Dog biting child: What to do?

[Anonymous]

I'm having a hard time believing the premise of this thread. What parent has to stop and consider what to do with a dog that bit their child?

If it is real, get rid of the dog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. If my kid kept pestering the dog after I told it not to, that kid wouldn't sit comfortably for a day or two....your child has no boundaries. The dog growls and snaps as a way of warning. You ignore the warning and child is bitten. The dog more than likely felt as if it had to enforce boundaries since you wouldn't.
Why should the dog obey when your kid can't?

And then you'd have a child who is traumatized, and does what traumatized kids do which is poke at the thing that led to the trauma to try and get mastery, which leads to them getting bitten again, which is a CPS call if someone finds out (it's neglect to have your child with an animal who has bitten the child before), so the dog is removed and killed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We adopted a dog several months ago and our family adores him. However, our youngest child seems to adore him more than he wants. We've tried working with the child on the way the child touches him and we've tried working with him on his response to the child (he growls and snaps). This morning, when our child was pulling at his bone, he lashed out and bit the child. We don't know what to do. We're very concerned that the biting is going to worsen and that it could be much worse next time, but we don't want to over-react and give him up without thinking it through. It doesn't seem that the tension between the two of them is going to work out, though. Tonight, we caught our child doing exactly the same thing to him.

Thoughts? What do we do? And, if the answer is that we need to give the dog up, how do we explain this to the rest of the family?

Get rid of the dog. The explanation is self-evident.

One of two things is likely to continue in the manner you're going: 1) Your child is going to end up seriously injured. 2) Your child may not be seriously injured but will be scarred for life by an incident and develop a serious phobia of dogs.

The dog has to go. Be sure to tell the shelter about his temperament, too.

[Anonymous]

No, you have a kid who got spanked. The kid knows better than to repeat the thing that got it spanked, so they quit tormenting the dog. Worked for my kids. I've taught two generations of kids to respect the dogs, and since my dogs weren't constantly tormented, the dogs respected the kids as well.

What makes spanking not work for you is the amount of waffling and general mental anguish you put into it. It doesn't need analysis, you spank. Then it's over. Certainly you don't then apologize to your kid and tell them how bad you feel.

[Anonymous]

What are you waiting for? The dog goes. Now. Why would you even be asking us instead of taking him out of the house today.

[Anonymous]

Are you really trying to send the message to your child that a dog and his feelings are more important than your child's safety?

I made this mistake and was SECONDS away from it turning horribly wrong. I won't go into details because it is painful to recount, but suffice it to say that the kids come first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, you have a kid who got spanked. The kid knows better than to repeat the thing that got it spanked, so they quit tormenting the dog. Worked for my kids. I've taught two generations of kids to respect the dogs, and since my dogs weren't constantly tormented, the dogs respected the kids as well.

What makes spanking not work for you is the amount of waffling and general mental anguish you put into it. It doesn't need analysis, you spank. Then it's over. Certainly you don't then apologize to your kid and tell them how bad you feel.

If you hit your child hard enough that they can feel it the next day it's not a "spanking" it's abuse.

I don't have an issue with spanking, although it scares me when people assume that a spanking will guarantee their child won't do something unsafe. It doesn't come with a guarantee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We adopted a dog several months ago and our family adores him. However, our youngest child seems to adore him more than he wants. We've tried working with the child on the way the child touches him and we've tried working with him on his response to the child (he growls and snaps). This morning, when our child was pulling at his bone, he lashed out and bit the child. We don't know what to do. We're very concerned that the biting is going to worsen and that it could be much worse next time, but we don't want to over-react and give him up without thinking it through. It doesn't seem that the tension between the two of them is going to work out, though. Tonight, we caught our child doing exactly the same thing to him.

Thoughts? What do we do? And, if the answer is that we need to give the dog up, how do we explain this to the rest of the family?

Another case of DCUMD idiots being reactionary without understanding the problem. Geez.

I used to train dogs for the police. Based on your post - ANY new adult dog will tend to bite in those situations. Your kid was doing things that a dog sees as challenging him and threatening him. Learn what those things are - and don't to them unless/until the dog imprints that your child is "above" the dog. Without training your pet, he doesn't know what's going on - so he is just being instinctual. Get a trainer - and it may save your pet and family from unnecessary grief.


While you look for a trainer (it won't take that long nor be that expensive so don't worry) here's what is possibly happening in your dog's mind vis a vis your child's actions:

1) don't touch the dog's food when he's eating it - it's a challenge in the animal world - and if your kid is seen by the dog as alpha - the dog will defending it's ability to feed himself. That's how dogs do it with each other. My suggestion is let the dog see your son fill his bowl. Have your son give a command to make the dog sit and wait for 30 seconds. Have your son say "ok" and let the dog eat. It's a great way to quickly imprint alpha on your son. It literally teaches the dog literally to not bite the hand that feeds him. Over time - the dog will learn "that kid is the reason I get fed. If I bite him, I won't get fed."
2) don't play tug of war and lose - it gives the dog a sense that he's equal or better than you.
3) don't lie down with the dog; nor let him up on furniture that you also sit on - again it literally makes him believe he's on the same level as you.

If you train your dog - simple commands of sit/stay/down/heel - are all things that 1) allow you to control the dog....but MORE IMPORTANTLY - 1) it imprints "alpha" in the trainer; and 2) starts to build a bond b/t owner and dog and you learn to trust each other (as the trust builds, depending on the breed of the dog - he will seem smarter and smarter - b/c he's now trying to please you) and 3) teaches all of you consistency.


Good luck - it's not a hard problem to solve, if you're willing.

[Anonymous]

Nobody has asked some basic questions: how big is the dog? How old is he? Did he bite hard or just nipped? How is he around your other kids? Has he shown any other aggressive behavior? How old is your child? Does he pester the dog constantly? Is food always involved when the dog reacts badly?
Come on people.... Before you kick the dog out to the curb we need more details! There is a difference between a toy poodle pup and a 7 year old great dane. Or a one year old and a four year old child.

[Anonymous]

Get rid of the dog, fast. Before he tears your kid apart. I'm not kidding. Pure luck it didn't happen yet. Your kid is just an inferior member of the pack at best now, or a temporarily tolerated intruder, either way, this will not go well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. If my kid kept pestering the dog after I told it not to, that kid wouldn't sit comfortably for a day or two....your child has no boundaries. The dog growls and snaps as a way of warning. You ignore the warning and child is bitten. The dog more than likely felt as if it had to enforce boundaries since you wouldn't.
Why should the dog obey when your kid can't?

This. And obviously your kid was not phased by the so called bite because he was back messing with the dog right after. Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Own of dogs and parent of children. I'm so tired of people kicking pets to the curb instead of teaching children how to behave around them. It's unfair to both the pets who need to be regimes and the children who grow up with pet phobias. TEACH YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR PETS. Stop being lazy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, why is your child allowed to mess with the dog like this? I don't know that I could keep a dog that bit my child, but let me get this straight: you have a dog who has shown some signs of aggression, and you left your little child with him alone while the dog had a damn bone? Say what now? Having a hard time believing this thread is real, actually.

Agree. I have the sweetest dog in the world but I would NEVER let a child go grab a bone out of his mouth. Even if the dog didn't react, it's completely unfair to the dog to let your kid do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Own of dogs and parent of children. I'm so tired of people kicking pets to the curb instead of teaching children how to behave around them. It's unfair to both the pets who need to be regimes and the children who grow up with pet phobias. TEACH YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR PETS. Stop being lazy!

+1000
Kid was PULLING on the bone. There are cases where ultimately there is a bad fit between dog and small children and the dog would be better of in another home, but if you have a kid pulling on an item while the item is IN THE DOGS mouth, are you really surprised there is an altercation?

Yes, it takes more work, but kids can learn how to act around animals, and animals can learn to not see child as a threat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Own of dogs and parent of children. I'm so tired of people kicking pets to the curb instead of teaching children how to behave around them. It's unfair to both the pets who need to be regimes and the children who grow up with pet phobias. TEACH YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR PETS. Stop being lazy!

+1000
Kid was PULLING on the bone. There are cases where ultimately there is a bad fit between dog and small children and the dog would be better of in another home, but if you have a kid pulling on an item while the item is IN THE DOGS mouth, are you really surprised there is an altercation?

Yes, it takes more work, but kids can learn how to act around animals, and animals can learn to not see child as a threat.

The problem with this reasoni ng is that kids are unpredictable. They are humans with free will who explore and push boundaries. Truly, they can't be trusted to remember not to pull in the dog's bone. Or to walk up behind their dog and pet it while its eating. Therefore, if you have both children and dogs in your house, you must be able to trust the dog you have will not bite. My child could take food out of my dogs mouth with her hands and eat it herself and the dog would nuzzle up to her for a belly rub. If you have kids and your dog is not like that, you made a bad choice and need to re-home the dog. Is it fair to the dog? No, but what's the alternative? Once it has bitten, it can't be trusted.