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I have become very wary of dogs. I am a dog lover, as opposed to a cat lover. Grew up with many dogs, Dobermans specifically. They were loving, loyal, totally laid back and extremely well trained family pets (because of my dad). We always had several. My last precious Doberman died of Lupus two years before my daughter was born, and my beloved Great Dane died of spinal cancer 7 months before my daughter was born. We are appropriately cautious but never talk about dogs being aggressive or dangerous; we model waving and discussions about dogs, working dogs and pet dogs, as we live in a city with a huge population of hearing/visually impaired and the home of the schools for blind and for the hearing impaired. We do not pet dogs that we do not know well; that is just our policy but have been nothing but affirming about dogs' lovely nature.

Yesterday, here in Central Texas, a 76 year old woman was on her riding mower (it is 87 degrees here) and was fatally attacked and mauled by 6 pit bull/rottweiler dogs. Her neighbor who attempted intervention was also brutally bitten.

In October my mom visited (they live 1/2 year here and the other 1/2 out west). The morning she departed, we pulled up in front of her house to take her to the airport. She was sitting inside her car, parked inside her garage; her bags were on the driveway. There was a 18 month or so Doberman, ironically, and an adult Pit Bull in her garage running back and forth from each side and barking viciously at her car. (Dobe was barking, PB was not). Long story short, I had to return home, around the corner, get a loaf of bread, and lure them out on the opposite side of my car with food, so she could get into the car and we could leave. Of course, we contacted Animal control from the car. We have not seen them since. My children were in the car; while it was quite frightening, we both remained calm and collected. This is not the first time that a dog has gotten out of his backyard and was loose; it has happened several times, and sadly has resulted in my discontinuation of my walking with babe and babe on tricycle in our development.

Fast forward two weeks, as we exited Starbucks, a dog extended his leash while tethered outside alone while owner was inside and began barking wildly at my daughter. I did not act alarmed and went and sat away from him. When the owner came out, I had a "discussion" with her about it not being appropriate to bring a dog that barks in such a manner to a public place. She was not the least bit apologetic, though that is another issue.

My daughter understands gray areas and does not think concretely; she still wants to wave at dogs from afar and comments about their appearance and friendliness and size, but. . . the minute they walk or get anywhere close to us she freaks out, really freaks out. I do not want her to be afraid of dogs but now think that she should have a healthy apprehension about them. I reassure her that they are not near us/leashed/accompanied by friendly owner. I have explained that those incidents were isolated. Any suggestions?