There's an AITA post on reddit right now where someone has described a situation where they yelled at a child for pulling their service dog's ear after being told she couldn't pet him. Moo came running from the next aisle and flipped out that someone dared tell her child no. The comments include a sad number of people saying if a dog bites a child, it's the owner's fault, the dog should be euthanized, blah blah blah...absolutely no blame coming anywhere near the child or its parent. "Why didn't you get your dog out of that situation?" "Where was the owner when the dog bit the child?" They have no idea how quickly something like that can happen, or how hard it is for a lot of people to control someone else's child when they 1. have no authority over said child and 2. they know they're going to get reamed by the breeders for having the gall to tell Bratleigh to stop doing something.

I hope none of those assholes have pets. They certainly shouldn't have children, but too late for that, I guess.

A disturbing number of parents seem to view pets as interactive toys and will let their kids wail on the poor animals and fully expect those pets to just sit there and take it. But even the most docile domestic pets have their limits and even the traditionally famblee friendly golden retriever will snap at Junior if he won't quit yanking the dog's tail.

Yeahhh, the thing is that while human beings have the social decency to generally tolerate brat behavior, animals do not and they cannot be held to human standards. But breeders do just that and if their dog or cat or whatever proceeds to act on its instincts and growl/hiss/scratch/bite/attack, it's the animal's fault and said animal usually winds up suffering one of several fates: being abandoned, being put to sleep or being beaten by the parent.

Plus a lot of morons don't get that service dogs are not there for the entertainment of others. They are WORKING. Yes, they are cute like any other dog, but they have jobs and they are not to be petted. But of course, breeders feel entitled to anything for themselves or their brats and won't discourage their kids from manhandling someone's seeing eye dog. Then they bitch at the owner for daring to refuse their precious darlings access to their dog.

It's not the kids' faults either because they don't know any better. The parents are at fault, but they are the only ones in such a situation who don't suffer. If a dog bites a brat, the owner may wind up losing their dog because it's deemed "vicious." The kid might wind up disfigured, depending on the severity of the attack. But the breeder faces zero repercussions for their parenting failure and they might even make some money off the owner too.

I really wish breeders weren't allowed to have pets. At least not until they could prove they wouldn't be shite owners.

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Cambion
A disturbing number of parents seem to view pets as interactive toys and will let their kids wail on the poor animals and fully expect those pets to just sit there and take it. But even the most docile domestic pets have their limits and even the traditionally famblee friendly golden retriever will snap at Junior if he won't quit yanking the dog's tail.

You're right. "You need to train your dog to tolerate--"

STOP. No. No one needs to train their dog to tolerate abuse. At all. No.

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Cambion
It's not the kids' faults either because they don't know any better.

In the case from reddit, I don't blame the kid for asking if she could pet the dog. I blame her fully for pulling the dog's ear after she was told no. She was six or seven years old, plenty old enough to understand "no."

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Cambion
I really wish breeders weren't allowed to have pets. At least not until they could prove they wouldn't be shite owners.

Preach.

I blame her fully for pulling the dog's ear after she was told no. She was six or seven years old, plenty old enough to understand "no."

I think most people are lazy about discipline, the word 'no'. think they'll damage their precious bastards ego. they are tacitly calling their brat retarded imo. 'it's only a child' speaks to this. work with a puppy and they'll be better at an equivalent age than the brat.

two cents ¢¢

CERTIFIED HOSEHEAD!!!

people (especially women) do not give ONE DAMN about what they inflict on children and I defy anyone to prove me wrong

Dysfunctional relationships almost always have a child. The more dysfunctional, the more children.

The selfish wants of adults outweigh the needs of the child.

Some mistakes cannot be fixed, but some mistakes can be 'fixed'.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. Leo J. Burke

Adoption agencies have strict criteria (usually). Breeders, whose combined IQ's would barely hit triple digits, have none.

My Dalmatian puppy is only 5 months old but extremely large and powerful for her age. She's very playful and loveable, but she can also get over excited and accidentally nip.
If anyone gets too close to her, I warn them that she may bite. I also keep very good control of her when anyone is around.
I would never allow a kid to touch her because she could easily knock them over.
She's also a bit of a guard dog and protects the property.
I don't take chances with people and my pets because it can hard to predict behavior sometimes.
If some brat pulled my dog's ears she'd likely take a chunk out of them because she doesn't understand abuse.
That being said, if anyone gets harmed by her, it will be their fault and not hers or mine.
Problem is, she's so adorable that people want to pet her.
My neighbor once got bitten by my cockatiel because he was waving his finger in her face despite multiple warnings from me. Luckily he's a good guy and ended up apologizing to me for not listening.

After the movie 101 Dalmatians a lot of Breeders went out and bought Dalmatians because movie, and a lot of them ended up dumping the dogs. Dalmatians have many of the traits mum is describing: territorial, protective, rather stubborn.

I would say, research the dog prior to owning, but we know contemplation and planning are not Breeder traits either. These are the same people who have a kid because they want to see what it looks like or because "it's what you dooooooooooooooo."

As for the original topic, this woman does indeed sound like an asshole. She should be teaching her brat not to pet ANY dog, not just a service dog and the fact that she pulled the "how dare you correct my chyld" tells me all I need to know about her.

I love dogs, but you have to put the time in to train them. I have no patience for dogs that jump on people, just like I have no patience for kids who are not taught boundaries and who act like wild animals. It is possible to raise a well behaved kid and well behaved dog but it requires thought and effort, again, something Breeders are short of.

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bell_flower
I love dogs, but you have to put the time in to train them. I have no patience for dogs that jump on people, just like I have no patience for kids who are not taught boundaries and who act like wild animals. It is possible to raise a well behaved kid and well behaved dog but it requires thought and effort, again, something Breeders are short of.

Yes to all of that.

I had a dear friend who was a vet for many years, and she told me of all the dog breeds she worked with, she found Dalmations demanded the most caution. They didn't all bite, but the ones who did, did so without warning. I'm guessing this makes them poor choices as family pets, but since when does that stop people? If their kids want one because they're cute....

There was a period of time when dog breeders cashed in on breeding Dalmatians because the demand was high when 101 Dalmatians came out.

They need dogs that had health problems and temperament issues just for the money.

This led to people dumping these poor dogs into shelters and gaining them a bad rep.

On topic, I thought it was common knowledge to never approach a service dog? I even knew this as a kid.

Let alone pull its ear when the owner says that the dog is working. Ignorance and stupidity are what cause the most trouble.

Moo was probably just feigning outrage because she must know this.

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mumofsixbirds
There was a period of time when dog breeders cashed in on breeding Dalmatians because the demand was high when 101 Dalmatians came out.

They need dogs that had health problems and temperament issues just for the money.

This led to people dumping these poor dogs into shelters and gaining them a bad rep.

If you're talking about the live action version, my friend's vet career was well before that. She was a vet in the 70s/80s. So I don't know what was going on with the breed at that time, but it wasn't related to the movie.

Any time any animal-based movie comes out, breeders will run out and buy their kids those animals, assuming they are domestic. After 101 Dalmatians (like you guys already mentioned), every kid wanted a Dalmatian. After Finding Nemo, every kid wanted a clown fish. Young fans of the Ninja Turtles scream for Mommy to buy them a turtle. And of course the parents won't say "no" to their dumplings because that would require a spine.

Kids view these animals as nothing but toys and parents see them as nothing but cute accessories and they almost never have any intention of properly caring for them, and when the animals become inconvenient (almost immediately), they get abandoned, or in the case of fish, flushed if they don't die first. This is referred to as the "Nemo Effect" because of the surge in clownfish sales after Finding Nemo.

Breeders won't even discipline their own fucking brats, so they sure as hell aren't going to set boundaries with animals. For most breeders, "discipline" of pets is doing nothing until it shows aggression toward Junior (which is almost always warranted), beating the piss out of the animal and then either putting it down or throwing it out the door. Rarely, they attempt to re-home it.

In any case, kids need to be taught to not approach or pet ANY animal without permission from the owner, and if that permission isn't given, then petting doesn't happen. A rational parent would see to this, but breeders neglect to actually establish boundaries with their brats and so their kids grow up thinking they are entitled to anything they want and if they don't get it, they can just take it. Some situations will not be so forgiving of such behavior either.

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kittehpeoples

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mumofsixbirds
There was a period of time when dog breeders cashed in on breeding Dalmatians because the demand was high when 101 Dalmatians came out.

They need dogs that had health problems and temperament issues just for the money.

This led to people dumping these poor dogs into shelters and gaining them a bad rep.

If you're talking about the live action version, my friend's vet career was well before that. She was a vet in the 70s/80s. So I don't know what was going on with the breed at that time, but it wasn't related to the movie.

Thanks for clarifying. I think this started after the Disney cartoon came out in the mid 70s. I don't doubt for a minute about what your vet friend said. Dal's have issues with deafness that can affect their trainability and that could cause a dog to bite.
That being said, I would never recommend them as pets for kids. For that matter, I don't think kids should have any pets until they're old enough to care for them.