Why is my daughter freaking out about my brothers dog?

S

Sarah Garza

New Member
May 3, 2023
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My brother came over today, and he brought over his dog, he has a 260 pound English mastiff, the dog is really sweet. But for some reason my four year old daughter didn’t want to be anywhere near the dog. they have met before at my brothers house, she was afraid then also.
why is this? she adores dogs, we have a border collie and they get along and play together just fine, even on day one when I first brought the dog home. My dog and my brothers dog are identical in terms of temperament. But she is just really scared of the mastiff for some reason. of course I respect my daughter and I make sure she feels safe. But why is she like this?
My brothers dog has done nothing wrong. Why is she acting so scared of him? Like I said we have a border collie at home and they play together.
Now my daughter does have dwarfism, she is four years old but only comes in at 1‘9“and 25 pounds, I was thinking maybe that had something to do with it, but I don’t really think so because we have an average sized border collie, My daughter is so small that she has to physically look up at the border collie and she has to stand on your tippy toes in order to barely be able to pet the top of his head. when they stand side-by-side, she is eye level with the very bottom of his chin. And she can stand on her tippy toes and she still won’t be able to see eye to eye with him. and he’s just your average border collie, he weighs in at around 40 pounds and is way stronger than my daughter. and even from day one, she didn’t let the height strength and weight of the border collie get to her. So why is she so afraid of the mastiff?
 
Probably for the same reason she wasn't happy around the horse - they are big, she is small, and she not unreasonably feels vulnerable. Personally I'd be very uneasy letting her play with the border collie, she could easily get badly hurt and you're taking an unnecessary risk.

I have noted the two threads you've posted are almost identical, I hope this isn't going to be repeated again.
 
Just to clarify….

your 6 year old, sacred of horses, is 1’ 6” as in 18” and 17 lbs
and your 4 year old, who is scared of a mastiff, is 1’ 9” as in 21”, and 25 lbs.

and I would be nervous around a mastiff. Listen to your children. They are young and very vulnerable.
 
Bodshi said:
No, the daughter is 6 in one and 4 in the other.
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I'd say slight differences, but the overall question is the same as is the happily playing with a border collie. Given it's the first two threads from a new member I'm sure you can understand why I have my doubts.
 
carthorse said:
I'd say slight differences, but the overall question is the same as is the happily playing with a border collie. Given it's the first two threads from a new member I'm sure you can understand why I have my doubts.
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Yes, I meant it tongue in cheek 🤣
 
Maybe it's just illogical 🤷‍♀️ When I was a child, we had a dog and I didn't mind other dogs at all, but for some totally unknown reason I was terrified of my mum's best friend's Yorkshire Terrier. There was absolutely NO reason for this, he was a friendly dog and had never shown me any malice. The children of the house used to try and show me he was harmless and friendly, to no avail - I was never convinced. He must have picked up on my fear though because I felt that he used to lay and stare at me (but that *might* have been me imagining it 😂)

I never found out why this particular dog unnerved me so the you go.
 
domane said:
I felt that he used to lay and stare at me
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This may be significant. Because you looked back to notice this. My OH dislikes dogs. We watch a lot of polo where people bring dogs and when a dog approaches my husband from his point of view the dog is a threat and he looks at it warilly. But a kind dog owner told me that OH's nervousness means he makes eye contact with the dog. And that, to the dog, the eye contact signified "Come here," "Lets get to know each other".

Now I tell OH, dont look at the dog. Dont make eye contact and, that does to some extend solve the problem both at polo matches and out walking. Not with every single dog but with most of them.
 
I don't really know why you are on a horse forum, to ask a question about dogs and children?

If the child is four, then ask them why they don't like the dog, there is your answer. Some adults do not like dogs, some adults do not like certain dogs.
There is a huge difference between a Collie and a Mastiff and I mean huge.
Surely you can see that as a parent.
 
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