Anonymous wrote:The dog should be crated during gatherings, or gatherings should be held at someone else's house without the dog. Obviously the dog is stressed.

The dog should probably be put down.

Why is no one reporting the bites?

Anonymous wrote:What’s the best way to handle this situation? Our in-laws have a dog that I think gets jealous or territorial when young children or medium sized dogs come near my mother in law.

The dog goes from zero to 60. He’s fine one second and the next he turns vicious and at this point has bitten 2 different children on 5 different occasions- no serious injuries, but sometimes breaking skin. The attack on another dog was more serious and the other dog was bleeding.

Our in-laws host family gatherings at their house often, so it happens at their house.

What is the best solution? Would a muzzle be appropriate during family gatherings? Or is that overkill? I also don’t think my in-laws would agree to that.

The kids have generally learned to keep their distance, but even being within 5 feet sometimes triggers growling and snapping at them.

Crate the dog in another room like a bedroom that has no guest activity. When it has to go out they should use a muzzle and a leash to get it to the door.

A few choices: the dog goes to a trainer to see if this behavior can be trained out of it, the dog gets put in another room every time small kids come over, the dog gets put down and/or lastly, you just don't visit with kids.

The behavior will only get worse, not better(without training and even then, that might not work AND the parents need to be involved in the training).

I love dogs but we have a dog like that in our family (my FIL) and he spent a lot of money to get that trained. It's better but only 50% better, the dog is still possessive of my FIL and snaps if you come too close.

Then you don't go to their home OP.

WTH is wrong with you?

Oh yes I am very familiar with this issue. The dogs in our family are small, so everyone thinks it's funny. I protect my kids. I tell them not to ever go near the nasty dog. I tell them not to go near my MIL when she has the dog on her lap. I watch like a hawk. I also try to avoid being in the same house as the aggressive dog. If ANYONE tries to encourage my kids to interact with the dog (which they do because they think the dog is "so cute") I tell them that the dog bites my kids and they've been told to stay away. We avoid their house as much as possible and do not allow the dog at our house.

It's one reason I really dislike many dogs. It's not their fault they have terrible owners. But I think I've only met a small group of good dog owners, the rest are awful.

The dog should be crated during gatherings, or gatherings should be held at someone else's house without the dog. Obviously the dog is stressed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love dogs

This dog should not be around children

Your in laws should keep him away from family entirely when they are over especially the kids. They deserve to not be in fear during the visit. Your IL are playing Russian roulette

Do you think the dog would seriously hurt them? MIL says he wouldn’t actually hurt them-if he actually wanted to hurt them, he would have. Meaning they were just “warning” bites.

Why wait and find out or be the first.

I was bit by a dog, on the face, as a child. I have a very small scar. It came at me, "playfully" they said, with no warning. I cannot stand dogs to this very day and will avoid at all costs.

I would speak, casually, to the other parents. If they are similarly cavalier, well, this is a not-my-circus-not-my-monkeys situation.

If they are concerned but afraid of speaking up, or have spoken up and been shut down, you volunteer to back them up. Make it clear you agree with them, that this is not safe for the children, and you'll do whatever would help them. Bring it up with your mom together?

As a parent, my answer would be "the dog is locked away in a crate or another room for the entire visit or we're not coming" but as a non-parent, all you can do is help the parents however they wish.

Alternatively - you could call animal control and report past bites. I'm not sure exactly what that could trigger, but having the pattern could be helpful if he bites someone more seriously and they're injured. You might be able to have the dog forcefully euthanized at that point.

I'd maybe say something to the parents of the kids who got bit, gently planting the seed.

"Aren't you nervous taking lil Johnny over to ILs after Dog bit him?"

Ideally this would encourage them to come together and plan to host elsewhere. If the ILs are this cavalier about the dog biting children, they are not going to want to muzzle train (or do it properly) or keep him separate from the family. But a dog that has bitten a child already is a very very dangerous dog to have around chilren.

Anonymous wrote:If your in-laws aren't willing to secure the dog, the solution is to not be in their home with their unsecured, aggressive animal.

Also: There is no such thing as a "warning bite" WTAF. Dogs warn with body posture first, then by growling and showing teeth. Those are your warnings. A dog that bites is a dog that bites. Properly-trained dogs who are being properly handled don't bite, so if you're around one that does, and the owners aren't immediately addressing that situation, the only viable solution is to remove yourself from the equation before someone gets hurt.

Warning bites absolutely do happen, but in this situation, the dog has given plenty of warnings and one day he will bite to maim, because in his world, his warnings have not been heeded.

Anonymous wrote:Bring in snacks of grapes and raisins for the youngest kids. They’re sure to drop a few by accident….

Won't be enough to poison the dog, plus that's a more cruel way to go than euthanasia.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love dogs

This dog should not be around children

Your in laws should keep him away from family entirely when they are over especially the kids. They deserve to not be in fear during the visit. Your IL are playing Russian roulette

Do you think the dog would seriously hurt them? MIL says he wouldn’t actually hurt them-if he actually wanted to hurt them, he would have. Meaning they were just “warning” bites.

By definition, warning bites then escalate to actual ones. The dog has bitten several times before. One day he will seriously injure a child and then they will get hit with a lawsuit, or if it's their grandchild, the family will implode.

This is what you or your husband must tell the in-laws. Your husband can appeal specifically to his father, who seems to preserve some rationality here, and tell him that the dog needs to go. Go as in, be euthanized or sent to a rescue or shelter with a full account of his biting history. If this does not happen, warn them that you will never go to their house again.

Bring in snacks of grapes and raisins for the youngest kids. They’re sure to drop a few by accident….

If your in-laws aren't willing to secure the dog, the solution is to not be in their home with their unsecured, aggressive animal.

Also: There is no such thing as a "warning bite" WTAF. Dogs warn with body posture first, then by growling and showing teeth. Those are your warnings. A dog that bites is a dog that bites. Properly-trained dogs who are being properly handled don't bite, so if you're around one that does, and the owners aren't immediately addressing that situation, the only viable solution is to remove yourself from the equation before someone gets hurt.

Anonymous wrote:Is this a joke? My kids would never be in that house. MIL welcome to come dog-free to my house.

Oh just reread this and see OP doesn’t have kids. Personally I would raise hell if I saw the dog close to a child or behave aggressively. I would not MYOB. This would result in MIL and possibly the actual parents of the child getting mad at me, but I don’t care.

If you have advanced social skills you could also figure out who in the family you could recruit to get on your side to tell MIL she needs to crate or muzzle the dog, or to plan events at other homes.

If the dog was at all aggressive to me I would definitely not go over there again.