To say it’s us or the dog

[Totallyfedupnow]

My mother is visiting for a few days and has brought her dog, which is an 8 year old rescue dog. While I was out, the dog jumped up and attacked my TV, knocking it off the low table it sits on. In the process the screen was badly fractured, the TV no longer works and is most likely unrepairable. The TV is almost new (only about eight months old) and no, not insured, and yes, it’s the only TV we’ve got. Apparently there was a penguin on TV that the dog didn’t like and he just went for it.
This is bad enough. But as it’s got older the dog has started getting spooked more and more often, and every so often it will take exception to something inoffensive my son (aged 6) does (like standing up or coming into a room) and go for him too. Last time it bit him on the shoulder (lightly) and frightened him badly. At Christmas it got spooked by my niece (aged 7) when she and my son were playing with toys on the carpet and went for her. It has also bitten the back of my calf as I left a room. So far no blood has been drawn but it is frightening and who knows if or when the bites will become more serious. And now I’ve just lost our TV.

The trouble is my mother is devoted to her dog, and always finds an excuse for why he was “provoked” (at Christmas my sister was blamed for letting the children play with their Christmas presents on the floor....). She now has a crate at her house which she puts the dog in when visitors come, but I don’t have room to store a crate in my home. I think we are now at the stage where I am
going to have to say, if you visit us you have to leave the dog with a sitter. My mother is not going to like that AT ALL as she is devoted to both my son and the dog, sitters are expensive, and she is a pensioner. Aibu?

She doesn't want to though, she wants free childcare even though her son is at risk.

🤦‍♀️ No OP. Just No.

pay for a dog behaviourist so that children are safe when they visit her (because there’s clearly no way she will crate her dog round the clock when my son stays with her)

No. If there is the slightest doubt that she will crate the dog completely while your child is there then they can't visit at all.

This is exactly, EXACTLY the kind of situation developing which ends in A&E and a permanently scarred (or worse) child.

You are not being a responsible parent if you let them go there in your mum's care alone, with that dog in the house, because you KNOW that you cannot trust her.

She can't be your childcare, she really can't.

The dog, as PP have said, could kill your son. You know that don't you? Why do you not see how dangerous the dog is? Is free childcare more important?

except to try to argue that Battersea dogs home only has a blanket ban all rescues going to families with young children because they don’t have time to evaluate the dogs properly

Well you've now had 6 years to evaluate the dog and it's bitten three people that you know of. A behaviourist is a good idea but they're not magical. They'll need to work as much with your mother as with the dog and she'll need to change her behaviour and manage the dog's stress. I wouldn't rely on her to do that. You can't rewire all its young life and the years since. It will still have the potential to get stressed and bite.

There's no way in hell I would trust your mother to look after a child. Sorry OP.

Seriously OP is your childs life worth so little? The dog bites end of. A little peck today .. tearing to shreds tomorrow is it worth the risk?

Just no .. come on!

YABU for allowing this dog back into your hone after it bit a child!

I love dogs, but as a parent your first responsibility is to protect your child. You are neglecting to do that by continuing to allow him to be around a dangerous dog with an irresponsible owner.