to ask if you would get rid of your dog if they growled at your child?

[Busybecca]

I have a 7 year old large breed dog. Today I took her for a run/bike ride before collecting the DCs from school/nursery and heading to the park for them all to cool off in the river. When we arrived home, I asked DH to watch them while I took a quick shower. Ddog was sleeping and drying off in the sunshine when I went upstairs.

I heard shouting when I was in the shower and when I got out I found DH had locked Ddog in the utility room. He said she had growled at DD (3) and we need to get rid of her. I asked what had happened and he said it didn't matter, she's agressive and should go. After speaking to the DCs I discovered that they had been running and doing cartwheels and DD had accidentally kicked Ddog when landing. She said she stroked her and said sorry and Ddog licked her. She also mentioned that DH had been inside the house so hadn't been supervising them like I'd asked.

Ddog adores the DC and has never shown any aggression towards humans or dogs. I think a growl was a natural reaction to being woken and hurt and doesn't mean she had bad intentions but DH thinks I'm putting Ddog before the DC. I said he was putting himself before the DC when he wasn't supervising them appropriately...!

Am I being naive? Would you get rid of your dog if they growled at your child?

If someone accidentally or on purpose hit me whilst I was asleep and very tired I would probably lash out first and not bother with a warning so what your dog did op was very restrained. It wouldn't worry me at all.
Your dh is the problem here as he should have been watching the kids and making sure the kids gave the dog space because getting kicked or trodden on hurts!
I have 2 dogs, have looked after dogs my whole life and work at a kennels.

a while ago on a lovely sunny day, I was lying in our local park, dozing. A little girl, I'd say between 4 and 6 was apparently running through the park not looking where she was going. Anyway she kicked my ribs and fell on top of me. My reaction was "bloody hell" not surprisingly.
I imagine your DDogs was pretty similar, but dogs don't speak English.

Kid accidentally kicked dog. Dog growled.
Dog was warning kid that it wasn't happy.

No I wouldn't get rid of dog, but I would ask do to supervise better, with a 3y/o and dog.

I'd be rehoming the husband for hitting an animal. Agree with pp, you should consider if hes ever done this before.
Accidents happen with animals, I've stepped on my cats tail and felt terrible and made a fuss straight away. There's a difference between that and purposely hurting an animal.
Your DD sounds sweet, worrying that the dog wont be friends with her, it shows that she respects animals. Your DH should learn something from her.

He wasn't even there and he hit your dog?!

Fuck me. He'd be on the sofa until
I decided whether he was staying or not and that would depend on his attitude and remorsefulness.

If tomorrow he still can't see that he massive over reacted and was really wrong to hit her too, then it would be over for me.

I know people will say it's too small a thing to leave him over etc & if they can get past it then fine, but there's no way I could love a man who thinks you get rid of a dog because she GROWLED when she was KICKED when she was ASLEEP. Let alone one who thinks it's ok to hit a dog.

This thread is a few weeks old now so just checking in in the hope you've subsequently ditched the 'D'H.