Our dog bit my 7 year old in the face

I was bitten in the face by an old sheepdog we had at about 4 yrs old. Frightened the ****e in me but it was my own fault for annoying her. Life lesson...

Keep your child away from dogs eating their food.

Don't put down the dog.

I have a lovely dog right now (half Lab) who is as gentle as they come. But if someone went messing at food he was enjoying who knows?

Don't listen to the urban idiots living in boxes who don't know ANYTHING about dogs...

The Jammy dodger wrote: »

For the mod up above I'm from Dundalk. The dog is a cross between a spaniel and perhaps a collie and he's about 6 year old. He was a rescue dog from a local lady initially given to my dad but I decided I liked him so much we swapped over dogs and certs etc etc.

His behaviours since we have known him this last 5 years? He jumps up on people looking to get petted. All he ever wants is for me to pet him. He's never in all the years we've had him been aggressive with anyone just with other dogs as we pass them on the leash.

I didn't see the incident because I was in the kitchen. Initially I heard my son cry, I rushed to ask him the problem and I suggested that maybe the dog jumped up on him and scratched him with his nail or something but my son said he was looking down on him eating his bone and without warning he lifted his head and bit him real quick. There was no growling, no barking or anything of the sort. We have never given the dog a bone as long as we've owned him and only ever fed him dry food from the bowl. But a few days ago my wife comes home from the shop with a bone of a pigs leg or foot and that's his first time ever owning a bone.

Bones are a really high value treat. Really high value. Long lasting, tasty, meaty bone after all the years he's just had dog nuts. Of course he felt threatened OP, he'd just won the food lottery and he thought your son could possibly take it away, so he reacted in the only way he knew how. He would have reacted to you or any other human or animal that came into his space at that moment in time. You might have noticed him freeze or lip curl, or any number of subtle little movements that DBB mentioned above, but a 7yr old, who had no experience of reading canine body language would have been pretty oblivious to them.



Again, I'm showing my age but I was also taught at an early age not to annoy the dog when he/she was eating. I tell my 3yr old not to annoy the dogs when they're eating and that they have sharp teeth and could get annoyed. So she helps me get their dinner ready, she puts the bowls down and we walk away. Nowadays dogs are expected to be robots and not to react to anything, a lot of people make the mistake of giving out to a dog for growling or showing teeth, basically suppressing the only warning signals they have. So when they bypass those signals, for fear of their human given out to them, all they have left to warn with is their teeth.



OP, I wouldn't be getting the dog put down. I wouldn't rehome the dog either. I'd manage the situation by NEVER giving him a bone again. Or if you want to give him a high value treat, get a crate and all high value treats are to be eaten in the crate, safe for the dog, safe for your son. You could get a behaviourist in for a consult to observe the situation and to assess the dogs behaviour. You could get a plan of action on how to go from here should you wish to keep the dog. Bear in mind that it's not a training plan for the dog - rather a training plan for the humans on how to manage the situation.



^^
The above is just my opinion. I understand that you could be uncomfortable with having the dog around your son given that he has nipped him. You said that it was your fathers dog, could he go back to your father?

ExoPolitic wrote: »

I had a dog that nipped one of my chickens in the same way, the next day it ate two of them...

Dog was swiftly removed from the premises...

Did the dog think the chicken was going to take it's bone?

If not, it's not at all "in the same way" is it?

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

I’d have given it a good lash when it did bite if I witnessed it but that’s all.

You have posted in this forum enough to know that advocating violence towards animals is not tolerated here under any circumstances. Reign it in, thanks

linpoo wrote: »

When i was a child my nanny had a yorkshire and i got snapped at and nipped on the lips a few times. That doesnt mean a dog is agressive or likely to do that again. That dog never did it again and lived to old age.

I them had a jack russel for 14 years and if i went near him when he was eating she would show his teeth and growl or if i put my foot near she would snap it.....doesnt make the dog agressive for protecting her food. This dog was great then with the kids that came along.


There are ways of showing the dog that the kids are top of the pack if you google it you will find the information.....ive done it with my own dog.

Please find the dog a home with adults only if you are insistent on getting rid. A snap is not a putting downable offence imo.

Also the child needs a tetanus shot.

Please, do not tell the OP to google how your kids need to be "top of the pack"
Please, just No!!

we had an incident like this with our jack Russell years ago when our daughtet was young.
she survived and we were willing to accept that it was a flaw in his character that we ,including the kids, were willing to live with and we were always aware that it had a possibility of happening again so avoided situations where it could occur.

it never stopped us loving him and feeling great sadness when he died of heart disease 4 years ago. we talk about him often and remember him with love. our family pet. our choice.