A four-year-old autistic girl panicked and ran onto a busy road after a "red-nosed pitbull" lunged at her.
Emerald Fitzgerald said the dog "went to bite" her daughter Harper, "narrowly missing her ear" before the little girl fled due to her reduced awareness of danger.
The mum was taking her daughter and son, two, out for lunch when the attack happened in Croydon, south London, on Friday afternoon.
Emerald said her son was closer to the dog in his pushchair and as she tried to protect him, Harper instinctively ran, reports MyLondon.
She said: "It was so unexpected....it completely caught me off guard.
"I honestly thought that was the last time I was gonna see my daughter...
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"I'm just thankful it didn't make eye contact with my son as he was closer."
Emerald said is upset the dog owner who has given little in the way of an apology.
She continued: "The lady had no words for me, there's been no apology. I was just frozen and so scared, thinking 'if I move, will the dog attack us again?'"
She added that while such an attack would be difficult for most people to cope with, the fact that her daughter is autistic has made the situation worse.
The family has to walk past the same house where the dog lives every day as changing direction to walk around the block instead would mean a "full-scale breakdown for Harper", who needs routine.
Emerald is now planning to give a police statement over the attack.
Pitbulls are banned in the UK under the Dangerous Dogs Act, although it is not clear what the dog's breed was.
