Reply to Dog bit toddler -- should I be more worried?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have a very sweet Border Collie who has patiently taken a lot from our DS, who is 15 months old.  Our DS loves him and loves to come up and hug the dog, try to chase him, offer him food, etc.  Inevitably, this sometimes ends in DS hitting the dog with a toy or doing something that the dog doesn't love (i.e. he doesn't really like being hugged or "petted" by the kid).

We always supervise them together and usually have to look out for the dog's safety more than our son's.  Before we could stop him, DS has hit the dog on the head with a toy very hard, bitten his ear, and fallen on him.  He also tries to stick his finger in the dog's eye.  Although we try to stop this, sometimes we can't get there quickly enough.  All of the things I mentioned have been met by no reaction at all from our dog -- not even running away or whining when he tries to poke his eye.

Tonight DS was getting a little overtired and hyper and chasing the dog around with his large push-able truck.  Clearly, the dog was getting a little tired of it but still being a good sport.  Then DS stopped and started hugging/hanging on the dog.  Since our dog has never minded this too much, I didn't think much of it and finished preparing a bottle I was working on.  All of a sudden, I looked over, and the dog has jumped up barking.  DS had fallen on the ground, and the dog bit him on the head.  We yelled at him, and the dog immediately stopped.

DS is fine but has some teeth marks on his head.  He didn't need stitches and will go in tomorrow for an early tetanus booster just to be on the safe side (we talked to the dr on the phone).  I feel terrible for DS, but I also don't blame our dog TOO much.  He's getting older (8 years old) and less mobile, and I think everything that was going on was just too much for him.  I'll admit that I got a little complacent because the dog is always so tolerant of everything and that I should be more cautious, but I don't have any huge concern about this.  Does this seem reasonable, or would others be freaking out?

I don't know exactly what DS did to cause this reaction -- it seemed like he was just hugging him while the dog was in a sitting position, which he does all the time.  I suspect that he either lost his balance and fell on the dog or possibly tried to bite/pull his ear or something.  I think our dog just overreacted while trying to escape and feeling threatened/hurt.  I don't suspect it will happen again, and I know the dog knows it was wrong.  Any thoughts? [/quote]

GET RID OF THE DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!  NOW!  It doesn't matter why the dog bit him.  It only matters that the dog DID bite him.  The next time the dog will bite off his face.  [/quote]

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