A yellow ribbon around a dog’s collar is to help children identify that you need to proceed with caution. The dog may not be child friendly, may have fear or anxiety issues, or may be overly excited. Either way, caution should be applied when approaching.
via Do You Know What A Yellow Ribbon Tied On A Dog’s Collar Means?.
I was initially insulted by the article, but then quickly realized it is not the fault of the dog people but of the parents that are unable to teach their kids the basics of reality.
Unless you and your kid know the dog well, all dogs are considered to be unfriendly till proven otherwise. And even then, a dog may do some damage if the proper events or stimuli were to happen. My wife was bitten by a dog when she was little and this dog was well known and friendly till one stormy night when it freaked big time because of thunder and lightning. She was distrustful and even fearful of dogs till we got married and one of my dobbies fell in love with her allowing her to once again like dogs. After that and a wee bit of training on my part, she became knowledgeable and fearless of dogs to the point of staring down and cowering my parents’ German shepherd and a Belgian malinois into submission (she does the same to me on a regular basis.)
Teach your kids (and I am talking small children here) not to approach a dog without an adult present and then only with his/her permission. Also teach them the indicators of a dog being normal & friendly versus being fearful and/or aggressive in case the owner is a moron.
There are plenty of resources on the net regarding how to behave and even how to defend yourself against a dog attack. The articles are good and all, but they are a bit shy on actually tell you to go ahead and kill the dog if needed. If you have a weapon, use it. If you don’t have one, crush their larynx, gouge eyes out, bite the nose off and do whatever is necessary to avoid major injury.
You know what a yellow ribbon tied around a dog’s collar means?
It means some human decided to tie a yellow ribbon around the collar. No more, no less.
Trying to use it as a proxy for personal responsibility won’t work.
1. (As you say) Parents need to teach their kids to trust NO dog they do not know already, really well (and have reason to trust).
2. If you ALREADY KNOW your dog is dangerous, you need to keep IT away from places where it can have uncontrolled interactions with other people. Tying a safety flag on it won’t work — dogs are considered an “attractive nuisance” to kids, because KIDS LOVE DOGS. And, being as this is the first I’ve heard of the “Dog Safety Flag”, and I’ve loved dogs my whole life and lived with them most of it, it is only a VERY OBSCURE warning, as if we replaced every single poison label with a simple yellow square (with no labeling or pictures), and expected that to keep kids from drinking the bleach.