4-H Moving to Private Residence - With Aggressive Dog

[MrsWeasley]

When I signed my oldest up for 4-H, the meetings were held in a community center. Unfortunately, a pipe burst in the building and caused massive damage: they expect the repairs to take months. One of the leaders offered to host in her home. I'm friends with the leader on Facebook and through that I know that she has aggression problems with her dog that don't sound like they are under control. When I picked up my kid from the meeting last week, I saw that her dog was walking around the same space as the kids. I e-mailed the leader, and she replied that her dog has never shown aggression to children, just adults, and that she wouldn't separate the dog because that increases the dog's aggression. I admit. I'm not a dog person, so my initial reaction was disbelief. I have a hard time understanding why a dog who attacked adults wouldn't attack kids. Dog people, is this reason legit? 4-H-ers: How autonomous are the different 4-H groups? There's another 4-H group slightly further away from me, and I wondered if we could just switch membership mid-year to a different group, in light of our group losing its public space? I e-mailed one of the leaders of that group to ask, but I'm still waiting on a response. Also, is there higher level oversight that I could report this to? Even if I move my kids, I worry about her friends.

[fairfarmhand]

Yes, you can swap groups in the county. If you go out of the county, you will need to talk to your Local extension agent.

 

I would report the leader to your county extension agent. (I'm assuming this is a volunteer leader who has moved the meetings to her house?)

[MrsWeasley]

Thanks for your response. I would be switching county. The extension agent for both counties is the same, so I just left a message. She is a volunteer leader. Thanks again.

Edited March 7, 2016 by MrsWeasley

[J-rap]

If the dog has been aggressive with anyone, I'd be nervous too!  Wow, sometimes I wonder what people are thinking.  Can you go above her to the Extension Office, express your concerns, and see if they have some other ideas of where to meet?  For example, our public library would let you meet in one of their conference rooms for free.  I would think the Extension Office would feel responsible.

 

Until I had an aggressive dog myself, I maybe would have thought differently.  But I know they can turn on a dime.  

[FaithManor]

You are absolutely allowed to join other groups (can even belong to multiples at once so long as you manage the participation requirements for each club) within a county and even outside of your county. Dual enrollment in more than one club is common. We have kids enrolled in our STEM club that also want to show small livestock and are enrolled in a rabbit club as well.

 

The only thing is that this is not guaranteed. If the other clubs are full, then you may not be able to switch. That doesn't happen a lot, but we have a horse club in this county with 60 members and six leaders. There is only so much parking any one private residence can have so they have to meet at the fairgrounds, and had to stop accepting new members to the group would not get larger than they could handle. We limit our club membership - due to working with power tools, printers, caustic chemicals, etc. - to fifteen so we could safely manage the bunch without getting more adult assistance. We also use a lot of our own equipment and can't afford to buy more when we get so little of the county programming/education dollars coming to our club...$200.00 a year. That's it!

 

Usually though, in most cases, it is not a problem to switch or dual enroll.

[gardenmom5]

An aggressive dog will be aggressive with anyone perceived as a threat. Fast moving children included.

I'd switch asap.

[Mama Geek]

Don't trust aggressive dogs with kids.  Too many horror stories.

[QueenCat]

I wouldn't want mine around dogs known to be aggressive. Solution you can offer is to make your home available for meetings if a public meeting space cannot be found. You can do the research for finding a public space that is available. That way you are not asking the volunteer leader to take on that task as well as leading the group.

[Daria]

I have no idea about 4H, but there's no way I would want my kid in that situation.  Way too risky.  Even if the owners do know what they're talking about, aren't there usually adults at 4H meetings?  I don't want my kid mauled by a dog, but I also don't really want him seeing an adult leader he likes mauled by a dog either.  

 

Having said that, my dog, who is not aggressive, treats children under about 12 completely differently than people over 12.  He's done it since I met him.  It used to drive my son nuts, because he can be very jumpy and pushy for affection (e.g nudging up against you, tapping you with his paw) with adults and teens, but with a small child he walks calmly up to them and sits and waits to be petted.  My son was small for his age, and there was a point where he treated my son like a "kid" and all his friends like "adults", which my son interpreted as the dog not liking him.

 

 

[Amy in NH]

In NH you can only belong to one county at a time, but as many clubs as you'd like within the county.  We don't get any money from the county or state for programming, so we do our own fundraising.  We raise around $1000/year, and purchase or borrow equipment.

 

As an organizational leader I got tired of trying soliciting appropriate meeting venues and dragging supplies, so we started meeting at my residence a few years ago.  It works out better for our members too, as we are centrally located.  We keep our sweet, gentle dog crated during meetings because there is just no place for a dog under foot in the organized chaos that is a project meeting.  Some people have phobias, others are allergic, and that one is also aggressive.  That wouldn't be okay with me or my county extension staff.  I'd call to seek assistance.

[Lanny]

We have seven (7) dogs, including one (1) Rottweiler.    IMO from what you described, that dog should be put down. Or, the owner should never allow anyone on her property.  If her Homeowners Insurance company knew about the history of the dog, they would probably cancel her policy, because of the potential liability.  I don't think you or your DC should be in/near her house.  We have little children and adults occasionally visiting our house. They have no problem.  Once, one of our dogs (he was a stray who had been living on the street and was rescued) bit a delivery man on the rear end. That only happened once and I'm not sure why he bit that particular person.  It was not an attack, it was a bite, but he should not have done that.