Seriously? :dubious: If I went to the ER every time one of my cats scatched me*, I’d have to take up permanent residence there!
*Accidents – none of them scratch out of aggression, at least not people. Maggie hates being held and will kick and squirm. Luci sometimes bites when she’s playing, but if you give her a toy, she’ll leave you alone.
You have a puppy with no way of communicating other than body language and minimal vocalization, being “constantly pestered” by something that likely outweighs him. He has no protection from this source of pestering. He has likely been giving every hint available to him that he does not appreciate her behavior, and all he had left in his arsenal was a nip- he nipped once, lightly, as all dogs do when they communicate their displeasure with other dogs. Watch a mother dog with her puppies, watch puppies playing with one another; it’s normal behavior.
Your daughter- and by extension, you, because you have been observing the behavior and have done nothing to correct it- has done literally everything wrong in interacting with the puppy. Jumping around, pestering, putting her face into his- all these are extremely threatening to any dog, let alone a small-to-medium-size dog (since she’s been doing this since you brought him home at 8 weeks).
If you have no interest in teaching your daughter manners around the puppy, then yes, rehome him. But do NOT make a big deal out of his bite history when doing so- mention the bite, but also mention the circumstances around it. The puppy doesn’t deserve to be euthanized because of your mistake.
1.Execute the puppy in boiling oil for being vicious.
2.Lock the child in a crate until she is 18 for not understanding animals.
3.Send the parents to a Siberian Gulag until they die for negligence.
4.Burn down the houses on both sides to make sure the lesson is understood.
5.Ignore hysterical internet advice and talk to someone who can accurately judge the situation personally.
I was around 9 or 10 when I was attacked by a neighbour’s German Shepherd dog. Fortunately, the owner was close by and I have wondered if I’d be short an arm if he hadn’t been close by. Fortunately, my bites weren’t that serious due to quick intervention.
No dogs near small children, EVER! Not worth the risk. IMHO.
Nice. Except the OP specifically asked for internet advice, hysterical or otherwise. I do agree that someone needs to evaluate the situation in person.
As did many people in the thread, but let’s not let facts get in the way of his hyperbole.
We’ve taught our daughter how to be with the puppy, and for the most part she is quite good with him. The issue isn’t that she teases him, pulls his tail, annoys him etc., it’s that when she pets him she often cant help herself and starts to get all up in his face, “i just love you soooo much!!”. We are strict with her about getting like that with him, and she listens and seems to understand, but often cant seem to help herself the next time, and the lesson never seems to stick. It doesn’t help that the puppy is never annoyed with her, and usually eggs it on, licking her face once she starts getting close.
He really has never shown any indication of this, never has growled or snapped at any of us, even our older dog who he plays pretty rough with but has not had any aggressive incidents with, even on a dog level.
I think it would be a lot clearer ‘puppy has to go’ if this had happened during one of those puppy play type moments, if he was engaged with her happily then turned and snapped her intentionally. The reason I was asking about it here is wondering what opinions people had on if the scenario- dark room, movie playing, dogs lying on couch and then a sudden run up and face hug triggering a quick snap, was equally a ‘dog’s gotta go’ type situation or if it’s something else.
We’ve been doing weekly training class with him the last couple of months, mainly for destructive chewing and general puppy rambunctiousness, and he got neutered at the shelter a couple days before we got him.
Totally expected and ignored the inevitable parental/dog owner judgement, we are secure enough in our abilities there. We’re not perfect but we know what we’re doing. However dog bite is a new one for us, and before we made any drastic decisions, just wanted to get a sense of what other people thought of the situation.
Perhaps if you had included all this relevant information in your OP instead of inflammatory phrases like “constantly pestering” you might have run into less of that.
This is a huge problem with some dogs as it tells them that they are on the same level as the people. Same with letting them sleep on your bed. Some dogs are fine with this and it’s never a problem but some dogs get a bit big for their britches and need to be demoted. I’ve had dogs that are fine and some that turn into assholes as soon as they’re on the couch or bed.
Once they are demoted, the dominance issues usually go away. I’d keep him off all furniture from now on.
I’m not going to weigh in on the clusterfuck hyperbole of a discussion other than to note that the purpose of “dog” training is as much to train the owners as the dog, and it sounds as if your daughter also needs some training on how to approach dogs and animals in general. Dogs cannot speak, or use their paws to point to something they don’t like, and in general live in a world where they look at humans as kind of a superdog which makes funny noises and can open and close the moveable wall so they can go outside and smell glorious aromas. Sticking your face or hand suddenly into a dog’s face is interpreted as an explicit threat, and dogs (and especially puppies) instinctively respond to such threats with a cautionary nip which would not injury another dog but might break the relatively unprotected skin of a human. I’ll wager that the daughter will be less prone to approaching the dog with such incaution, and careful training of the puppy will teach it to restrain its instincts when handled roughly, which you should be doing anyway so you can trim the dog’s claws and otherwise inspect it when necessary.
Stranger
He sounds like a great dog that was startled in that scenario.
Purchase and read Decoding Your Dog: Explaining Common Dog Behaviors and How to Prevent or Change Unwanted Ones by the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. There is an Audible version as well if you prefer spoken to written.
Stranger
Perhaps, though I don’t really think so. It’s not a bother though. I always call it pestering him when I scold her so I can see how it wrote it as that. I think the initial description was adequate to get relevant opinions, whether it’s teasing or overaffection.
Again I think dogs are great and I see lots of people with little babies (even) and dogs around my neighborhood but our youngest was 6 (and older siblings were charged with caring for it) when we got a dog, and looking back I’m not sure it was a great idea. IOW it’s likewise not a firmly established principal in my mind it’s a great idea to have dogs and little kids. Some respondents probably take it as given it is a great idea, therefore it must be ‘hyperbole’ to suggest the dog go elsewhere if it’s already bitten the little kid. But that seems pretty straightforward to me.
Well-adjusted message boards do not react like this.
This sounds like you probably need to give the dog away. If she “can’t” learn not to behave this way, or you won’t stop her from behaving that way, it’s unfair to either of them to live in the same home, because this could happen again and the outcome might be worse the next time. You’re the parent. You shouldn’t allow her to continue this behavior once it starts - redirect her or physically remove one of them from the room immediately, every time.
I’d say get rid of the daughter, get more dogs. 
But seriously, for those saying that you need to get rid of the dog, do you get rid of the stove when your kid burns her hand on it? Do you get rid of the bike when your kid falls off and skins his knee? Do you not let your kids go outdoors if they are stung by a bee?
The dog was communicating in the only way it could at that point. The fact that it was a fairly light nip that drew little blood means that it had no intention of hurting your daughter, only that it wanted her to learn that what she was doing was unacceptable in the only way it had left.
Now, if yo do not think that you can teach your daughter to respect the dog a bit better, then yeah, you will need to get rid of it, (Just as if you were unable to teach your daughter to not touch the hot stove, you’d need to get rid of the stove.)unfortunately, but it’s young, so you may be able to find it a good home.
So the child “constantly pesters” the dog. This time, the kid “started jumping around, put her face up to his” and the dog nipped her.
In my opinion, the dog let her off easy. Based on your account, he was not trying to hurt her. He was firing a warning shot.
He could have done much more damage if he wanted to.
Consider this a valuable lesson (for you and your daughter, not the dog).
You *should *get rid of him; everyone, including the dog, will be better off.
mmm
Okay, well then it sounds like a one-off thing. Dog was chilling, your daughter probably startled him, especially since the room was dark, and he didn’t know what hit him.
I would ask at your dog-training class, but I think it should be all right. Chalk it up to a lesson and say, “hey, this is why we tell you not to get in his face or be too rough.” If she ever does again, quickly remind her of this. He sounds like a sweetie. Good luck.
When I was ten and my sister was four we got a Westie who was extremely gentle and loving with both of us. And when I was in high school, my best friend’s family had a schnauzer that was the calmest, most mellow, easy-going animal I’ve ever encountered. (Seriously, that dog would let you do to it whatever you wanted, pick it up, drag it around, dance with it, etc.) She had a five-year-old brother.
My anecdotal evidence trumps your anecdotal evidence. :rolleyes:
The part that gets me is that the 4 yr-old repeatedly “can’t help herself.”
Young kids and young dogs can be a challenging mix.