Wwyd if a family members dog but your child on the face?

[inwood]

Just that really - dd is luckily ok now it we are very lucky it wasn't any worse.

We will not go there again while the dog is there.

I think this is a dangerous dog and they need to rehome. I don't think they agree or get the severity of the situation.

What country was it in? Did your dd get rabies jabs? In many countries, India for example, if a dog bites a child it would be put down whether it was a pet or wild because of the rabies risk.

i wonder what provocation my small gentle calm dog was doing to the two dogs recently who snarled and strained to attack her as we gently walked past. Two seperate occasions, both times looked like they wanted my dog dead.
No such thing as unprovoked attacks? Dont make me laugh. Some dogs are just fucking nuts. Far too damaged and unpredictable to be left around people or other animals

We are missing information here:

How bad was the bite? Did it break the skin? Was the child taken to hospital? Did she have stitches? Has she had a tetanus jab and if required started a course of ant rabies treatment?

If the skin was not broken, I would not describe it as a bite.

In future, I would make sure the dog and the child are properly supervised.

Dog is vaccinated for rabies. Skin was broken in several places. No need for stitches. She is up to date with tetanus and has seen dr.

God, there are a lot of dog lovers on here who have no idea about dog behaviour. You're the dangerous ones! And it must be awful being your beloved and totally misunderstood pet!
As someone said earlier, unless the dog is mentally ill ( yep, there are dogs who have not been mistreated who may suddenly snap due to this) there is no such thing as an unprovoked attack. Fear is provocation, territory protection is provocation, teasing, a sudden surprise etc etc. That's why you always supervise and never assume a dear soppy family pet is 100% safe.
I was bitten in the face by a Labrador on a lead when I was three, whose owner said she was perfectly safe. I wouldn't want that dog put to sleep, I'd want the owner to never assume anything again.

So what happened?

If you were the other side of a toilet door how do you know what exactly happened ? Obviously I wouldn’t holiday there again but if I were the owners I wouldn’t be having my dog pts , I would just keep him away from people .

THis happened to us and no the dog was not put down and we would have been devasted if it had.

LochNess... you're right, I probably would investigate the circumstances, I didn't read the OP properly. Noone knows what happened.

Very odd that the OP is not more forthcoming with the circumstances.

I think the whole idea of just PTS is a really arrogant human approach.

Not that I expect the OP to be able to answer these things, but is the dog a rescue (maybe has underlying issues)? How old is it? Is it new the household? Is it used to having house guests? Had it been behaving unusually during your stay? Was it sitting/resting in its safe place (suggesting it may have needed be alone, or feeling anxious). Was an escape route suddenly blocked, and the dog felt cornered? And what exactly happened, was your DD staring at the dog, things like that.

The owners definitely need to take it seriously and make a big effort to deal with it, but unless someone can without doubt say there was absolutely nothing wrong at the time, its not fair to condemn a dog to death for it.

My 2 dogs are not used to house guests, so are never left alone with any guest, if we get up to make tea for example we call the dogs to come with, if they start behaving anxious they get put in their bedroom (utility room) and everyone is told to leave them alone, and someone will spend time with the dogs to calm them. If people behave in a way that will provoke a dog we tell them to stop, i.e staring, growling. We introduce new children very carefully, I never assume that any child knows how to behave around a dog even if they have their own, I supervise everything.

One of my dogs did bite someone once, a guest who knew we had small dogs, 'forgot' stumbled into him, kinda booted him in the ribs in the process, and then stood on his foot with their shoes on, and broke his toes, he bit her in the ankle, I in no way see any issue with that, as from what I saw the bite was because she was still on his foot.

What do you mean @BertrandRussell

Of course there is such thing as an unprovoked attack. But we have no idea whether this was or not. For all we know the dog was provoked and to PTS would be killing an innocent animal for defending itself against an annoying child.

“What do you mean @BertrandRussell“

I mean-the child is 9. Why was her face so close to the dog? What sort of interaction was taking place? How well does the child know this dog/dogs generally? How did the bite actually happen? For me this would make the difference between insisting that the dog be put down or just insisting that it is always shut in a different room

Sorry I love dogs and have had them all my life ,but this is crazy as soon as a dog bites anyone to the extent that they draw blood they must be pts .
Yes it is sad but when they have done it once they will do it again it's just a matter of time.
I have seen unprovoked attacks before including one by a neutered male basset hound that resulted in my dad needing skin grafts and reconstructive surgery, said dog was the most placid gentle creature you could hope for but he had a stroke and went for my dad as he walked past him.

he had a stroke Well that's the explanation for that attack then.

Yes it is sad but when they have done it once they will do it again it's just a matter of time. Absolutely untrue.

Whilst the stroke may explain it doesn't mean that it wasn't unprovoked 1min hes apparently sleeping in his bed and next he was on my dad no warning or sign anything was wrong. It can and does happen

I'm with Bertrand on this one. Not enough information to reach a conclusion.

Why can't a nine year old be left unattened for a couple of minutes in a domestic setting?

No I rely don't think you can have someone else's dog put down for biting when you left your dd alone with the dog, in its own home and you have no idea what happened before the do bit/attacked.

Really, not rely
Dog, not do

My DS was bitten on the face by a dog aged 2. He was sitting playing happily. There were three adults chatting happily, when the dog lurched across the room and bit DS.
DS has had a fear of dogs ever since although as an adult he can now tolerate dogs if necessary.
We had no idea why the dog bit him. He still has the scar.
I would never trust a dog alone with a child after that experience.

I suspect there is much more to this story. There usually is when the OP is so very sparing with details.

How old is the dog? Has it ever attacked unprovoked before? I think there's a lot of questions that need consideration. I can't think the immediate thing to do is put it down.

@BertrandRussell she is 9, has grown up with dogs and knows how to behave around them. I don't know how it happened but she said that she was just suddenly in her face. I don't know what happened exactly. I'm not sure what else you want.

I never said the dog should be put down.