Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans. Happy Thursday to everyone else. Now onto the post. I (26f) am currently getting passive aggressive remarks from my aunt (48f) and sad remarks from my 2 younger cousins (12f and 10f) because I have my 1 year old lab/malinois mix kenneled out on the property instead of having him at the house. The kennel is a 10x20ft, indoor/outdoor hunting kennel that is temp controlled and has camera inside for me to check on him.
As is said above he is a 1 year old lab/malinois mix who is currently entering his teenage phase. He isn’t dangerous in an aggressive sense but he does play way to rough for him to safely play with my cousins. They are the other reason why he is currently kenneled. My aunt never taught them proper manners around dogs. They think that they are entitled to pet, play with, etc any dog they come across. It’s even worse with family dogs. I’ve had to intervene so many times to keep them from getting bit.
When they got here about 2 hours ago, the girls immediately headed for my service dog before I redirected him to his place mat (which I have finally gotten into their heads means to not touch him). Once that plan was thwarted the girls started telling me to bring Octavian(lab/malinois) out for them to play with. I told them that because I couldn’t watch them play to make sure everyone was playing nicely/not being mean, I kenneled Octavian in his hunting kennel.
My aunt sent the girls outside to play baseball and rounded on me asking exactly what I meant by watching them play and if Octavian was dangerous now. So I told her exactly what I said above. Octavian is in his teenage phase and pushing boundaries when it comes to play. The girls don’t know how to read dog body language and don’t have good manners around dogs. I’m not having this Thanksgiving end in an ER visit and a sheriff report because something happened.
My aunt didn’t say anything directly to me after that but ever since she has been making remarks to the girl like "Geneticlydemonic doesn’t think y’all know how to play with dogs so she’s not letting y’all be around either dog". My mom says that I should have just said Octavian was being naughty and left it at that but I don’t think I said/did anything wrong. I have also explained to the girls what I meant in a nicer way (explaining to them that Octavian is extra wigglely lately and keeps testing the line) without blaming them because they are still young kids but they keep trying to give me reasons why I should just let them for a minute. AITA?
My puppy tax for both dogs [Levi and Octavian ](https://www.reddit.com/u/Genetically_Demonic/s/PVwkxPf2sr)
Bless you for sharing the puppies in photo form where we can safely enjoy them without causing any issues. 🙂
NTA.. your aunt needs to teach her kids not to harass other people’s dogs, especially a high drive breed mix, and you’re protecting everyone, including your dog.
>she has been making remarks to the girl like “Geneticlydemonic doesn’t think y’all know how to play with dogs so she’s not letting y’all be around either dog”
That’s pretty much the long and short of it, no?
The aunt can take that knowledge and work productively to change her kid’s behavior or can stay in a twist about it. Either way sounds like you did what a responsible dog owner would do in a similar circumstance.
And I would have replied to aunt/cousins:
“Yes that’s correct, your mother failed to teach you manners.”
Don’t start none, won’t be none, aunt.