in-law stated, overreacted? And decided to read the dog owner the riot act in the process?

Czarcasm

Dad11 wrote: »

My wife and her sister turned on me then and told me to shut up that I was overreacting because my son is familar with the Dog. I have to say I completely disagree. You can never trust an Animal. I also am disgusted my my Sister in law even got involved. As for my Wife well words fail me!

Opinions please!

You were shouting across at your sister's neighbours on HER property, in HER neighbourhood, and you're disgusted your sister in law "got involved".

Words fail you because your wife told you to shut up?

Words fail me too, but only because you're that petty that you still feel you were in the right to be making a fool of yourself tbh.

jellyboy

Hi op
You were fearful of the dog..

As a human your opinion counts as much as the person who disagrees
As a father you worried about your sons safety and how,what if

its a part of the natural response you experienced http://http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fight-or-flight+response

In legal terms,the dog should at all times be on a lead

theres no right or wrong with your sister in law /wife
they didn't experience what you did..

As for saying that the child is familiar with the dog and its ok
thats complacent at its best ..(based on your description that i read)

njs030

Wrong. In legal terms a dog should always be under the control of it's owner (with the exception of restricted breeds who have a whole host of rules) The dog wasn't under control if it ran away but saying it should be on a lead is incorrect.


As pointed out previously of course your sister in law has a right to an opinion on her property! With her neighbours!

I don't really understand why you were concerned for your son tbh, if your wife and sister in law both know the dog and your son doesn't wander around outside without supervision it's unlikely there will be a problem-and I do think they are in a better position to comment if they know the animal.

As for telling an owner that too many dogs have bitten children...wow. You're right you can't trust a animal-or a 2 year old around animals so I would suggest all contact with any animals be 100% supervised.

omahaid

Dad11 wrote: »

My wife and her sister turned on me then and told me to shut up that I was overreacting because my son is familar with the Dog.

Do they tell you shut up a lot? Seems very odd to tell a man shut up when he's concerned for his sons safety.

Taltos

Per our charter please do not open multiple threads in quick succession. This is viewed as attention whoring and all thread will be closed.
Please take some time now to read our charter and take a few days before you start a new thread here, otherwise it too will be closed.

Also from the above (it appears your post has been edited), this does not appear to be a relationship issue, more a civil issue between you and this dog owner.

Thanks
Taltos