'They're just puppies, they don't know better': Father firmly pulls dog away from his 1-year-old baby when the puppy won't listen to its owner's commands, the neighbors make it all about themselves

Author image for Mariel Ruvinsky
Mariel Ruvinsky • Writer and Editor
Jul 9, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Puppies are the cutest. Golden Retriever puppies… irresistible. The one thing that you could not say about us, the writers at Animal Comedy, is that we don't like puppies. Because we are obsessed with them. And yet, we understand that puppies are not for everyone and not for every situation. Generally, we think that everyone should adopt a puppy if they can - rescue them, give them a new life, and, of course, train your puppies properly. Because that will make a huge difference in their lives and in yours. 

What happened in this story was not the puppies' fault, it was their owners. We personally love it when puppies jump at us, cover our faces with licks and kisses, and give us a infinite attention, but… we would probably not love it if those same puppies did the same thing to our one-yea-old. It's a baby. The baby doesn't understand dogs, and the dogs don't understand what they could do to the baby. That's the owner's responsibility, and this owner… did not care whatsoever.  

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  • 01

    "[Am I wrong] for pulling our neighbors dog away from our baby when it wasn't listening to the owner?"

    "Let's keep the dogs in their own yards from now on"
    via Unsplash / mali desha - malidesha

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02
    My husband and I live in a farming area and have an <1 year old and a 5yr old German shepherd. Neighbors got 2 golden retriever puppies shortly after they moved in a year or so ago.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 03
    They didn't really train them and when the dogs would see us they would run over and jump up on us, not listen when being called back, etc. It wasn't unusual to see our neighbors on our porch or in our yard trying to get them. Overall though we didn't really have an issue with it as our dogs would play together.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 04
    Fast forward to a few weeks ago, my husband was out with the baby in the driveway and the puppies run over, start getting into the babies face and won't listen when being called to get away.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 05
    The owner doesn't come over to get them just stands in their yard yelling. Our baby starts crying bc they won't get out of it's face, so my husband grabs the dog by the collar and quickly pulls it away causing the collar to come off(it's the kind of collar where you feed it through the square and the tension holds it, no buckle or belt type closure).
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 06
    He gets the dog back to our neighbors house, goes back and hands them the collar while holding the still crying baby. Our neighbor freaks out and starts yelling at him "what did you do to my dog?" No question about if the baby was ok or what happened.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 07
    A few days after we're out back and our neighbor's dad is mowing their lawn(husband is on vacation, wife is home) walks over with and attitude asking why we're mistreating their dog.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 08
    We said we've never and he says they have us on their Ring. We repeat that we never have and try to explain what happened the other day.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 09
    he cuts in "they're not going to hurt the baby" I said "I know that, but my baby doesn't know that!" and he replied "they're just puppies, they don't know better"..."let's keep the dogs in their own yards from now on" We said fine and he walked away.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 10
    I sent a text to our neighbor telling him about the interaction with his dad, the accusations and sorry if our dog has ever been a nuisance in their yard(ours will wander over on occasion but comes back when called and listens if we say "stay" or "leave it").
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 11
    He texts back that no one ever said anything about ab**e and they were upset bc of how forcefully my husband pulled on the collar, they were just puppies and they would never treat our dog that way.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 12
    Their dogs have come over to our yard a few times since but we just ignore them and go inside while they yell from their yard at the dogs to come back.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 13
    Yesterday was the first time ours has wandered over and the husband yelled at us from his porch to come get our dog! They've still never asked if our kid was ok, it's been all about their puppy.
    via MasterpieceThin6337
  • 14
    Cheezburger Image 10525925632
    via Unsplash / Clint McKoy - clintmckoy

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • There was absolutely nothing wrong with what this man did - getting a puppy out of the fact of his one-year-old was, in fact, the only right thing to do. The puppies may have had the best intentions, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't hurt or scare on accident. 

  • 15
    Scouthawkk NTA. Tell them that next time their dogs are out of control, you'll just call local animal control to file a report instead of handling it yourself. ETA: dogs can and do absolutely bite if aggravated by a tiny human who doesn't know any better that is aggravated by the dogs being out of control.
    via Scouthawkk
  • 16
    Scenarioing Despite people who absoutely are convinced otherwise, some dogs even get aggressive without such stimuli and despite being raised well. Training greatly reduces the odds of course. But when the owner can't even recognize their dog being menacing, there is no hope that there is adaquate training to achieve that goal.
    via Scenarioing
  • 17
    Relatents "they're just puppies, they don't know better" And soon they will be adult dogs with no clue how to behave because their owners refuse to do the bare minimum of care to control and train them. NTA
    via Relatents
  • 18
    sparethesympathy also "they're not gonna hurt the baby" yeah until they do, accidentally or because they got riled up or scared or something out of the ordinary.
    via sparethesympathy
  • 19
    Cheezburger Image 10525924352
    via Unsplash / Ayla Verschueren - moob

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • We're not mad at the puppies. We never could be. We're mad at their owners. If they had only trained their pups a little bit better, this whole situation could have gone so much differently. Now, instead of a potential friendship - between the neighboring dogs and the people - there is drama, of course. 

  • 20
    Viva Veracity1906 You need a fence. End of story. NTA
    via Viva_Veracity1906
  • 21
    Scenarioing I had a dog snapping and snaling at me on the verge of lunging and the owner told me the dog won't bother me despite what was happening before his very eyes. Some dog owners have this mentality and your neighbors are among them. These nut jobs letting they dogs be this way are dangerous and child protection is paramount. You are as NTA as it gets.
    via Scenarioing

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dogs neighbors baby drama puppy interesting dog owner parenting story
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