Am I a bad parent??

Dogs In The City

I never really thought about this before, but I'm guessing parents feel responsible for their child's actions.  Like if their child hits another kid on the playground, the parents feel guilty.  If their child says something mean to another child, the parents feels embarrassed.

So how should I feel if my children attack and try to bite another neighborhood child?  If my children didn't have 4 legs, I'm guessing I would get sued.

As I've mentioned before, my two dogs didn't exactly get proper socialization.  Bailey's crucial development was interrupted by the fact that I had to hide her in the Tri-Delta sorority house.  So instead of socializing with other dogs, we hid Bailey in my room for fear of our house mom finding out.  And Buckeye's crucial development took place in basically a retirement community in Florida.  Instead of playing with other dogs, we at dinner at 3 p.m. and were in bed by 6 p.m.

Then we moved to Chicago where every man, woman and child has a dog.  We moved to a dog community, on a dog floor near a dog park.  Within 3 months, I saw big improvements in my dogs, and by the end of our year there, my dogs were almost comatose around other dogs.  It was so nice.

Now...they're back to their devilish selves.  We're in a new apartment, and let's just say they're not exactly adapting well.  Our new neighbor has the cutest little puppy, and when he brought him home for the first time, I just happened to be outside with my little Satan's.  They growled, snipped and snapped at the cute little bundle of fur.  My neighbor told his puppy, "Well, it looks like we won't be making friends with them!"

Yesterday, we ran into them again, and my dogs were just as vicious.  The puppy rolled over on his back, as if saying by his submissive pose, "Okay, I get it...you're in charge!"  While I was rubbing his sweet puppy belly, my dogs were still growling.

What should I do???

To make matters worse, Bailey is acting out towards certain people too.  When a very scary man walked by us who I was just sure was packin' some heat, Bailey growled and growled at him.  I closed my eyes, hoping we wouldn't get shot.  Luckily, the man looked down at all 5 pounds of her and just smiled.  Thank God.

If any dog owners have advice, I'll gladly take it.  Is this just because we're in a new 'hood?