Incident at the park today...

So I took Nigredo to our local park for the second time. He met a group of children. One was rather small but he didn't jump on any kids the last time so I thought it was okay.

They got a stick and were having a great time playing with him. And the tiny child, couldn't have been more than 5 or so.. picked up his stick and he jumped to get it and knocked the little guy down by accident!

The child, understandably, began crying and making a huge fuss. A boy had his leash, maybe 12 or so years old... and I was sitting on a bench a little ways away watching them as I'm not truly fond of children and prefer to stay out of the way to a degree.

I got up and immediately rushed over to help him like "OMG!!"... and I saw who turned out to be his big brother come rushing over from the playground as well... but then something sooo cute happened.

Nigredo just started licking his hair and stuff.. and nudging him and everything, and the crying turned into giggling within a few seconds! The child got up by himself and told me and his brother "Doggy helped me up!" with the hugest grin I've seen on a child in a long while.

I was soooo touched, I almost cried lol! Either way, I apologized to his brother, who said that it was okay and that he knew how puppies could be but understandably... seemed kind of irritated. Trust that I will be more careful with small children from now and and try to begin teaching Nigredo a few more manners.

Very sweet..but like you say you really need to be more careful, if only to protect Nigredo. I don't know what dog legislation is like over there but over here people only need to feel threatened and report it to the police for things to get out of hand.

Hi, it's not that big a deal. If nobody is injured, the police will not do anything at all. Depending on what the person says who calls them, they might not even show up to take a police report.

Police here do not care very much about dogs, and they most certainly will not do anything to a small puppy. I'm going to be more careful of course... he's going to get at least kind of big and continuing to jump like this could be more dangerous than it is now. My father has a weak leg from a stroke and Nigredo caught him off balance the other day!

If your dog isn't a pit bull, it can bite someone badly and will most likely be returned to you after a short quarantine period. It's rather sad, but the police don't care about dogs or enforce many laws or anything against them.

It's illegal to chain your dogs here, and I reported a guy with evidence and video and everything and they told me "It's not that big a deal" and did absolutely nothing. They said since his dogs seemed healthy and were fed and had dog houses (small inadequate ones IMO) and water (in green, moss/algae filled buckets)... there wasn't anything they could really do.

I'm glad the boy was okay, but why would a 12 year old be holding on to his leash instead of you? Unless the 12 year old is your brother. Whether you like kids or not, if your puppy is playing with youngsters you need to be right there in all the action to prevent things like what happened with the little boy. Next time, the parents might not be so understanding. Plus it gives you the chance to prevent anything like that happening again and gives you the chance to teach the manners you're saying you want to teach him.

Cute how Nigredo began to lick the little boy though.

Very cute
I'm sure you will soon teach Nigredo not to jump. You at least know he is gentle with children.

Another thing is letting him play with sticks isn't such a good idea

http://www.colliecorner.com/stick-to-toys/

I know of several dogs that have had to be operated on to remove bits of stick from their throat

Yes, I know it can be bad... but it was a large stick and I was sure to remove the bark casing so I thought it was alright.

Yes, you're right! I don't like loud children right under my feet shouting right in my ear and falling, crying, etc needing my help. I have accidentally knocked into a few of them myself and I dislike being asked 1000000 questions so I know I have a bad habit of walking a short distance away if there is a child large enough to hold onto the leash.

I know that I am not fond of children but at the same time, I know it's important that my dog be socialized around them. You're correct though, since his behavior needs correction, I'll be sure to stick around in the future.

I am not concerned about the parents reaction because a small fall will not hurt the child and children fall all the time. Nigredo bombarded the child, but he mainly fell because he was young and unsteady on his feet.

I am more concerned with the future when Nigredo grows large... because a large dog crashing into a small child MAY cause injury and I cannot allow that to happen. It's not an issue, I'm going to begin very soon. Thanks for the bit of advice!

Hi I have an 11 month pup who is fab with children but I worry that in his excitement will knock them over as his brakes aren't brilliant!!!

Yes, I require that Nigredo stay on his leash when around children... as these children are never at my home and leash laws would be in effect if he were to be around kids..

That doesn't stop him from jumping up with his big puppy paws and pushing smaller children a step back, which can occasionally cause them to fall over.

He needs to learn better manners, that's all! By the time Nigredo is 11 months, he might be big enough to knock me over... so he'll have to learn far sooner than that!