I see so often kids running away of a dog not because they are scared of them but because ne did and they others do the same thing. It becomes a game.
I have a niece I could slap everytime she is acting stupidly scared of my cat (!!!!!!) A cat for God's sake. Like my cat really cares of my niece's ankle, etc. I think she does it just for the attention.
Same as he kids you meet in the street.
These are the kinds of generalizations and talk that makes one feel like each time you take a step forward, some stupid post like this shows up, and makes your blood boil. The nerve of you to reference someone's child as "some dark skinned immigrant kid" What were you hoping to achieve with that comment. And you didn't event have the guts to out right say Black kids. And aren't you an immigrant as well, regardless of the colour of your skin?
Does everyone have to run over to your dog and "pet" it each time you take it for a walk. I don't expect everyone or anyone to admire or drool over my kids each time I take them out. I had an older lady scold my son once for putting his feet up on the bench at the bus stop. But I will not generalize and say "these old swiss farts".
Whatever your motivations were (apart from the dark skinned kids being scared of your precious dog), how dare they, I will say this, all cultures are different and has nothing to do with colour of one's skin. My "dark skinned immigrant kids" love dogs, their " White kid" friends are scared of our neighbour's dog.
especially:
Unsupervised children
This is arguably the most critical factor in fatal dog attacks on children, who because of their small size are usually not able to withstand an attack until help arrives. Many adults survived severe dog attacks simply by virtue of the fact that they were able to sustain and fend the dogs off to some degree until assistance arrived.
Children often engage in behavior that will trigger a dog attack. For example, approaching a chained dog, trying to hug or kiss an unfamiliar animal, or trying to pull its tail.
The age group with the second-highest amount of fatalities due to a dog attack are 2-year-old children. Over 88% of these fatalities occurred when the 2-year-old child was left unsupervised with a dog(s) or the child wandered off to the location of the dog
So, children should NEVER approach dogs...that's why I tell my son, he's born here...quite white...but with dark curly hair, so you can decide what you want to categorize him as....
i got bitten by a dog when i was 10-12. and my dad told me that this dog could have had a bad experience with kids or the way i came closer to him. its not always in their nature to bite and that my approach remembered him about when he had a bad experience. so from that time on, i approached dogs differently: slow, more checking on how the dog is reacting. and i never got bitten again...
There is quite some difference between teaching your child to be weary and respectful of dogs, how to approach them properly and NEVER to approach one that is loose vs. "allowing" (teaching?) a child to scream and shriek and run away crying.
A month ago I was watching a friend's dog and as we were going for a walk, we started coming close (not close-close, but say 50m or so) behind a woman and her daughter walking on the sidewalk. I could tell by the girl's behavior that she was not keen on the dog so I kept slowing down and letting him sniff e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. for as long as he wanted as we walked. Although she was afraid, the slower I walked, the slower they walked so regardless of all the sniffing, we were getting closer.
Finally, we were about 20m away and from the other direction came someone else walking with a dog as well. The girl had kept looking behind them to check where we were and hadn't noticed the other dog at first, but when she did, she screamed and started loudly crying right away. She started behaving strangely physically, this really caught the attention of the other dog which looked like an Appenzeller Sennenhund (while I was walking a small'ish terrier mix). FINALLY her mother picked her up and took her to the other side of the street.
Now, my problem with this scenario isn't the girl but rather her mother. The area where we were walking dogs is pretty clearly a "dog walking area" with poop bags and disposal containers at either end of that particular stretch of sidewalk. So, the mother, seeing her daughter in distress to begin with, kept walking down that sidewalk exactly why? There is nothing along that side of the street but fence, trees, weeds and scrubby grass - perfect for getting dogs to do their thing. There was no reason for them to be on that side of the street, especially given the daughter's extreme fear of dogs.
While I do agree that physical descriptions given by the OP could have been left off, there ARE areas of the world where there is more reason to be weary of a dog running loose than others. Street dogs / wild dog packs were common enough in Hawaii and Okinawa that we were given lectures at school about being careful of strange dogs. The fault in those cases weren't generally the locals though but rather folks who moved there, got dogs as pets and then being unable / unwilling to foot the bill to take them to their next place, would simply turn them loose and leave them there when it came time to move on.
Regardless of whose fault it was though, the fact remains that the majority of the populace in either place happens to be "not white" AND they have reasons to: (a.) be more weary of dogs than many who grew up in European and North American areas and; (b.) they have "more" reason to teach their kids that dogs can be dangerous. The OP could have been more vague about what children were showing "unusual" (to him, and to me too) reactions to dogs, I think it may be important to those of us who are NOT from areas where dangerous street dogs are "common" to be aware that they ARE a problem in other cultures / areas of the world and that there is a reason for such behavior. Leaving out what those cultures are would not be particularly helpful for anyone to actually understand why this could be happening.
Granted my dog is small and doesnt look the least bit menancing, I've experienced children regardless of skin colour - but yes, predominantly white - since we live in a predominantly white country - running and shrieking either towards or away from my dog. That really doesnt help him, due to a bad experience when he was a puppy. I tried socialising him with children then and a child made a sudden surge forward trying to feed him the treat that he views little people, no taller than 4ft with suspicion and mistrust till today.
Heck, just on Thursday, there was this little girl who got into a mega tantrum when she came up to me and asked if she could pet my dog. I explained to her nicely that my dog is still under training and isnt ready to interact with children yet - and she literally ran after us screaming the same sentence over and over, demanding to pet the dog despite me walking away and saying no.
Her mum did nothing but sat there and soaked in the sun. I had to walk faster so that she didnt catch up.
That to me, is unacceptable. I always blame parents/dog owners when negative experiences happen for both sides. Kids are generally either over enthusiastic or fearful when it comes to our 4legged friends. Its the parents duty to teach them not to be or rein in their enthusiasm. Ideally, both parents and dog owners also need to be on the alert for potential situations like this but I guess its easy for us to say to practice common sense - which sadly, I find, isnt very common with some people.
Maybe the parents (like many others) don't like dogs and this is their way of making sure that their kids won't ask for a dog.
I'd prefer this.
I no longer go to Appenzell to walk or hike, the Appenzeller dogs are the worst of all these animals and need to be put on a long chain - one that doesn't reach to the Wanderweg.
Correct me if I’m wrong and I can only talk about Zurich, there are very few dogs around in Switzerland, at least compared to other countries I’ve lived in. I think it’s natural that children panick when they see an animal they know little about. I’ve seen quite white children freaking out about seeing a dog.
Generally, I sympathise with the OP’s plight. We are all protective of our pets. I wouldn’t like anybody to shriek at the sight of my cats.
* Except canton SZ, where all dogs must be on lead in public. We Schwyzers have to find private spaces - or head over the borders - to give our dogs the free movement they require.
Leaving a dog on a short chain is explicitly forbidden, as is leaving a dog chained for long periods of time
When you see a dog off lead, simple call ahead 'Ruf Ihr Hund, bitte!'. If necessary, explain that you have a phobia.
Most dog owners are happy to recall their dogs when asked politely. Heck, if you came across me or any of my dog-owning friends we would have already had our dogs nicely sitting a few meters off the path the moment we saw you - which would likely have been long before you saw us.
We really do understand that not all people like dogs, and we respect others' right to use the public spaces. We only wish that other people would grant us the same tolerance. In the words of Mr King, "Cant we all just get along?'
Please be aware that the majority of dogs in CH are indeed trained, and kept under voice control. For a well trained dog, voice control is as good as a lead - and the law agrees.
I would encourage those of you who really are unhappy around dogs off lead to do your hiking in Ausserschwyz.
ETA:
From the TschV, article 71:
1 Hunde müssen täglich im Freien und entsprechend ihrem Bedürfnis ausgeführt werden. Soweit möglich sollen sie sich dabei auch unangeleint bewegen können.
2 Können sie nicht ausgeführt werden, so müssen sie täglich Auslauf haben. Der Aufenthalt im Zwinger oder an der Laufkette gilt nicht als Auslauf.
3 Angebunden gehaltene Hunde müssen sich während des Tages mindestens fünf Stunden frei bewegen können. In der übrigen Zeit müssen sie sich in einem Bereich von mindestens 20 m2 an einer Laufkette bewegen können. Sie dürfen nicht mit einem Zughalsband angebunden werden.
http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/455_1/a71.html
.
Thank you very much for bringing up this topic! I was actually thinking of starting a similar one myself.
I am an immigrant whom you may or may not consider white. I am muslim too, so I do consider pigs not edible and dogs ritually not the cleanest animal either. But I did own a dog when I was a small kid, a german shepherd looking thing that had pure black coat (dont know the name). Nevertheless, here is my take on this issue:
1) I do find people who live with these huge and dirty animals in their small apartments homes in crowded cities indeed to be weird.
2) I do teach my kids to be cautious near animals who can tear their faces off if they want to, which their wimpy owners can not do anything to prevent it if the animal chooses to. Just tell me it does not happen, and I will post a million news stories how kids were mauled and even killed by pet dogs
3) My wife was raised in a village where dogs have real life duties and are therefore rather vicious against foreigners, so she fears them intensely
4) I once had a old guy with a large unleashed dog approaching me and my 2 yr old son, and the dog started running at us. I picked my son rather hastily, and the old dude proceeded rambling in angry swiss german showing his displeasure of my behavior. Now, if he was not an old gentlemen who deserves respect from younger people, I WOULD BUST HIS FACE IN right there. So, beware!
5) A crowded, dense city is no place for huge unleashed dogs. Your love for your dog can not be considered with equal terms with safety of my human children. I can bring here the f.king biggest and baddest Kangal dog here and terrorise the dogs owners like you and their sissy dogs, but I dont do that. Learn to respect others civilized lives where they want to live free of a crazy dog running at them out of nowhere.
End of rant.