If a dog bites, should it be pts?

[Snappedandfarted1]

After a discussion with my dog loving friend, I’m curious as to how many of you dog owners would have your pet pts if it bit you or a member of your family? I don’t mean just a nip, I mean a bite which bleeds a fair amount and requires stitches.

To me, that says that a dog cannot be trusted around a human at all and should be pts, but my friends opinion is that unless the bite causes serious damage it should ultimately be ignored. She did agree that an elderly dog should be pts in this situation but not a young or middle aged dog.

Opinions?

It's highly unusual (as in it never happens) for a dog to bite for no reason.

I would struggle to put an otherwise healthy dog to sleep for biting as my educated assumption would be that the bite was provoked and the dog needs rehabilitation and behavioural support.

If I wasn't able to provide that support I would do my damndest to find someone who could before I moved to pts.

Obviously, there are exceptions, such as if a dog kills a person but those situations are vanishingly rare no matter what the media likes to tell us.

I think I would put my beloved dog to sleep if he bit one of the children, but probably not if he bit me. I don't know why but that's how I feel.

My dog is an unpredictable rescue who has bitten us we had considered pts at one point but the rescue helped us he hasn't bitten in 2 years we have no young children which helps if ne bit a child or an outside person we would have to reconsider.

Depends on the circumstances.

When my dog bit DH it wasn't his fault. He was sick and hiding and DH reached in to pull him out to go to the vet. The dog bit out of terror. He trusted me more so then let me pull him out. We didn't get him put down for that.

It would very much depend on the circumstances.
An unprovoked bite with no underlying medical/environment cause would be the time to give euthanasia serious consideration. Even then it would be after exploring all other management options that could be carried out safely without detriment to well being of all involved.

It depends on the circumstances of the bite and whether they had any history of aggression. My dog has bitten. I was walking them at night and a man grabbed my shoulder from behind and pulled me around. I jumped out of my skin and both dogs went for him. Grabbed Ddog1 just in time but wasn't quick enough to get dog2 who took a rather large chunk out of his chin. He claimed he thought I was someone else.

I didn't so much as tell the dogs off. They were protecting me and I don't know what he was thinking grabbing me like that.

Likewise if they snapped at someone for being rough with them I wouldn't put them to sleep but would make sure they weren't in that situation again.

If they bit out of the blue with no apparent reason or provocation then first stop would be the vets, with a muzzle if that's what it took. No medical reason then I would have a choice. If they were back to normal and no prior history then I would probably give them the benefit of the doubt but he on the lookout for anything else and if it happened again then I would have to put them to sleep.

If they were still behaving oddly or out of character or if they had a history of snapping and snarling then I would have to weigh up how likely they were to bite again and how much I could reasonably control their environment without impacting their quality of life or mine.

A bite of a child would likely result in being put down. Obviously if the child was being unreasonably rough or pulling them about then I would forgive a warning snap but not a proper bite. Both of mine are thankfully children's dogs. They love kids and are very tolerant. I can't see either of them ever hurting a child. I've only ever heard Ddog1 growl twice.

I don't think there's a one size fits all opinion on this. Every time it depends entirely on the circumstances.

DP was badly bitten recently. Ddog had a scrap with another dog and he tried to separate them, the other dog bit him very badly.

No blame on the other dog at all - in fact we paid the other dog's vet bill as DDog bit it on the foot.

It did transpire the next day that DDog had been bitten on the back and face - bites that must have started the fight because the other dog only had the opportunity to bite DP (and not Ddog) after he intervened.

DP was in incredible pain and lost work, multiple hospital visits. But no, we wouldn't even dream of demanding the other dog be put down due to the circumstances.

It would depend on the situation; who the person was, if the vet turned up an illness that could explain the behaviour, and how bad the bite was. I train my dogs from puppies and that includes teaching bite inhibition, and I don't let people goad or tease them.

I would but I've grown up around working dogs and if a dog turned wicked they were put down.

Yes of course.

You can't have a wicked working dog working with sheep either as they will bite. My father paid out hundreds for working dogs, but if they couldn't work, they had to be put down.

When I was a teenager (probably about 16), I had a paper round in our village, there was a house by a cut through to the next street, which had a dog that would sometimes bark as I went passed.

One day, it got through the bars of the gate and came towards me, as I dog lover, I wasn't bothered and just stayed still waiting for it to come to me, instead of the friendly greeting I expected, it bit me on the leg, hard enough to draw blood but not enough to need stitches.

My dad had a word with the owner and the local police, who went round and had a word, the gate was reinforced so the dog couldn't get out and no more happened.

In no way would I have wanted the dog PTS for biting me, despite the fact that other than using the well travelled cut through by its house, it was unprovoked.

Every situation is different and lots of factors need to be considered.

Dogs have no sense of right and wrong. They quite simply do not have the brain capacity to support complex thought.

There is no such thing as a wicked working dog and if your father experienced them it was a case of an inept trainer not a faulty dog.

Nope. Dogs do not bite for no reason. Most dogs give plenty of warning before a bite too, just got to understand, manage, and respect their behaviour.

If my dog did bite someone and the wound required stitches then I would ensure she was never put in that situation again, and use a muzzle if necessary.

Ddog2 A proper bite? Yes I would. Shes a staffy, shes strong. I cant have that risk

I'm with Frequency on the working dog thing. I don't buy the 'wicked dog' line at all

As much as we LOVED our dogs, if the dog bit a family member and it would require stiches, he or she would be put down. Luckily we never had to! The occasional nip when trying to get a tick of them was absolutely understandable. So was moody pensioner. We just never went near his bowl during dinner time.

I would see a personally recommended dog behaviourist and take their advice depending on the individual circumstances

My father has trained about 20 dogs over the years, but every now and again, there is what he calls 'a wicked dog'

No. I wouldn't have my dog pts for biting someone just like I wouldn't have my horse pts for kicking someone, or cows pts for head butting someone etc

Plenty more humans I'd have pts before animals

Sadly yes, there is no way to make a dog safe once it has exhibited such aggression.

My father has trained about 20 dogs over the years, but every now and again, there is what he calls 'a wicked dog

No, there isn't. Genuinely, dogs do not have the brain capacity to be wicked. They are, in effect, input-output machines. They perform behaviours based on instinct and past results of that behaviour. It is all their brain is capable of and biology and evolution dictates that no dog has the instinct to be wicked. They may have the instinct to chase if they are a breed that was bred to chase but no dog has ever been bred for the purpose of being wicked. It is not something dogs evolved to do.

I have not trained 20 working dogs but I do have a degree in canine behaviour and training and I did work for a medium sized animal shelter as a behaviourist and re-homing support personnel for three years prior to having my youngest child.

If your father came across more than one dog he was unable to effectively train not to attack livestock or people he was an inept trainer and should have asked for help.

Plenty more humans I'd have pts before animals
I do agree with this though

No way I would have my dog put down if he bit someone. Had him 12 years and he has never hurt a fly. If he bit someone it would be because the pissed him off and they deserved it.

I always thought the 'wicked' working dog thing is because a working dog needs to have a very specific relationship with sheep (for want of a better phrase!), and once they have bitten or chased them they've made the switch to seeing them as 'prey' and that can't be trained out, is that not it?

I appreciate that is probably quite old school thinking, but I tend to think that generations of men who have stood on hillsides and inspired literally dying loyalty from their working dogs probably know a thing or two.