Up to a point, I’m not going to be a helicopter mom and not let my kid be constantly under surveillance. Like I’m going to see how and teach my kid as I have already done how to interact with animals. I let her get scratched by a farm cat as I told her to leave it alone and it was done with pets. She now teaches other kids how to handle animals, be gentle, and understand body language. On the other side, with my great Dane mix I introduced him to my kid and let him know she was fragile from the hospital. He has only hurt her once and that was because she went outside by herself when I told her not to(I was showing )and played ball with him. Was running with the ball and he knocked her down. She learned 2 lessons, to not go outside without me being ready and to not run with the ball.

I grew up with my moms friend that raised mastiffs and I would explore the open land she had with 6-10 giant dogs from 3rd to 5th grade unsupervised. Just go to her house after school and feed/play with the dogs until my mom came after work. Now I’m not some boomer saying back in my day, but coming from a millennial seeing adults of helicopter parents struggle with being on their own.

And there is a difference between a kid and a babie, my first comment was more directed at them saying anything with free will, other than a human. Not like humans are any better. I trust an unknown dog over a human, I can read them better and react accordingly.