So after all the talk on the recent thread about someone's son being bit by a neighbor's dog... here is my recent experience. I have 4 dogs, all under 6 months old, different litters. I have a 5 ft chain link fence, and a fence inside the fence for the driveway area... or to move the dogs if guests want to sit on the patio, etc.
Neighbor's tiny son was talking to my child through the fence. Neighbor came out and said he will give his son permission to come inside our fence and play with all of our dogs. Um, no. I declined, because as young and excitable as the dogs are, the big one is already 60 lbs, they would at the very least knock the tiny boy down. We were polite about it, but we told them, "Maybe later on." We also have never met this particular neighbor before.
My husband at first didn't really see a problem, but I shared with him the recent conversation on here, and he was quickly on board. All I can do is let someone know not to come in the fence, and do my part in training my dogs. They are extremely friendly, but they are dogs, and dogs are not always predictable. People are all happy at the thought of their child playing around dogs until their tiny child gets injured with a happy dog's teeth bumping him, or a dog confused of why someone is coming into the fence gets defensive. Ugh... either way, turned them away from coming in.
Reasonable, unreasonable??