kids walking dogs

Ok let me tell you guys what happen yesterday. I was so mad about this.

I'm on my way from work to go to my house. I had to drop off a friend of mine first that lives 5 houses away from me. Any ways, when I he was getting off the car I saw this little girl (she must be about 9 years old) walking a pitbull by her self. And when my friend got off the car the dog pulled her towards him and the poor little girl landed on the grown and was drag by the dog. I have no problem with the dog being the dog that he is or the little girl walking the dog. My problem is that she was by her self and no adult was with her. I just hate this kind of situations; this is the reason why dogs get in to trouble!

Thank god nothing happen and the dog just wanted to smell my friend and my friend love dogs, but what if it was some other person that doesn't like pitbulls and would have done something that the dog doesn't like and something bad would have happen people don't think about this things. It is just frustrating.

I have walked the dogs with John's little sister and I always make sure that I'm the one holding the dog, not her.

I don't know if I'm making a big deal of it. Please let me know if opinions

Hmm..
I let my son walk our dogs around the yard so if something does happen its soft landing.
I am always right there though..

I blame whatever adult let that child out to walk the dog without supervision. This is an accident waiting to happen. The child could have been dragged into traffic, or a dog fight, or who knows what.

Wow... I prefer that if a kid is walking a dog that an adult be right there. When I was a little kid I was trying to walk one of my labs, Rachel. I remember her seeing another dog across the street. She took off running towards that dog. I had the other end of the leash looped through my hands and didn't have time to let go. She dragged me across the street. Lucky for me there were no cars driving by. It ripped all the skin off my arms and legs and I was bleeding all over the place. My big question is... where the heck were my parents??? If they had been there that whole situation could have had a completely different turn around. It's really irresponsible IMO for an adult to let a little kid walk a big dog with no supervision.

This is exacly what I mean The girl wasn't hurt.

Another thing that I saw was that she was yanking on the dog also. I gues if the dog pulls her, her way to stop it is to pull back at it too

I hate to see a child on the other end of the leash. Not only do I not trust children to keep ahold of even small dogs, but if their dog started a fight with mine I'd be *on my own* to break it up. Plus, children often cannot take direction and will let their dog approach my dogs even when I ask them not to.

Argh, Drives. Me. Nuts.

Yup, that is a bad situation!

I hate seeing younger kids walking any dog alone, especially if the dog is stronger than them! Like these girls that walk this beautiful white husky. They are around 11 years, but that dog is too strong for them!

I do however look really young, and when I had chloe and walked Luke and Chloe together people thought I was 10 years -_- That probably looked bad, but I had them under my control!

I've let really little kids (youngest was 4?) "walk" Lucas a few times. But I had two leashes on Luke, the long one for them to hold and the short one for me

My kids don't walk my dogs...Beagles or Leo. In a Jrs ring tho esp at UKC you can see Jrs on Saints and such...but these dogs are trained and the kids brought up to control them well...but even there, adults need to be aware and take command when necessary!

IN the country with a dog that is under control I dont care in the least. I walked J.D by myself at 7 years old and he heeled and behaved perfectly in fact I dont remember him wearing a leash most times becuase there were never any other dogs around and he had a awesome recall. But in the city with a out of control dog it is a recipe for disaster. Bev will walk Walker as soon as she wants to with my assistance (the setup like BB said) He is her dog to afterall.

The only time a kid has Jazz alone is in the JRs ring and the only kid to walk Emma is my 12yr old sister. Other than that if the want to walk her I put 2 leashes on her

I was raised in a show household, and there were many occasions where, at a young age, I was left unsupervised with dogs, both inside the house and out. On our property, down the street, the park, dog shows (and not just in the Jrs ring, but around the show), and many other places. If the dog is well behaved and the kid is well trained, I see nothing wrong with it.

When I was a child my parents allowed me to walk any of our dogs small or large. And alot of times I was pulled down on to the ground. And trust me grass isn't anymore comfortable to be knocked down on. Sometimes the dogs ripped their leashes from my hands and ran off. I was young under 10 years old.

Because of those experiences I will not let any of my neices or nephews walk Maggie or Tucker alone. If we are out on the street I am always holding the leash. Especially with Tucker who for a Cocker Spaniel is capable of pulling loosh from a childs grasp easily. Sometimes I humor my youngest nephew ( who is 5) while walking Maggie and while I hook a leash to harness I allow him to have a leash on her collar. That way he feels like he is walking her himself but really I have the control. When in the yard they still airn't allowed to walk Tucker because all our neighbors own dogs and once again Tucker is stronger than you would think. As for Maggie as long as they stay in the back yard and im right there its okay. Of course it depends on the age of the neice or nephew .

It is ridiculas when I see little kids walking BIG dogs. There was a little girl I saw walking a full grown Rottweiler. I swear the girl had to be 8 years old I mean she was TINY and I have no idea why she was out alone let alone walking this dog alone. Unless her parents thought she was safe with this huge strong dog that was weaving all over the place. I was sitting out front with Maggie and the dog noticed us. Of course he wanted to come over to us. Bless the little girls heart she tried to keep ahold of him but with one good yank he pulled her smack down on the ground and ran our way. He wasent aggressive just overly friendly and Maggie wasent so into this big slobbery doof getting in her face lol. I grabbed his leash and walked back over to the little girl. Her palms and knees were skinned and bloody and she was crying. She didn't live all that far away so I let her use my cell phone and call her parents to come and pick her up.

I hope that her parents realized maybe it wasent the best idea to let their little girl walk their large Rottweiler on the street alone.

I let my eight yearold sister walk Miley and Bandit. Miley has never had poor leash manners and Bandit is an amazing dog on lead. Spanky.... ha. No. Not happening. He is still too much for one so wee to handle.

Then again my sister never walks the dogs anywhere but the yard.

:yikes::yikes::yikes::yikes:

Simply unbelievable.

I wonder where the parents were too. I would never let my daughter walk one of the dogs unless she was older and responsible. She's only 4 years old and even at 9 or 10, how can they control the dog? The only dog I have let her walk is Bulldozer the 9 week old pup. I showed her what to do and to be careful about pulling on him. I was right there with her as well but once he's bigger, that'll be the end of that.

My dogs are too big for even my 13 year old cousin to walk. She has no control over them whatsoever and i could never put her in that situation where something could happen to her. It's just irresponsible.

My sister and I used to walk the dogs when we were younger. We took Sophie, who is huge but with great manners, Daisy (MaltX) so she was easy to walk and Buster who was a puppy at the time so easy. By the time he got older, we had to and could hold him easily.
We did get told that if they got stuck in a fight let go of their leashes, particularily Sophies and let them handle themselves. We only ever had to do that once, a dog came out of its house at us. My sister fell over and just as the dog lunged at her Sophie jumped inbetween them and the dog backed down.

For those that are OK with it. A dog is an animal with a mind of its own. No dog is 100% on anything. That one time in 12 years that that dog forgets its training and manners will be with a kid. Not to mention if said 10yr old is walking the dog what happens when that stray dog picks a fight. It may not be your dog that has the problem but the kid cant do a thing about it

Agreed.
Its a little insulting when people say they dont like young people walking dogs. I have walked Tucker since..... I was 12? I think. Sometimes around than anyway. I had gone through all the training with him, I knew him best, and could read his body language better than anyone else in my family could.

Its unfair to lump all kids in the same category.

Its really an individual thing, IMO.

~Tucker

What Rosefern said. The problem is, there aren't a whole lot of well-mannered kids who know what they are doing paired up with well-mannered dogs, and in most cases we hear the horror stories.

Children will NEVER walk my dogs unsupervised...PERIOD! They can be the most dog savvy children in the world, but I do not believe children should be unsupervised with dogs. If anything did happen, I would be 100% at fault for allowing a child to be the responsible party. And this is not something that I would ever want to risk-for the children or for my dogs.

Hutch easily outweighs children, even alot of adults. No matter how excellent his leash manners are he is still an animal. I in no way mean to offend anyone, but a child is not strong enough to control a situation if one ever did arise. My smallest one, Seagle the beagle is typical of the breed and loves everyone (people and animals) and is easily controlled on lead, but if he were attacked while out on a walk it would be irresponsible of me to expect a child to intervene and protect him.

I'm not trying to insult children and say that they don't understand dogs. I'm sure some really do. I loved dogs and researched them in my childhood, infact I probably knew more about them than my parents did. But that did not make it a wise choice for me to walk my dogs unsupervised. There were situations that could have happened that I was physically not able to handle, situations that could have hurt me and my dogs. For this reason it was not responsible of my parents to allow me to walk them unsupervised. Thankfully I did not encounter any of these situations, but I will protect my own dogs and children from any of these potential disasters.