You know, I’m reminded of the Tim Burton Batman movie when Jack Nicholson is listening to a candidate for district attorney talk about making Gotham City a place for decent people to live. Jack says “Decent people shouldn’t live in Gotham City, they’d be happier somewhere else.” Same thing here, well adjusted people don’t belong on this message board, they’d be happier somewhere else.
Chances are the dog has helped her where she could not help herself. A warning nip probably accomplished exactly what both the dog and parents would have liked to accomplish. That lesson may protect her life if she ever does encounter a dog who is unreasonably aggressive or has a hair trigger prey instinct. This dog isn’t one of them.
Also, maybe for the time being don’t watch TV in the dark. If the lights had been on, the dog might have seen her coming, and had been prepared.
(Another point that having kids with dogs isn’t a problem: Bootis says they already have an older dog.)
This is truth. I had a dog that started biting me and it was only a few months later that it started to murder my neighbors. I thought surely it would settle down after that but it wasn’t too much longer that I heard on the news that a dog had nuked Uruguay. I remember thinking, “Please don’t be Sparkles. Please don’t be Sparkles.” And son of a bitch they showed a picture of my fluffy-wuffykins Sparkles.
If only I had heeded the warnings.
Umm yes they do, where ever do you get such an idea?
This is what normal dogs do to the puppies when they are not minding etc.
And there is a bunch of grumbling warning noises preceding the physical reprimand.
Just so happens puppies have fur and different skin that is a bit better suited to it than human skin is.
Teach the child and there wont be a problem.
The child is 4, perfectly capable of learning.
Get rid of the dog.
I’m hoping that the dog has set a boundary with your daughter that she understands.
No family should own a biting dog, but in this case the dog could have been in the right. It’s great when you find a dog who willing to let your kid use them as a pillow, pull their tails and ears, and ride them like a pony, but it’s unreasonable to expect all dogs to behave that way.
None of us were present when this event occurred. Only you are in the position to evaluate who was in the right/wrong here.
If you have not done so already, please crate train the dog. You can find crates cheaply at resale shops if budgeting is an issue. (Please budget dog bills into your monthy/annual budget too, if you have not done so already. That’s what responsible pet owners do.)
I taught my children that the crate was the dog’s(s) “private apartment” and that no one was allowed to bother the dog(s) when they were in their crate(s).
I taught them that the dog(s) would go to their private apartment when they were feeling bad, had a tummy-ache, were sick, stressed, or anxious, or just wanted to be left alone for some reason.
You will be happier with a crate-trained dog, too. You can tell the dog to “go to bed” (or whatever phrase you prefer) when strangers come into your home which will protect both the dog and the visitors. If you cook for the holidays, a crate-trained dog won’t ge a bunch of 'free snacks" from guests. A crate trained dog is easier (and safer) to transport for things like trips to the vet.
Now, I did have a crated dog bite a kid once.
That kid was kneeling in front of the crate, “barking” and lunging at the crate door. The crate door was open as normal- so the dog could go in whenever she chose. The dog had crated herself to get away from the kid. The dog darted out of the crate and bit the kid because he was harrassing her.
The kid deserved it and the dog was not punished. In this case, it was the kid that needed the crate-training reinforced and not the dog.
This is the decision you have to make.
And in the meantime, please crate-train your dog. It will make all of you happier.
You are very wrong. Normal dogs do this every fucking day. It’s a set-up for the dog to lose: clueless parents, typical young child, normal adolescent dog. Dog can’t protect himself from abuse by child (never noticed by parents) except by a warning bite – and that WAS a warning, not a serious bite – and the warning bite is a death sentence to the dog. This kind of shit enrages me.
I think the behavior problem is your daughter, not the dog. If you’ve warned her “countless times” and she is still doing something then you need to take a good look at your parenting and discipline styles and perhaps make some changes.
You could also go to dog training lessons- and take the kid.
It will make the kid feel “big” and “responsible” and teach both how to behave.
Much of “dog training” is really “people training.”
Bootis already takes the dog to weekly obedience classes, but including the daughter sounds like a good idea.
Except taking a four year old child that (from the description of the o.p.) has obedience problems typical of children her age is probably not a good idea as it will disrupt the class and potentially expose the child to dogs who are not as restrained as to just nip.
Children tend to be rambunctious and don’t comprehend how their actions affect other people, much less animals which have a totally different psychology. The child needs to be taught that it is unsafe to run up to any dog and stick her face in their muzzle, and that the appropriate way to approach any dog whether familiar or strange is to make the dog aware of her presence, extend a hand for the dog to smell and identify, and then interact with the dog in a manner appropriate with its response, e.g. play if it is playful, be calm if it is reserved, let it be if it withdrawals. Whether this dog responded appropriately or not can only be adjudicated by the o.p., but the vast majority of dogs will respond to being startled with the classic defensive behavior of nipping. The o.p. mentions that the dog is a terrier mix, and terriers are in particular noted for being generally nippy dogs, so this may also call for training of the dog or removal from the house if the behavior is found to be uncorrectable, but nothing in the o.p. indicates that this is a pervasive pattern of behavior.
If the girl ran up behind a horse suddenly and the horse kicked out, grazing her, should you put down the horse? If you are going to have regular interactions with an animal, you should know the appropriate ways of interacting with the animal to keep from startling or inducing a reflexive defense response.
Stranger
No, but I would keep the kid out of the stable until they were old enough/well behaved enough to be safe around the animal. This situation is not completely analogous as the living quarters of a horse and a household dog are not the same.
Not that I’m recommending a new home for the dog, necessarily - all I have done in this thread is factually report what my parents did when I got bit. What I am having trouble wrapping my head around, however, is that a bite that draws blood is just a minor nip. If it were just a welt, sure - but blood implies a pretty hard chomp, to me, and the OP did say there was blood.
Puppies tend to have sharper teeth than adult dogs. He probably nipped the skin just a wee bit. Like he said, there was just a little bit of blood, no more than a scratch.
Good lesson learned by all, with no horrible consequences. Kids will be kids, and puppies will be puppies. If he suddenly turns into Kujo tomorrow, I’ll recommend you put him down or rehome him.
Fair point, but the fact remains that the child needs to learn to behave anound stramge dogs and other animals, which includes not surprising them or putting her face up to the dog’s muzzle because this is unlikely to be the only dog she will come into contact with. For the record, as a child I was quite viciously attacked by two of my mother’s pet Cocker Spaniels, generally without provocation and in several instances drawing blood. I still have the scar on my like where one bit completely through, so I am far from just accepting biting behavior as an acceptable norm, and if this were a pervasive, unprovoked behavior it would certainly be recommended to remove the dog and rehome someplace where children are not present. But given the description of the o.p. and without assigning fault, it sounds as if this was an entirely avoidable event if the child had shown any restraint or discipline, and unlikely to be repeated in the near future.
And children have very delicate skin. If that dog wanted to do damage it would have lept out and grabbed onto a ear, limb, or shoulder, or repeatedly bitten the face, which is what dogs do when they aggressively attack. A single nip is classic defensive behavior by an animal that feels threatened or cornered, which is consistent with the story of the o.p. The child needs to learn to behave appropriately around dogs, and the dog needs to be trained out of the puppyish instinct to nip at aggravations or in surprise.
Stranger
My kids are a just a bit older now, 8 and 6. So we’re just a couple of years past that stage and it’s still fresh.
For the OP: Have you really understood the likelihood that dogs can react when provoked? If so, how is it that the daughter is allowed to repeat dangerous behavior? If you lived near a busy street would you shrug off her getting into the street even if cars aren’t there? Or would that be one of your highest priorities in teaching / protecting your children?
Put me squarely in “Keep the dog, explain to kid why the dog did what it did, teach kid to read dog’s warning signs, LESSON LEARNED” camp.
Any animal (and, hell, human!) that’s pestered like that without respite is going to snap. A dog’s not a toy for a 4 year old to poke over.
What was the movie?
<under breath>Please let it be Cujo…please let it be Cujo…or The Grey</under breath>
Stranger