So upset and shocked.....my dog bit me

charlies_mum

I had to post to say I know exactly how you feel. My dog is lovely (see my avatar), but he is a rescue dog, and although we have had him for almost 5 years, I don't trust him at all.

Whatever happend in his past has stayed with him, and if he feels cornered or threatened, he will snap. He is instantly sorry afterwards, I wouldn't get rid of him, but definitely don't trust him around children, and all adults are warned not to bend down to stroke him.

I blame our local dogs home for rehoming him, but we love him so much now that we put up with him.

If you are worried about his behaviourwith your daughter, is it possible for her not to be alone with him ? I have a childs stair gate across the entrance to our lounge so that our granddaughter can't get to our dog (and vice versa)

London05

Can we just all remember it is a dog not a human being - it sounds from your post that this dog is unreliable and you know deep down what you have to do.

How many stories in the press do we need to read about dogs attacking and killing children (yes I know people do as well)

I am all for being a dog lover but I have real issues with folks who treat them on the same level as people.

Sorry to all for offending I know some of you out there prefer animals to people.

charlies_mum

I think the problem is that homeworkgirl has the same issue as me, I know my dog is not bad and 99% of the time he is lovely, but through no fault of his own, a human has treated him so badly that he will never forget.

We know what gets a reaction from him, and are careful not to put anyone in danger. I would certainly never leave any dog alone with a child

jay11_2

I have been around dogs all my life and I would not keep a dog that regularly snarled at one of my children, or at any child, unless it had a VERY good reason to do so. You say your 'usual gentle loving labrador', I am sorry, but a genuinely 'gentle loving dog' is like that with everyone, not just selected people. Snarling is a warning sign, the dog is telling you that all is not right, that it may be about to bite, and you really should pay attention to this. What if one of you was bitten on the face and scarred for life?

IMO this dog urgently needs a thorough assessment by an expert behaviourist, if you intend to keep it. A one-off bite, when stressed/afraid, by a dog that is genuinely reliable and gentle, is one thing. This is a different scenario, because your dog has shown aggressive tendencies on previous occasions, it is now a dog whose aggression has led it to bite. It may be OK in future, but it's a heck of a gamble!

ETA, how old is your daughter, it doesn't sound as though she's a young child?

smileitconfusespeople_2

Hello Homeworkgirl , Sorry to hear what has happened , You must be deeply shocked and its hard too scared of your own animal .Id say that yes your dog was petrified What we do around this time is make sure our dog is walked much earlier in the day if need be even bring the evening meal forward we bring her into the living room, she cowers and shakes and acts likes shes hyperventerlating and salavates ears are upright we put a bed infront of a rad or the fire (when we have it on ) and get a blanket and make a den as animals like to feel cozy, in the past shes opened the wadrobe and got inside and even tried to get behind our toilet cistern and even behind the tv actually knocking our old one over and smashing it ,. ? Shes fine with other every day loud noises I have heard that some people get their animals sedated or get pills from the vets i came across a article about wrappng your dog up like a baby and a thing you can buy that goes over the head around chest and over the back im so sorry i cant remember the name thou ..sorry ..As to regards to trusting your dog with your child that is a very difficult choice.I a four year old and a 15 year old ..shes a rescued dog too weve had her for about 12 years .. and i hope that whatever you decide it will be for the good ...i hope this helps lets hope for a quite night for all animals that dont ...LIKE FIREWORKS ....hTH

foreign_correspondent

Personally, I would not get rid of the dog, although I think your families safety must be paramount, I think you under-estimated how terrified he was - dogs and fireworks are weird, mine is not one bit bothered, but I met a dog the other day who is usually very laid back (lives in a pub, meets hundreds of people) who was terrified, and as a result was pacing around looking suspiciously at people - I almost wondered if he felt we might be responsible for the scary noise! (which incidentally I could not even hear indoors).

We used to have a dog (years ago) who was terrified of fireworks and cowered and shook under the table at every bang or rumble - she was a nice dog and normally placid, but you could tell she was fearing for her life, even though there was no danger, she perceived that she was in geat risk (dogs do not understand the cause of the noise, obviously!) and may well have snapped if made even more fearful by my actions.

I think Raksha gave some excellent advice earlier in the post (I may be wrong, but I believe she is a dog trainer?) and I would also look at getting your daughter more actively involved in positively training him to build up the relationship between them (giving treats and rewards when he does what she wants him to, even practicing with the basics like sit, lie down etc)

Someone said that they do not trust their dog so would never leave him unattended with children - I would say this goes for any dog, as both dogs and children are, by their very nature, unpredicatable and likely to do things which can be misinterpreted by each other! (though I believe your daughter is a teenager)

MrsTinks

I don't think this dog needs to be put down, what he needs is a home that knows what they are doing. You say in your first post this is your first dog - let's face it - a dog with a fobia if NOT suitable for you because you don't know how to react or how HE will react when faced with it. This isn't because you're a bad person - you're just an inexperienced dog owner
We all have to learn but I do think you've bitten off more than you can chew here. You have a dog with what sounds to me like dominance issues anyway and add to that a severe phobia.
This has resulted in you now being scared of the dog and that fear will be passed on to your daughter which will increase the chances of the dog biting her. Will it launch an unprovoked attack when you are out? Doubt it... dogs just don't think like that. Even the attack on you wasn't in HIS mind unprovoked. He clearly tried to tell you he was scared stiff and you realised that but the action you took escalated the situation instead of reducing it.

Rehome the dog but please make sure you do it responcibly. Bear in mind that many rescues will refuse to rehome a dog that has bitten no matter why. That means he'll be put down. Try to find a rescue that has a no destruction policy and be 100% honest with them about what happened. That way they can place him with a home with lots of experience and maybe no younger kids...

And foreign correspodent has a very good point - NEVER EVER trust any dog to be alone or unsupervised with children. Ok teenagers when they get to say the size of an adult I would probably feel fine with depending on the maturity of the child, but no younger children. Even my dog that I DO trust I'd never dream of leaving unattended with children!

I think the problem now is more than just the reaction to fireworks or even growling at your daughter... the issue really is that you don't trust your dog and you fear it... that to me means unless you can change your mindset then you would be safer to rehome the dog and get something that has less issues... And always go to dog training classes. If your daughter is seen by the dog as lowest ranking then it will challenge her to try and take her place in the pack - good and regular training can help establish her place in the dogs eyes so long as she is willing to put the work in.

continualdiamond

Personally i wouldn't get rid of the dog. I agree with the people about that it must of been so scared and reacted in a way it normally wouldn't.

To me a perfectly reasonable explanation is behind its actions, unlike my OH's family pet who jumped on the sofa on evening and bit my OH's dad on the face and that dog was a springer spaniel.

Now that springer spaniel was a troubled dog, he'd been trained as a gun dog, but didn't cut it so was put up for sale and my OH got him (OH was a kid at this point). The dog was sooo scared they had to put quilt covers down on the lounge room floor and approach him slowly, otherwise it would wee everywhere.

No matter what tone of voice you used with him he'd cower, you'd take him for a walk and he'd walk by your side, you stop, he'd stop. He wouldn't leave your side, throw him a ball and encourage him to play and he wouldn't.

He was 10mths old when my OH got him and look at the amount of damage was caused to him, fear put into him because he wasn't a good enough gun dog.

It took my OH and his parents 12mths to turn him into a family pet, but that damage he sustained in the 1st 10mths of his life never went away.

He'd come to you and want to be pat, you'd pat him and he'd growl at the same time, stop patting him and he'd nudge you to pat him again.

Basically the vet summed it up really well, he was one really confused dog and no matter how much they could try you'd never get away from the mis-treatment he suffered so early on.

He was a lovely dog, it sounds strange, but he was lovely, loved playing with toys, learn't to fetch. They did loads of work with him.

Then just for no reason at the age of 7 just jumps up on the sofa and my OH's dad tells him to get down and he bit him, really bad on the face.

Ok, so i know this is a long post, but basically just wanted to show the difference between what to me seems a logical explanation for biting you and why my OH's dog did what he did.

Needless to say my OH's parents got the dog put down and it was horrible cos we had to go round and pick the dog up for them, they couldn't do it and Jimmy (dog) was so happy to see us and was the dog we'd always seen, happy Jimmy.

But they just couldn't take the chance, his poor background had caught up with him.

Never the less that didn't put me off getting my own springer spaniel, he's 2 and we've had him since he was a puppy. But the 1st thing we did was take him to dog training and we both took it in turns to train him so he got used to working with both of us.

Best thing we ever did, he respects both of us and is a fantastic dog.

Raksha

I wonder if a lot of the dogs problems with 'defying' the daughter aren't based on this misplaced 'dominance' theory.......... Which is precisely why it is dangerous to have the 'I must be pack leader' mentality.......

suki1964

London05 wrote: »

Having said all this you cannot ever allow a dog to defy any member of the household they must be bottom of the pack at all times.

Which "Pack" would this be? Im sure the Op only mentioned having the ONE dog and last I understood, one dog didn't make a pack.

A dog can not be part of a human "pack" - different species and all that - canine -Homo sapiens - you even start your post by acknowledging this