Would you take 2 small kids to a house with a pit bull that is “good with kids as long as they are not pestering him”.
Help me decide what to do here! I’m afraid of dogs so I can’t really see this clearly. A neighbor lady started a mom group and is hosting an event. But they have a large pit bull and she described it this was. She does have a little kid too. But there will be several random little kids around.
My daughters have never been around animals except the random neighborhood cat. But the baby did pull its tail so now we don’t let the baby play with it even though she desperately wants to lol
Am I crazy to tell the lady we can’t come? Am I being too much?
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I thought about just messaging her something like “we are not used to dogs and I’m afraid the baby will not be gentle. Hopefully we can come some other time!” Or something. But I kind of want to go. But is it worth the risk??
If you think there’s a chance your kids will pester the dog then I wouldn’t.
0% chance I’d bring young children over there.
Absolutely not. I don't typically take people's word for it when they do say dogs are good with kids but I am certainly not going to when they put a condition. Because what does pestering mean? What if a child makes a high pitched sound? Could that set the dog off? They have a very powerful bite and most people do not train these dogs correctly or at all. That's why they are illegal in some places.
I was just at an event where the dog who lived there got into a fight (growling, maybe some nipping) with a visiting dog. Both dogs were very friendly according to the owners. Understandably, it freaked my kids out, deepening their dislike of large dogs. All that to say, dogs are unpredictable, and I especially wouldn't trust a dog that doesn't deal well with kids pestering it.
A possible compromise would be saying that you can only come if the dog is kept in a different room. A good host would gladly accommodate that.
Yeah I would. If it started get it g aggressive or just annoyed by multiple kids I might ask for them to put it away. I might ask anyway since there’s so many people around that it might overstimulate the dog
0 chance I'd take my son there.
It's just avoidable.
As a responsible dog owner, if you’re inviting strangers (to the dog) to your home, it’s proper etiquette to just put the dog up for the duration of the event. Period… if you have to describe your dog as (as long as they’re not pestering him) then you either need to put him in a separate room or don’t host events with children because children are going to be handsy and in his face.
A compromise: introduce each child to the dog individually and see how it goes. Explain to the children to not bother the dog if they are at the age to understand that
i would personally because my son knows how to (and how not to) interact with animals but if he didn’t then i wouldn’t. i also would keep my eyes on him at all times. if they don’t go around dogs often or they usually only go around very tolerable dogs or if you’ll be distracted with other things then i wouldn’t.
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