If your dog bit someone...

[LittleSkeletonSailor]

What would your immediate reaction and then course of action afterwards be?

If it was someone known to you, not close but you know their address and phone number etc..

Dog bit because it was startled.

The dog was out of control and came into her property and bit her … how on earth is that the OPs fault?!?!

What did the owner do/say? I wish you had explained the circumstances from the start rather than drip feed. Were you on your property? The dug ran out if her house and up to yours which was open? What was the loud noise? How did that lead the dog to bite you?
If it had been my dig I would have been mortified and apologised profusely and offered to take you to the hospital.

The neighbour opened the door and let her dog out. Dog sees OP at her front door, runs over. OPs own dogs bark at it, dog bites OP.
This 100% needs reporting.

Having read your follow up posts.. I'd be reporting that incident. It wasn't a child..but it most certainly could have been. It's not acceptable for a dog to bite a person because aother dog barked. Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds?..stop making excuses for this other person..they're a piss-poor dog owner and their dog was out of control. Report it.

Make sure you teach you DC to never approach a dog without consent, also teach your child dogs are not toys. Dogs normally only bite if they are startled, scared or anxious or approached without checking with the owner. It is not always black and white.

Honestly, as awkward as it'll be with the neighbour I'd be wanting to report that to police. She's letting a dog she knows is reactive loose in the street and it's running up to people and biting them. Not only should she be apologising she should be telling you all and every thing she is doing to stop this. I'd be more worried about the fact that she's not putting things in place to manage the dog, than I would be about an apology an apology is nice of course, and polite, but next time it could be a child bitten or scarred for life, a beloved family pet that gets killed (I've seen a dog maul a cat to death, horrendous). It shouldn't have to be your responsibility but I think you do have a responsibility to report it now it's clear she's not addressing the issue herself.

I can’t believe you are trying to shift blame on to a child. I don’t care what a child does, if the response from a dog is to attack it then the dog needs to be destroyed.

The sense of entitlement shown by some dog owners is appalling.

An attack is completely different to a bite.

If a child runs up and hurts a dog and a dog bites in fear or pain then it is entirely the fault of the child or dependant on age, the parent that failed to parent their child

The amount of times I had idiot parents let kids run up behind my dog when he was alive was insane.

You haven’t provided a lot of context but in general

Get the dog under control immediately.

Be sympathetic, apologetic and helpful in making sure the injured person gets medical help if needed. Don’t be tempted to minimise it because you don’t want to draw attention to what’s happened and avoid punishment.

Don’t be defensive and make excuses for the dog- it won’t endear you to anyone and will make you seem like you lack empathy, so the person won’t be inclined to forgive or show understanding. Even if there was fault on the part of the victim, eg approached without warning to pet your dog, don’t be tempted to blame them as much as you might want to and it might be warranted.

Be cooperative with any Police involvement. This is the time to put forward any defence, but you still need to take full responsibility.

Presuming it wasn’t a life threatening injury and your dog doesn’t risk being destroyed, be ready to put forward a plan for how you will make sure this never happens eg muzzle, on leash at all times, be explicit about not petting, dog obedience classes.

An apology and even a small gift for the victim wouldn’t go amiss if it feels appropriate.

There is absolutely no way I would not be reporting this to the police.

It doesn’t matter that there was a loud noise.
It doesn’t matter that the dog saw other dogs.
It doesn’t matter that the dog was “startled”.

Dogs should be trained sufficiently not to bite in such circumstances. If they are not then they should be muzzled. If they are not muzzled and they bite, they should be destroyed.

What a disgraceful comment. Yet again justifying dogs harming children.

Your hatred for dogs is making you a little ott here.

There was absolutely nothing disgraceful about my comment.

You're on about dog owners being entitled? But apparently kids should be perfectly OK approaching random dogs without permission. Ok then 👌

Kids and dogs are not equals. Stop trying to justify the harming of children.

🤣 ok

Can't talk to you anymore.

Just control your kids around dogs and you'll be A ok.

Disgraceful again. Even worse that you can’t see it even when it’s pointed out to you.

How can anyone value a dog over a child? That’s abhorrent.

Hmm yeah. Keep telling yourself I'm wrong. (I'm not)

Have a lovely evening

If my dog bit someone I’d be mortified and I wouldn’t stop apologising , however it would depend on circumstances.
i don’t consider myself an expert but I’ve been told that a dog never bites for no reason , there’s always a trigger , so if I couldn’t identify that trigger and I felt he was a danger to the public and it was a serious enough bite to cause damage ( my dog is a Rottweiler so a bite could easily life threatening ) I would have no choice but to have him put to sleep , although it would absolutely break me and I would never forgive myself for failing him . Luckily this situation has never arisen and I hope and pray that it never will .
He interacts with children daily and adores them but I’m super careful and both the dog and the children are watched intensely.

People like you are the problem I’m afraid.

Well depending on the circumstances you may be very disappointed then

Dramatic

No. People who let their kids approach unknown dogs are the problem in this case.

My dog never twitched his lip in his entire life, had bullet proof recall and was extremely well behaved. The kids allowed to poke and prod and make him jump? No so much.

Good god, page upon page of people imagining that if their dog bit someone then their first response is to state what that person did wrong.
What tf is wrong with people!!!

I think any dog who bits a person should be put down.

I know that's unfair on the dog if it's due to bad owners but it's a not a risk I would be willing to entertain. What happens if it's someone more vulnerable next time?

Report it. Dog has to go.

@EmmaD11 you are embarrassing yourself. Please stop.

So if someone came into my house and went up to my sleeping dog and touched her, when I had warned them not to as she suffers from sleep startle and can snap if woken by someone touching her, you would still blame my dog and think I'm a bad owner?

My dog has queit spaces to sleep, away from hustle and bustle and I warn people not to wake by touching, but if someone ignores me, I can't control that and it certainly isnt my dogs fault. She wouldn't deserve to be pts for that.

I disagree that all dogs who bite in any situation should be put to sleep