What Todo About Dog Bite!

I've seen rotten kids and good dogs, and I've seen rotten dogs and good kids. If either side can't be gentle and play nice together, they need to be kept separated and there always needs to be very close supervision. I think putting the dog to sleep might be pretty drastic. Maybe Grandma can put a gate on her kitchen door and keep the dog in the kitchen and the grandchild out of the kitchen while she's babysitting.

My sweet, but nervous dog bit me in the face when I leaned in to kiss her goodnight on Christmas eve when I was 14. She was protecting a wrapped box of chocolates. My parents let it go... The dog bit my sister's friend's kid years later. She had to be put down...

A nip and a bite are different. My dog bit me so hard that she almost (within an 1/2 inch) almost bit my eyeball! A nip is basically harmless. It really depends. If it was just a nip, I'd just keep the doggie away from the girl while in her care. 4 year olds aren't known for their grace with animals.

Well it sounds like a problem with the dog. I agree with the sister, once a dog starts biting that is a point where I think either the dog can't be exposed to other people. As to putting the dog down how bad was the bite? Is the dog aggressive to other people? It sounds like there is more going on here than you said. Putting the dog down is a last resort.

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well, it depends on a couple of things. dog people tend to downplay a bite as a 'nip', and non-dog people can turn a warning snap into 'snarl and attack.'
if the child had to go to urgent care, it sounds like it may have been more than a nip.
the urgent care people are required to report this kind of thing.
i don't think your sister is evil to be upset and want her child to be safe. but it's also very likely that a busy 4 year old got in the dog's face and inadvertently cause the problem.
i think it's very important that your sister be made to feel that the family understands her concerns and isn't 'on the dog's side', ie minimalizing what happened to the child. she'll be less likely to be so adamant about the dog's fate if she feels heard and sympathized with.
then maybe you can come to some sort of compromise, where your mom makes sure the dog is always secured away from the child when she's visiting, and maybe once things settle down they can be reintroduced to each other under carefully supervised circumstances.
yes, dog people, it's almost certainly not the dog's fault. but moms are understandably upset when their children are injured, and the difference between a bite and a nip is often a matter of perception.
khairete
S.

My mom had chihuahua that bit three different people - my Bro in law in the face twice, and put a hole in his lip. Snapped at my DD too , told her I wasnt comming back for a while.
People with dogs seem to care more about the damn dog that about the people they bite. NO ONE should ever have to tell someone they wont come back because of a dog. Your mom should have been FIRST to step up and say this is unnaceptable, to promise that the dog is CHAINED outside before she knows guests even show up at the door. Period. You cant trust animals when they show they are untrustworthy...now all bets are off. Your SIS was probably very hurt that the mom didnt feel as protective as she would hope a grandma would feel and offer to get the dog out of the picture in some way.

I thought labs were supposed to be THE perfect family friendly dog??? Everyone who owns one brags about how they are so loving and protective of their families, especially the children. So I wonder what details are missing....

I have had my own personal dog around children opinion completely reversed several years ago. My entire life, whenever I heard of a dog just nipping at a child, in the back of my mind I always thought for sure the child did something to provoke the animal. Kids are just that way naturally with their erratic physical behavior, it wouldn't take much to set off a skittish dog.

Well, we had a mixed breed rescue dog, PAWS lied to us about the age to make him more adoptable. We were camping with my family, I was laying down, having my pregnant afternoon rest, dog at the foot of the bed, when my niece walked in and did not know I was there, she gently and quietly came up along the side of the dog and placed her little hand on his back, between the shoulder blades. Nothing alarming. The dog turned on her and attacked her. And when he didn't get a good bite the first time, he went after her again. I can't even imagine what the outcome would have been had I not been right there watching. She was less than 1/8th of an inch away from losing her eye. We put that aggressive dog down and I've been pissed at PAWS ever since.

So without knowing the complete history...was this an isolated event? Or is it a pattern? How attached is your mom to the dog? How old is the dog? Does your sister blow things out of proportion a lot? Or seldom? Was your sister just waiting for an opportunity to set a boundary with your mom over the dog? Can a more common sense approach be taken, like kenneling the dog when kids are around? Or would mom do it her own way when the adults left? Seems like there is a lack of trust between the two already, and this just set it off.

I cant' tell you how many times I've heard, but the dog doesn't bite... it's so sweet..... and then someone gets bitten. I have known THREE different people who were bitten by dogs that apparently never bite...
My concern would be more for the child who was bitten than the dog being so sweet.... While perhaps putting it to sleep isn't the answer, I also don't think subjecting the child to the possibility of another dog bite is an option..
How about putting the dog in another room while the child is visiting or have grandma come over to your sister's house. Truly, if my child was bitten , I too would not want it near the dog again. why chance it..

My mother kept my son, also. When he was about 1 yr old, her dog nipped him on the face- right between the eyes. It happened right in front of me and happened so fast, I didn't have a chance to react. I kept trying to turn the dog outside, but my brother kept turning him back in the house. Basically, my son just fell on the floor near the dog (didn't even touch him), and dog turned around and nipped him. I was furious, not because of the bite, but mainly because my family was making excuses for the DOG! "Oh, he was just scared", "Oh, he is just excited with the family around", etc... Then they got mad at me for being angry. My husband was so angry, we almost left the dinner. All our Christmas pics from that year have this nasty bite mark on his head. There is still a shiny looking scar there and he is now 4 years old.
However, to answer your questions- no it doesn't have to be like this. I didn't consider anything drastic like putting the dog down. Maybe if your mother talks to your sister, and makes her feel reassured that she will take every precaution to make sure this doesn't happen again, then maybe she will be less furious. Another option would be to put your niece in daycare. Perhaps that should be offered as a solution- I considered it until my mom agreed to get her dog neutered. She also assured me that the dog won't be in the house when she was keeping my son. Since then, the dog has been much more mellow and they get along fine now.
Just give your sister some time to simmer down, and she will be ok.
Hope this helps!

My dog bit me this past summer and yes they reported my dog as well-by law they are required to. What happened was I put him outside on his link and somehow he got tied down pretty well-was in a lot of pain. Well I knew I shouldn't had but I had no choice in order to get him loose. When I reached he clamped down on my wrist but quickly let go. It was an automatic response to pain and you don't touch a dog in pain so I knew better but felt I had no other choice.
What happened was the urgent care place made a report to the County Animal Shelter. A few days later someone came to my home to verify the incident. I was lucky because she said they will usually quarintine the dog for 24-48 hours. Here in Georgia it can either be done at your vet or the Animal Control Facility and oh yeah they charge you for it per day. Anyways I lucked out and had a really sweet lady that ended up saying that she wasn't going to do that to him/us. Then a few weeks later she stopped by and said she needed to take a look at the dog. As soon as she saw his temperment uh um his Hyperness she took one look and said Oh he is fine case closed. There was no mention of "putting the dog down". I think that is a little premature at this point. I do think that the dog and child need to be seperated and supervised at ALL times-no exceptions. My dog trainer said because the type of dog we have by nature they tend to be "snappy" because I have children he said anytime I cannot be there to supervise the children/dog put him in his crate. If I go to check the mail-in his crate, laundry-in his crate, fixing lunch/dinner-in his crate if my attention cannot be on them. The dog has never bit my children and I don't "think" he ever would but even though I think it doesn't mean it can't or won't ever happen. That way you prevent it from happening by always supervising. Especially now that the dog has released this "warning sign" to show he/she has had enough of the child -supervision is a major key here. The child ALSO needs to be taught the proper way to treat a dog-so many times the dog ends up getting the grunt of everything and really the dog has put up with a child constantly picking on them. Imagine if your child came up to you and pulled your ears, tail, etc. over and over and nothing was ever done about it-would you not take matters into your own hands? That is basically what the dog is saying if he/she could talk. It really isn't the dogs fault-its human error.

ANY dog, no matter how even tempered, will nip or bite if PROVOKED. 4-year olds are not always gentle with pets and sometimes an otherwise mellow dog will get annoyed and react. Your sister, understandably, wants to protect her child. However, the "all or nothing" solution she has come up with (get rid of the dog or g'ma can't see baby) seems a little extreme! Why can't the dog be gated or somehow confined to a separate space when the little one is over? Is the child now AFRAID to go see grandma, or is the fear coming from his mom? I think if she still wants the child care your mom is providing, sister will have to come up with a better solution than what she has already proposed, or else find someone else to watch the child in a dog-free environment. Asking Mom to get rid of her dog just doesn't seem fair, and holding it over her head is just plain wrong, IMO.

Wow,
First off it typically takes more than one bite from a dog before a judge will order it put down let alone a nip. What your sister does with her children is unfortunately up to her otherwise I'd tell her to stop overreacting. I would either recommend your mom put her foot down and say no or find a loving home to take the animal. Putting the dog to sleep for this seems like a destructive approach, not only for the dog, but for your niece as she might blame herself for the dog getting killed.

Chances are if the dog bit her, she was probably being rough with the dog. Any animal, even well behaved ones have a limit if they feel they are being threatened. What a horrible thing for your sister to do!!! She sounds like she was and still is a spoiled brat. What a possition to put your mom in. What about a comprimise. That when your neice is there, the dog will be out side or in a pin, away from the little girl?

It is hard to say what one would feel when their babies have been nipped or bitten. It could be Urgent Care who has helped your sister arrive at this decision. They see a lot of bites and probably feel zero tolerance to a nip or bite.

I have to admit, if a dog bit my little girl, I would be really upset and probably would not chance the combination.

A little more info is needed for me to make my mind up about this and give my honest opinion. How bad were her injuries and what was she doing when the dog "nipped" her because a nip to me is a bite that is not hard enough to break the skin just to warn the person to leave the dog a lone and would not even warrant a trip to the ER.

Was your niece seriously injured? Did she require stitches? I have a calm and easy going small dog that growled and nipped at my granddaughter when she was crawling on the floor and reached for the dog's bone. The problem was my letting both the dog with his bone and the baby on the floor at the same time. It was not the dog's fault. The nip didn't draw blood but even if it had I"d not expect to put the dog down. It was not the dog's fault!

What I did after that was supervise more closely. As long as food or a bone was not in the same room the two got along really well. My dog was patient and allowed all sorts of behavior, even when my granddaughter was a bit rough.

If your mother's dog is vicious and has a history of biting then putting her down would be a reasonable consideration. But, even then, I"d take the dog to a vet for evaluation first. Often the dog just needs to be trained and it's needs met, such as getting more exercise.

Based on your description I suggest that keeping the dog and niece separated would be sufficient. I'm sure your mother is just as upset as your sister. So much depends on what was happening at the time of the nip. I could see the dog giving a nip in play. Again, how serious was the nip?

One minor bite from a nervous, but otherwise normally good dog, does NOT warrant the dog being put to sleep. Dogs that get put to sleep because of a bite are dogs who are severely aggressive and who have had multiple incidents. Nervous dogs can be scared and made uncomfortable very easily, especially by a 4 year old's rambunctious behavior. I'm not condoning the biting of course. The fact that the dog bit her does warrant more supervision of the dog and protection of children while at Grandma's house. It could be a one time incident and never happen again, or the dog could continue to be uncomfortable with children. I think the best solution for the time being is to work out a compromise, as other posters have said, like separating the dog and child with a gate, kennel, separate rooms, etc. Or to have Grandma go to their house to watch her granddaughter. All of those are realistic and easy solutions to keep the child away from the dog.

Also, I'd like to add that just because the bite required a trip to Urgent Care does not mean it was that serious of a bite, as other posters are stating. Animal bites are dirty and can cause infection very quickly. I would have seen a doctor if a bite broke the skin at all, even just a small puncture. I know first hand as I went to Urgent Care for a cat bite after getting bit while force-feeding a cat his medication, it was the smallest bite and you could barely even see the hole. However, I know the risk of infection with animal bites, especially puncture wounds, so I headed to Urgent Care for some antibiotics.

Anyway, I understand your sister's concerns as she wants to protect her daughter, however I think she is overreacting and is wrong for giving your mom those two very extreme choices with no alternatives. The best thing at this point is to work on a compromise like I stated earlier. Good luck!

Any dog (big or small, mean or sweet) can bite of not properly supervised. And to a small child even a chihuahua's bit can become dangerous.

Personally I would probably not euthanize the dog at this point, especially since your mom does not have small children living in her houshold. BUT from now on I would keep the dog crated ANYTIME a child is present and muzzled for outings where kids could be around. Labs are large dogs, they can cause serious injury and now that the dog has been reported, it will be impossible to rehome him. Also, since there has been an incindent you mom can now face charges for criminal negligence if he ever harms someone else. It's a liability issue.

I can understand that you sister does not want her daughter around the dog anymore. If the bite was serious enough to require a trip to urgent care, it sounds like more than a "nip".

I am sorry, but I don't thing there is much room for tolerance when something like this happens. I hope your family finds an arrangement that works for all involved.

Good luck.

Not sure the dog needs to put to sleep. Can grandma go to the daughter's house to watch the grandchild? Can grandma find a home for the dog where it won't be around children? If the bite requited a trip to urgent care, then it was more than a nip. What were the circumstances when she was bitten? I have seen some kids be pretty rough with dogs, but I would hope the dog would go to another room to get away from the child. Was grandma watching to see if the child was being rough? My dad was bit by a dog, unprovoked and they said it was a sweet dog and they still kept it. Then they had a baby and it started growling at the baby and they couldn't trust it anymore. I was bit by our family dog and needed stitches. I startled her when she was sleeping. My parents asked me if I wanted her put down and I said no. She had never harmed anyone before or after that, it was a kind of freak thing. I hope they can find a good solution.

I think the response is extreme. Maybe the 4 yr old did something to provoke the dog. Has the dog bit before, etc. Can mom keep the dog outside or away from the child while she is babysitting? I think the put the dog to sleep or not see the child is extreme and immature. I'm sure this situation could be worked out with some open mindedness and clear communication...
Good luck.

My mom's dog is a 10lb pom and boy, that dog is aggressive. It nips at my kids all the time. Lesson: My kids cannot really interact with the dog, except at a distance. The dog is my mom's baby, albeit, a PITA. But still, I would never dream of issuing an ultimatum. So tell your sister she needs to make sure the child learns to not interact with doggy up close. My kids are basically the same age, so that can be taught. E.g., children are taught to not touch a hot stove, hot pan, hot oven door when it is open, etc. Also, most kids are aggressive with pets in stance, speech, etc., so a nervous pet will nip.
Secondly, there are things called gates to separate the child from the pet. They work! Tell your sister to buy a gate for mom's house so mom can watch her daughter. Also, they have muzzles for doggy to wear short term. Your sister can purchase one of those too.

BTW: Making a report on a family pet?? Couldn't this matter be handled without making that report on your mom's pet? Many dogs are nervous around kids. We have tools to deal with it other than death.

Your sis is over-reacting, probably. Depending on the child and the dog, I would guess that the child doesn't know when the dog has too much. Tell Mom to put the dog in another room when the child is there to be safe. Then your sis AND mom need to teach her how to act/be gentle with the dogs.

I think there are other solutions instead of putting the dog down. It can be kenneled when she's there... Or your sister can find (and pay for) other childcare. And I think this is a great opportunity for your neice to be taught how to interact with dogs; at 4 years, she is old enough to learn what actions can and can't be done around a dog.

My dog comes first!!LOL I have the sweetest dog you will ever meet. She loves everyone and anyone. That being said she has always been supervised around any children that come into my home. Young children are never allowed alone with her. When your niece is over at your mom's house put up a gate and keep them apart. My dog nipped my father when he was visiting over the summer. She just was very excited to see him. She gets a little hyper sometimes. Am I going to put her to sleep? No way!!!

all labs are nervous around babies can she keep the dog outside while the baby is there? or in a pen?

If your mom thinks the dog could be aggressive, she can have the dog evaluated to see if it's aggressive. I realize your niece is only 4, but maybe she did something to hurt the dog and the nip was a warning.
It sounds like your sister is over reacting to the situation. Tell your mom to stand her ground and your sister will come back around when she gets over herself.