Really annoyed

Shepherd1

Was coming back from a walk with my daughter and dog when one of my daughters friends saw us and cane running over with her grandpa's dog on a lead. The dog is a mixed terrier and is not friendly to other dogs, so they come running over full speed with it snarling and barking.

My dog also on lead looks a little unsure but carries on walking with me. They followed us all the way home with it snarling at our heels in the end my do turned round and gave a bark herself.

The thing is if anything had happened my dog would have gotten the blame being a gsd. What's your opinion should 7 year olds be allowed to walk dogs alone?

peachyprice

7yo? no way. That's much too young to know what to do in an emegency and much too young to be able to judge how your own dog or someone elses dog might react in a given situation.

bagginslover

No, definatly not! 7 isn't old enough to be able to assess a situation and decide if it's safe, as in your case

moomin5

To let a child walk a dog which has dog aggression issues seems just plain stupid, though even if the dog is well behaved its likely they'll come into contact with other people's dogs and not all are well socialised & trained or even have owners attention from my own experiences dog walking. Its putting a lot of responsibility on a kid which hasn't yet developed adult abilities to deal with possible situations or see consequences of actions. As with your daughters friend, she didn't understand her dogs behaviour or realise she should keep away from your dog and was no doubt only thinking about walking with her friend.

I've got a feeling there's something in the law about under 16's can't be held responsible for a dog and the owner would be held liable even if not present.

chewynut

I think it depends on the dog. But then the dog depends on the owners so it's a circle.

There's no way a seven year old could walk either of our mixed terriers alone. One of them (Jack Russel/Staffie cross could pull my dad over if he wanted to so I can't see a child being able to control it. Our other cross would be lovely...until she saw a cat.

Hovel_lady

7 years old no way.
A cat that belonged to a friend of mine was killed by 2 dogs when they was being walked by a 5 & 8 year old. Police wouldn't even get involved.

Fire_Fox

Shepherd1 wrote: »

The thing is if anything had happened my dog would have gotten the blame being a gsd. What's your opinion should 7 year olds be allowed to walk dogs alone?

The blame from whom?

pulliptears

I'm quite sure a 7 year old wouldn't be picking up the poo either! I wont let my teenagers walk ours simply because both start retching and heaving when confronted with steaming piles.

Shepherd1

If the terrier had gotten close enough to bite my dog and mine had bitten back I'm pretty sure the owner of the other dog would have said mine was at fault. So yes my dog would get the blame

Fire_Fox

Shepherd1 wrote: »

If the terrier had gotten close enough to bite my dog and mine had bitten back I'm pretty sure the owner of the other dog would have said mine was at fault. So yes my dog would get the blame

Why would you care what they think? You don't have to get into a debate or an argument about it. They left a seven year old with a snarling dog, not the brightest of moves.

bagginslover

Why do you think you'd be blamed, and who would be doing the blaming?

If its a matter of insurance you are thinking of, rest assured, dog insurance isn't like car insurance where you pay up for 'damage' to another dog. You cannot be made to pay for vets bills for another dog, even if your dog did start it, there is simply no system inplace for it to happen.

As for the 2 dogs killing a cat and the police not getting involved- By law, cats are defined as beng 'free spirits', and as such an owner has no legal responsibility for damage caused by their cat. By the same law, an owner cannot expect anything that happens to their cat to be defended by the law (with the exeption of intentional cruelty, administered by a human). Dogs killing cats is not illegal, or unlawful, which is why they didn't get involved.

Both of these snippets ofinformation I have discovered by being in the situations myself. While there might be a moral obligation in both cases to offer some recompense, there is no legal one.