Anyone who wants everything banned just in case "for the sake of the childrennnnnn" always gets my hackles on edge anyway. It's more than likely to be another dog that would be the recipient anyway. Yes, any animal has the potential to lash out at anything else and they're all nicely equipped with pointy teeth and claws and the like - but that doesn't mean they're all raging psychopaths who should be banned outright (like some prat I just saw wanted done with dogs because her kid was a "little bit scared" of them).

To be honest - the only contact mine has with kids is when they come up to him without asking and do the unsolicited patting thing... drives me nuts - I don't want them touching him, not because of them being kids - but because of how ridiculous some parents can be.

I've had this said to me several times about Danny in the last 24 hours. I'm sick of hearing it.

Ignore them hun.

As SLB says, just ignore it. You know your dog and will carfully monitor the situation so there is no need to worry yourself x

Many people seem to have the notion that if your dog bites or kills an animal, it will bite or kill anything, like it's got a bloodlust and cannot distinguish one species from another.

My dogs have killed a fair few wild animals in the past and i've heard it said that they could move on to another dog next because they get caught up in the moment and attack anything that moves when they're in the prey mode.

Poppycock! Yes, my dogs have started after a small dog they've seen through the trees or whatever but as soon as they realise its another dog (normally when they've gotten about half way), they come back.

A dogs biggest tool is it's nose and it's this which will tell the dog what species it's come across way before the teeth get there!

I have no qualms that my niece and nephews, along with other dogs, are 99% safe with my dogs, despite the fact all 3 are quite avid hunters.

I'm sure you've mentioned somewhere that you're a teacher... Why not take a proactive view of this now that you're also a dog owner?

Most council Dog Wardens will come into schools and teach children about dogs and how to act around them. If your CW is unwilling, then a talk from the Police Dog handlers or Guide Dogs FTB might be the way to go, to highlight the positive things dogs do, together with a lesson on safety around dogs.

The Kennel Club's Safe & Sound scheme is a good start, or Kendal Shepherd's "Canine Commandments" or The Blue Dog story. All are aimed at education children about dogs.

You can find more details of the above here:
http://www.endangereddogs.com/EDDRChildrenandDogs.htm

You'd be doing your young pupils a favour as well as all the responsible dog owners in your area! If I were Prime Minister I would make Dog Safety - and respect for animals in general - part of the National Curriculum.

ETA: KC Safe & Sound here:
http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/safeandsound
'Teachers Notes and downloadable material are available free of charge'

Most dog owners understand that dog aggression is not so easily transferable to people, but if you have no experience of dogs how would you know this? It's not exactly intuitive.

As to why so many people believe this fallacy I think it's just because it seems like a natural progression and if you know nothing about dogs I really don't think that it's an unreasonable assumption.

J.

Would if I could - but sadly these days I just do supply work (and even that's a dying game - hence actually being able to GET a dog finally... so it has it's benefits) so I get no input at all in what I do.

I was always wary of dogs as a kid because I had never grown up around them, but I was still very well taught how to behave around them - unlike kids these days who'll just happily come charging up to stroke the doggy - thankfully my guy likes being stroked by random people and very little seems to phase him - because that would require effort to be bothered and he's a lazy git (he's gradually attracting a fan club of old ladies we pass on our walks) but there are some very flighty local dogs that go out about the same time as us who might well growl or snap at little fingers coming at them from head height... and of course if that happens, it's the one with the fur that gets the blame.

Are there not some types of aggressive dogs that could transfer this aggression to children though? I agree that it should not be automatically assumed however.

Cherry is fear reactive to large dogs and will go into headbutt mood if they charge at her head. She is perfectly well-behaved with my nieces and nephews and ignored my baby great-nephew and kept out of the way when he came to visit with his family. It was Parker (the friendly, laid-back sociable one!) that I couldn't "trust" with being near the baby (and I don't mean unattended obviously) as he was way too interested in him and possibly thought he was a new large squeaky toy for him to play with! I moved Parker upstairs out of the way behind the stair-gate whilst they were round.

When Cherry got attacked by a Rottweiller on the heath I was concerned that this aggression could have been transferred to a child as it was over food. Cherry was getting a small treat for ignoring some nearby dogs and the Rotty charged up from a distance, tried to take the food and then bit her in the side. The area of the heath where this happened was where dozens of school-children walked through each day eating their lunch so it did cross my mind that it was a bit of a worry whether this dog would also bite children if it couldn't get food from them? This was why I reported the attack to the police and dog warden although they wouldn't do much (the dog warden went round and spoke to the owners about their responsibilities) even though the dog had bitten before.

yes from another dog ,not a person..if that was the case he imo would of gone for you,as you was the source of the food.
poor girl tho