help with this please , want to get some of your views on this please ,
11 and 13 year old kids being allowed to walk a very large GS dog thats had no basic training and Never goes outside its house normaly,
now the women who owns the dogs gone away and im a bit concerened that the neighbour whos checkin in on the dog is letting the kids walk the streets with the dog,

i was horrifide today when i see them with it as my boy was playing around with other kids and then these kids turn up with the dog ,
im a bit worried should i be ?
i mean the dog seems friendly but then it does not get socialized at all and never comes out of the house,
some of you may remember my other posts about same dog its left to bark all the time and left alone mostly, and although im glade the neighbours sort of looking after it im not to sure that im happy with the 11 year old walking round the streets with the dog, not where all the kids are playing, thoughts on this please

i sort of think its a bit like giving your kids the keys to your car and saying go on then off you go, am i being ott

erm im afriaid i wouldnt even like to think it was a a small dog they were trawling the streets with you have every reason to be concerned i would be too, maybe you could have a friendly word with the neighbour?

thank you its not me then i new but i cant baleave my neighbour would let her kids do this they looking after it for the 6 weeks the kids say well will be walking it and my son normally plays with these kids and some others now im going to be scared to let my boy out all holiday

i will try a friendly word i dont want to be a kill joy and seem like im a nag to them but it would be commen sense to me , i mean how would she feel if i let my Rottie out for a walk with my own 11 year old son and we'v had him since he was 8 weeks old and he's well socalized and well trained but i still wouldnt take the chance and let them go out together alone,

any ideas on how i say it in a nice way without it ending in a row , im not very good at this kind of thing if i said what i really think id never be able to speak to neighbours again and as much as i couldnt care less if it was just me here alone , i do have to live here and my son plays out here,
so how do i put it in a way it dont sound rude or nasty?

Arrrrr OH Has just come back from his early morning walk with our dogs and the young girls got the GS out on grass cross the road and of course the dogs seen ours and has just dragged the girl across the road to get to them she ended up letting the dog go :-o,

im SOOo mad right now i want to scream , this dogs got some kind of mange on its back its had it for long time I REALY DONT!!! want the dog anywhere near mine or near my son when his playing out either,

its clear the kid cant control the dog even the owner cant control it so how is the kid going to manage it,

oh why are people so stupid ?, i realy dont want any Confrontation with the neighbour as we do talk and get on and our kids do play together , but i now worry that this situation will end up causing a rift between us i cant sit back and watch these kids drag this uncontrolled dog around the streets or vice versa its really not on
iv just watched from my window whats happened and a sitting here cringing how can I approch this without sounding like im having a go?

I am with you chelzeagirl  its irrisponsible I would not allow either of my kidsto walk my dogs until they were at least 16 and even now I wont let my 16year old daughter take gsd out as he is big and strong and I know can get a bit ott with other dogs or cats she would never manage. She does however walk her chi/pom but that is somewhat smaller !!.  My son who is 20 has been taking gsd out for the past couple of years but he is strong and can cope. I did speak to the police once about how old a child needs to be to be in charge of a dog and although they said it is a bit of a grey area the law seems to imply that if anything goes wrong and the child is under 16 the responsibility lies with the owner. having said that I wouldn't want to get in to that situation it would be awful for all concerned

Why not speak to the dog warden,  maybe they could go and have a word with the owners... giving some advice on the unsuitability of it.... dont know if they will , but worth a try!!

How about telling them how worried you were for the little girl when she was pulled into the road you could exagerate the risk to the child a bit more than actual to get your point over

thanks ff i will give that ago i mean its not like theirs not plenty of other issues at risk here , i would have thought it was obvious that its not a good idea for the kids to do the walking of this dog , the neighbour knows full well that the dog dont go out on walks (and i mean NEVER) so its not trained to walk on lead and it has not been brought up with children their are no kids in the owners house its just her and the dog and she cant control the dog her self thats one reason she says she dont take it out as it drags her everywhere,

when the kids had it yesterday i was passing my son a drink over our fence and thats when i see the dog with the 2 kids when my young bully heard another dog the other side of fence he was jumping madly to get to it and likewise with the GS ,
and their were a lot of little kids standing around All eye level with the GS it dont bare thinking about what could happen and how truely silly it is to let these kids take it out, dont get me wrong im glad the dogs getting a walk for once but needs to be with a resposable adult not with the kids , its a very big dog almost as big as my Rottie i just feel gutted that people put you in the situation where your just going to have to say that what they are doing is Dangerous and very silly for all concerened

good luck I hope they can see you are worried for all of them. Its such a shame that the poor dog doesn't usually get an excerises and then when he does it is inappropriate

Call the RSPCA if its got mange on its back it should be treated

I would speak to the people minding the dog and kindly point out to them, that anything the dog does whilst in the care of themselves OR their children is going to be THEIR responsibility, in the eyes of the law... not the owner who is away.

So dog causes an horrific car accident - they could be the ones sued.

Its a difficult one, we all know that some people don't like constructive advice it may be easier to go through a third party like the dog warden or rspca atleast then you don't know its you.  Falling out with the neighbours can be very stressful.

who's looking after the kids? I hope they have not been left home alone. if so I would be calling social services

I agree with ff, exaggerate the danger the kid was in rather than the dog - and yes, also call the RSPCA if the dog has mange that isn't being treated.

Contact the dog warden. It was only last year that a young boy died when he was walking a large dog, The dog pulled him into the path of a car. It's an accident waiting to happen.