What would you do? My dog bit my 4yo?

moomin5

Its hard to say without knowing the situation fully.Was the dog resting/sleeping at the time your daughter was stroking it?

I think i'd get the dog checked out to make sure it is in good health. It doesn't sound like dog is actually happy living with young children if it has snapped before, so i'd probably look at rehoming it and wait until your daughter is older before considering a replacement.

Does your daughter respect the dog, does she know to leave it alone when it goes to bed for example? I have neices of a similar age and i have to watch them like a hawk because there not so well trained and try to hug the dogs heads and follow them about wanting to fuss them while the dog wants to escape.

woody01

Topdogfran wrote: »

How many of the 'rehome it or have it PTS' folk can honestly say they have never felt like lashing out at a small child who was annoying them?

Well hopefully, you are not, and never will be a parent.

With that kind iof atitude, i hope you don't even have a goldfish.

nikki702

Not all springers are like this... Mine's not!

I hope you find a solution soon

Kimberley

Topdogfran wrote: »

How many of the 'rehome it or have it PTS' folk can honestly say they have never felt like lashing out at a small child who was annoying them?

Thats ok, just wait until the dog does serious harm like maul her to death people come before animals and I would have dealt with the dog on his/her first bite.

OP you must protect your daughter. Too many times have we heard about dogs killing kids because the owners never dealt with it. Also if you rehome this dog to someone else then there is no guarantee that this dog will not end up with kids in the future.

You need to get advice from the RSPCA or Dog Trust. In my opinion this dog is a danger to people to snap like this.

Topdogfran

woody01 wrote: »

Well hopefully, you are not, and never will be a parent.

With that kind iof atitude, i hope you don't even have a goldfish.

Could you explain?

A dog who bites and just breaks the skin has obviously learnt good 'bite inhibition' and is far less likely to be a risk to a human (child or adult) than one who has never been taught to moderate their bite - just like a human who lashes out.

We ask a lot from our domestic dogs, to learn to live with humans whose communication can be confusing (how many ask their dog to get 'down' off the sofa, and use the same command for lie 'down'), we use threatening body language (a dog does not make eye to eye contact unless it's threatening, but we expect our dogs to look adoringly into our eyes). The surprising thing is that there aren't more incidents like this between species - lets face it, our species can't even keep their hands off other members of the same species, but we expect dogs to restrain themselves 100% of the time.........

BTW for your information, I'm Mum to three boys, with whom I have an excellent relationship (and have always been around dogs, up to three at a time, living as part of my family).

vtmil

Hello, Just a quick message before my internet fails again -

Thanks for all the advice, have been to vets and no underlying medical condition and I now have the number of a dog behaviour person local to me. I think this is a good route to start with even if i end up looking for a new home too.

Thanks again

WolfSong2000

Most dogs are very patient around puppies and put up with a lot from them, but at the same time they do have to teach manners. A snap is almost always preceded by at least one warning growl. Judging from what you said, I don't think your dog intended to cause any deliberate harm to your child - it was just a warning. This suggests (but I could be wrong here) some sort of provocation on the part of the child...did the child wake the dog up suddenly, for example, as this is a common cause.

Dogs can differentiate between adults and children and should alter their behavior accordingly. Okay, so this doesn't always happen, but one of my dogs - a male golden retriever absolutely adores babies of any species (he should have been born a female. lol). He's exceedingly patient with kids, as are all my dogs. If it becomes too much they'll just get up and walk away, but some dogs will growl and snap. Very few will deliberately "bite" with the intention of causing harm.

Plus, 99.9% of the time it's the person's fault not the dogs...most people are rubbish at reading a dog's body language and this can cause a lot of problems. E.g. tail wagging doesn't automatically = friendly dog. It can signal aggression, but how many people know this?

BitterAndTwisted

Very pertinent post there, Wolfsong. Whatever happens to doggie in the future, I would not ever turn my back when the dog and child are in the same room from now on.

terrierlady

springers are active dogs , terriers also but they are ANIMALS , never ever to be trusted with small children no matter how good they appear to be, a child can do some nasty things to dogs and the dog gets the blame but over all your child is the most important here , good luck its not going to be an easy choice

Nicki

WolfSong2000 wrote: »

Plus, 99.9% of the time it's the person's fault not the dogs...most people are rubbish at reading a dog's body language and this can cause a lot of problems. E.g. tail wagging doesn't automatically = friendly dog. It can signal aggression, but how many people know this?

That is however wholly irrelevant when you are talking about a 4 year old child. It matters not a fig whether she "misread the signs" or "provoked" the dog by waking him up. If the dog responds to that by snapping at her, then it is no longer safe to have dog and child in the same house, as the child is too young to behave any differently.

My parents had a dog, who would fly off the handle suddenly and bit both me and my sister repeatedly as children, along with several of our friends. Despite moderate scarring and numerous tetanus shots, my parents did nothing about it, and even now 30 years later I think this was the height of irresponsibility, as whilst the signs of aggression were probably there to be read, the fact remains that my sister and I did nothing other than play in our own house in an age appropriate way. The dog would suddenly fly off the handle with raised voices or sudden movements, such as singing or dancing.

With 2 children of my own, and this experience behind me, I seriously question vtmil's priorities in trying to resolve this situation via an animal behaviourist with child and dog still in the house together. I like animals and wouldn't suggest the dog be euthanised if the bites were not severe, but I would have rehomed him in a safer environment in a heartbeat, and I do wonder why the dog's interests have been given greater weight by vtmil than their own child, who presumably is frightened and in pain on each of the 4 occasions this dog has now bitten her!