Rottweiler and kids?

MrsTinks

I'd say the bigger issue here isn't the breed but that an 11 year old child is allowed to walk it unsupervised... I don't care two hoots if it's a chihuahua or a Rottie, you should never let a child be unsupervised with a dog, let alone walk it like that. The fact is that Rotties are 99.99% of the time one of the gentlest and kindest family pets, BUT they like any other living thing are not perfect! To allow a small child to walk it is in my view dangerous - as others have said it can drag the child into the road, it could as happened end up in a dog fight and in doing so it COULD bite someone.
I would honestly try to speak to the owners and try to do it calmly and nicely. Ultimately if they can't accept that you are concerned both for your daughters safety but infact also for their daughters then I think asking your daughter to not contact any of them. Personally I'd report the incident but leave it at that - why? Because you don't know that this IS the only incident, but it's not really serious enough to warrent any punishment for neither owner nor dog. I don't know if the police would be interested under the "dog in public whilst not under control" side of things...

orlao

Mrs7ones wrote: »

Hi,
I'm looking for a bit of advice re my DD and a recent incedent with a Rottweiler.
the family of a school friend have a Rottweiler, and the 11 yo daughter often walks it alone. the other day, DD bumper into the daughter and dog whilst out playing.
The dog got a bit 'nasty' over another dog, and DD and the girl tried to restrain it, and the dog 'nipped' DD on the calf.
Now, it didn't draw blood, but left a very small bruise and made her cry.....
I was quite alarmed by the situation, and made me wonder about the law re Rottweilers....
Any advice??
Thanks

I hope your daughter is ok and gets over her fright.
As OP have said the fact that it was a rottie is neither here or there legally, what does matter is whether the dog was under control as far as the DDA is concerned which IMHO it was....that's not to say that I personally agree with a child walking any dog unsupervised let alone such a big dog.

If you want to take it further (which I would) talk to your local dog warden, contact details on your council website. I know that some dog wardens are better than others IYSWIM but I know my local DW is very approachable and if she gets a report of a potential problem will try and talk to the owner while they are out walking so it doesn't look like anyone has reported them, just something that she has noticed so it all stays very friendly if that makes sense.

Also, I agree with JoJo.....all kids should know to stay out of a dog fight, TBH that applies to adults as well if it isn't their dogs! I'm sure that 90% of reported dog bites are due to getting in the way of scrapping dogs.......

CFC

MrsTine wrote: »

I'd say the bigger issue here isn't the breed but that an 11 year old child is allowed to walk it unsupervised... I don't care two hoots if it's a chihuahua or a Rottie, you should never let a child be unsupervised with a dog, let alone walk it like that.

Of course it's safe for children to walk dogs alone. I did it at the age of 10 or less. However, our dog was a jack russel, not a rotweiler. Even at the age of 10 I could pick it up and carry it around, and if it had a fight I'd be sensible enough to let them scrap it out. Of course in my day, the most vicious dog to be found in a normal family home was an alsation. Nobody cared to have the 'kudos' of having an attack dog for a pet.

To be honest, whoever is allowing a rotweiler to be walked by a child or a weak person is totally insane and has no consideration for the safety of others.

Rotweilers are not really suitable family pets in my opinion anyway. It's like having a pet crocodile when you could have something eminently more sensible instead. It's the ultratypical 'chav' animal.

mirrorimage0

we own a rottie and have two children aged 9 and 6 also one on the way, i disagree about them not being family pets, this is our second rottie as our last one died beginning of this year, i do believe it is how you bring a dog up but yes they are powerful dogs, we also have a german shepard. i would never let my children walk iether of my dogs on thier own or hold the lead while with us as they are strong animals, i would never trust any dog 100 %, even humans can be unpredictable.

i think i would report it to the rspca in this instance just so that they are aware of it if you are to intimidated to go the family but talk to your daughter and make sure she knows never to go near this dog again and never to get in the middle of fighting dogs , she is to young and not strong enough to control them.

by the way cfc can i just add that my family are not ultratypical chav family as you so pleasantly put it, we live in a nice neighbourhood and our pets are part of our family we just prefer the larger breeds rather than the smaller ones, they all need homes and people to love them

JoolzS

If the dog didn't draw blood then chances were it was just saying "back off". Rotties can do a huge amount of damage to humans if they choose to and the fact this one didn't tends to say that he was just sending a warning shot across the bows. Sounds like a very well trained/behaved rotweiller to me.

Julie

Tortieshell

<sigh> It's not the dog that's at fault here, it's the owners. I don't know why the dog always gets blamed.

gomer

??? eeeeeeggggg

gomer

CFC wrote: »

Of course it's safe for children to walk dogs alone. I did it at the age of 10 or less. However, our dog was a jack russel, not a rotweiler. Even at the age of 10 I could pick it up and carry it around, and if it had a fight I'd be sensible enough to let them scrap it out. Of course in my day, the most vicious dog to be found in a normal family home was an alsation. Nobody cared to have the 'kudos' of having an attack dog for a pet.

To be honest, whoever is allowing a rotweiler to be walked by a child or a weak person is totally insane and has no consideration for the safety of others.

Rotweilers are not really suitable family pets in my opinion anyway. It's like having a pet crocodile when you could have something eminently more sensible instead. It's the ultratypical 'chav' animal.

How interesting that you seem to have associated the term 'Attack dog' with the word 'Rottweiler'. It's because of that sort of blatant ignorance that we ended up with the most useless law to date (The DDA).

As the owner of a Rottweiler i find it utterly ridiculous to allow an 11 year old child to be walking one unattended & i wouldn't think twice about reporting it to the dog warden because it is exactly that sort of irresponsible handling that gives the responsible Rottweiler owners (who have to put up with being labled chavs etc by ignorant people) a bad name.

There is no way on this earth i would ever allow an 11 year old child to walk my Rottweiler unattended because kids just don't have the same perception of danger as an adult & invariably take more risks with safety by placing the dog in situations that a responsible adult wouldn't.

Unless you have owned or at least experienced what a properly trained Rottweiler is really like in a normal family environment, then frankly you are not really in any position to decide whether or not they make a suitable family pet.

At least us 'Chavs' can spell Rottweiler.

DKLS

JoolzS wrote: »

If the dog didn't draw blood then chances were it was just saying "back off". Rotties can do a huge amount of damage to humans if they choose to and the fact this one didn't tends to say that he was just sending a warning shot across the bows. Sounds like a very well trained/behaved rotweiller to me.

Julie

I was going to say similar If it was just an ankle nip, the dog was behaving to type, as a HERDING DOG, not an attack dog or fighting dog as some would love to believe.
Having said that I dont think children should be allowed to walk any dogs, unless they know how to control them under all circumstances. Whether that is a Pug or an Akita

pink_piggy17

It sounds like things got heated between the dogs and your kid got a nip. I mean, considering the size and strength of a Rottie, what is a little bruise? Was it even caused by his teeth? It really is common sense not to get in between dogs that are having a fight unless one of them is in serious danger i.e. considerably smaller than the aggressor.

However, as far as I know it is illegal for anybody aged less than 16 or could be 18 to walk a "restricted breed" an 11 year old probably isn't strong enough to hold on to a large breed in the event of the dog wanting to take off and I'd be very worried for the dogs safety as what if he managed to get loose and run under a car?

I think it's rather ignorant for people to think that only "Chavs" keep "dangerous" dogs. My family have kept both Doberman Pinschers and German Shepherds in the past and we are most certainly not "Chavs"

A dog is what you make it, you can either be sensible and try and raise your dog to be sociable and friendly or you can raise it as a status symbol, to show off an aggressive dog, which seems to be the case with a lot of young men. It's these type of people that give these dogs a bad name, when in fact, with the right upbringing, they make excellent family pets. Rottweilers in particular are just giant lapdogs when they have a loving owner. (I suppose they could be considered dangerous when all 8 stone or so of them tries to sit in your lap though! )