Yesterday I was accosted by a small boy, aged about 5, who spotted me and my dog and charged towards us making a loud growling noise. He came up very close and then started giving orders to my dog, such as SIT, LIE DOWN etc. The boy then asked me why the dog wouldnt obey him? I told him that he shouldnt go rushing up to dogs making scary noises, advice that the child ignored as he immediately started making the noises again. Luckily my dog, who is only 6 mnths old, is a chilled out chap and wasnt too upset by this. The child was lucky - another dog might have bitten him in fright!

I might have bitten him :)

id have made the litte bugger sit - i can growl too lol (the kid not the dog) :D

The fault lies with bl88dy dozy parents who don't teach them basic manners and rules for approaching animals, not the child.

Those of us who have both animals and children should consider ourselves lucky that they grow up knowing these things.

This so reminds me of an incident I encountered a while back: mum (well, assuming it was child's mum) pushing child in buggy on the pavement.  Approaching them, a woman with a Flatcoat.  Child leaps out of buggy (child must have been 5/6 yrs old or so) and charges upto said FC and flings her arms around the astounded dog's neck! :-O 

I kind of thought child must have known dog or owner, but it appeared not...the FC's owner just stood there with her jaw on the floor as the child's mum approached and asked "is your dog friendly?"  EEEK!  Child then got back in buggy and off mum and child went.  FC and owner carried on walking in opposite direction.

I have to say, I stood there with my jaw on the floor too as I witnessed this whole episode.

I really do dread to think what may have happened to that child if that had not been a friendly dog.  Having said that, even the friendliest dog may have panicked at that situation and reacted badly.

Terrible situation and child's mum just did not care.

You can definately tell the children that have been brought up with dogs....
My youngest aged 5 is besotted with them but has always been taught never to approach a dog without the owner present and then only if asking the owner if it is ok to stroke the dog...

you would have been arrested if you ran up to a child growling and saying "sit" or "down" etc!!!!

We did have many children at the school who used to tell the dogs to sit or down and ours didn't listen, when they asked why they didnt do as they were told, we just said our dogs are trained to stand, or to the ones with parents who could take a joke we said "do you listen to anything your mum says???"

If a dog ever bit a child like that then it would be the dogs fault!!!:(

Rox

Oh my, this reminds me of something that happened while i was walking Murphy (mongrel :) )
A young boy about 5 was sitting on a low fence, when we walked past he got off the fence and kicked Murphy!!
I was shocked to bits and the only thing i could say was "Dont do that he'll bite you!"
Kids! Why dont parents tell them they can actually be seriously harmed by making stupid noises and kicking dogs!

Donna and charliex

I would've kicked him back!! (although of course i would be arrested for it, whereas an 'innocent' little boy wouldn't!) If a child did that to one of mine they probably would react as they are both young and still a little wary of things like that, the BC is highy reactive anyway and would have gone beserk, and with good reason! Why can't parents control their kids?!

I remember being at an exemption show several years ago with my old cocker spaniel Mischa. I had her in her show cage, as we also had some of the irish with us, I was stood a couple of feet away watching what was going on in the ring when i heard Mischa start growling. I turned to find a young boy, about 7 years, poking her through the cage with a stick! I was furious! I was glad that i never left her un-attended in the cage, cos i dread to think how long it would have gone on if i wasn't there. The poor little thing was cowering at the back of her cage but of course couldn't get away, up to then she had been fast asleep. I shouted at him to leave her alone, at which point he ran off, no sign of any parents and there was a riding event going on as well so there was no way i'd be able to find them or him. Mischa was never the same again when caged at shows, never settled down to sleep like she used to and always growled if anyone she didn't know came near the cage.

Erin

well its nice to know i'm not the only one! unfortnately there was no apparent parent around to speak to at the time, it was outside the school playground and quite busy. The next day the boy concerned completley ignored us, so maybe he got the hint. Loads of other kids often come up to my pup and he is happy to be stroked and fussed, and most of them seem to have some idea of how to behave near a dog.