Dog nipped child

[Twinkleandstressed]

Dog was tied up outside corner shop - I could see him from the till point. Only picking up one item. Dog is usually friendly and calm. Child darts out of shop with father and runs towards my dog wanting to pet him. My dog reacts my growling and going to bite him. He didn’t thankfully but did hurt his lip by jumping. Dad is useless and just walks on to car. I quickly go outside and go to apologise. Mum who is sitting in the car is consoling child - I ask if he is hurt. She says just a scrape on mouth. I apologise again and explain that my dog must have been startled but I feel terrible and that I cannot trust my dog.

How terrible.

This is why I’m so vigilant with my dog, and previous ones I’ve had.

I’ve been called horrible before for not letting random children pet my dogs, and yeah, they have all been friendly golden retrievers, but you never know if a child could accidentally hurt them and cause them to snap.

It’s not a risk I’m willing to take for the sake of some child I don’t know being able to stroke my dog.

People saying the child/parents partly at fault have no concept of the law. If you own a dog it is solely your legal duty to prevent it from biting (or even putting someone it fear that it might bite them). OP is 100% at fault, which they are fully accepting.

OP, I have a dog who has bitten and nipped (reactive), it's a horrible frightening thing to happen but now your responsibility to never put your pet in a position that could happen again. I reccommend reactive dog classes, also dog body language courses. From your dog's perspective, the dog has behaved immpecably, in fear (tied up without owner unable to remove himself from harm he anticpated from the oncoming child) he gave warning signals (which is what a growl and a harmless nip are. If a dog wanted to bite the child would have been seriously harmed). You should be pleased your pet had this self control and work with him to make this the last time he needs to warn anyone off. Be aware he may now be more wary/reactive around children as dogs tend to remember fear.

Last thing I'd want is a card from you tbh

Morally and legally... two different things.

Unfortunately (in my opinion), the law in the UK means that I can be standing with my dog, on a short lead, I can be telling an adult 'do not touch my dog' and actively moving my dog away from that person... and they can touch my dog, get bitten and I will be the one liable for this.

Whilst the courts now have far more scope to use dog control orders and can request owners keep a dog on a specific length of lead or muzzled in certain places etc etc, and so a destruction order is rare, the bottom line is that the owner of the dog is liable, and it will be the owner and their dog who suffer, regardless of the stupidity of the other party (or those responsible for them).

Our laws even specify that your dog can only bite someone breaking into your house (not your general property, it has to be a house!) on their way IN. They can't bite someone exiting your property, or climbing your garden fence or caught rummaging in your garage.

Thank you PP. My dog is not a vicious monster who needs to be pts. I thinking I could see him from the shop was irresponsible in tying him up. I have learnt my lesson. Nonetheless I feel awful that the child had a scare and wished I had made a better choice. Will look in to behavioural classes. He is also not neutered - not sure whether that matters. Also the child didn’t just run past my dog, he ran towards him with his hand held high to I assume bring it down to pet. My dog has. O issues with people walking past. But again, it is my fault not that of the child’s.

There is little need to be rude.

I wasn't meaning it personally! Just if someone's dog had nipped my child I wouldn't be wanting a card from the dog's owner

I think honestly the dog did a good job. My advice is you take classes to have a better sense of how to read your dog and better understanding of how dogs in general behave. Almost no dogs who have not had extensive training to do so would be safe to be left tied up outside a shop with owner out of their sight, even for a moment or two. The Facebook group ‘dog training advice and support’ is really great. It has a series of free resources and guides that outline how dogs learn and how we can work kindly with them to train them to cope in the variety of everyday human situations we want them to cope in- which again almost no dogs are able to do without training. There is also something to be said for learning your own dog’s triggers. For example I will never be able to take my dog into a pub or cafe without a whole range of management strategies in place because she gets unbearably stressed in that kind of enclosed environment where she has to stay still on the floor and cannot approach people and animals coming in and out, or bark at loud noise. You know your dog has issues with people walking past so you have to work to reduce this fear by reconditioning the dog to experience passersby as neutral or pleasant (see Facebook group I mentioned for guidance on how to do this) and in the meantime you should manage the environment so the dog does not have to get stressed about this again, as the more times it happens the worse it will get and the more likely your dog will be to leave out the warning and go straight to self protection by biting.

And what about your child, my kids all have been taught never go up and pet a dog without permission from owner, would you not take responsibility for your child??

Yep, it was really upsetting. Owner was absolutely bereft.

Obviously it is sensible for a child’s safety to teach it not to approach dogs without permission (indeed I don’t let my children approach dogs even when the owners actively encourage it). But it is absolutely legally the owner’s responsibility to make sure that a dog is under control at all times. People
are idiots. Don’t put your dog in a position where they are left alone to deal with an idiot.

Your dog is dangerous. It shouldn't be left tied up outside a shop. And should wear a muzzle.

I think you got off very lightly from the mother there - I would have gone apeshit! Keep your dog under constant supervision and control. "Just a scrape on the mouth" - bloody hell!

I have a K9 sports sack and often put my dog in it when I go into a shop, even places that say no dogs say fine when I ask as he can't do anything. Unless you have a Rodesian Ridgeback or similar it may be worth a look.

The parents should have been supervising the child better AND you should have been supervising the dog. So you were both wrong, fortunately it sounds like the child was okay so now you've both learnt for next time. They should have the child in arms reach, and you shouldn't leave the dog unattended.

Thank God the DC wasn’t severely injured.

I'm going against the grain slightly, maybe not the best plan to leave the dog outside but the child shouldn't have run up to him.

So the parents are also at fault here.

This.

But the dog doesn’t have issues with people walking past it, it has an issue with a child running directly at it with a hand outstretched towards it. Those are not the same things.

My husband left our dog tied up outside a shop once thinking it was a good idea. He won’t be doing that again. Honestly OP, it was an unfortunate incident which you have learnt from and hopefully the parents of the child will learn something too.

The OP said in a subsequent post that the dog ‘has issues with people walking past’. I agree that in general the dog reacted normally.

I would just not leave your dog unattended. Quite often they get their confidence from their owner and will make poor choices if feeling anxious. I learned this the hard way way when I let my mum walk my dog. He had previously been dog reactive but had stopped after years of work and training by me.
I learnt that he only felt relaxed and confident enough to not react when he's with me. He went for a dog when with my mum - no damage done but scary. Now he never leaves the house without me, and is absolutely fine. We live and learn x

🙄

The parents job is to keep their child under supervision and not allow them to approach potential dangers - including strange dogs, busy roads, sharp objects etc.

Batshit the amount of parents who would be ‘raging’ or ‘go apeshit’ due to their own parenting shortcomings.

Equally I would never leave my dog tied up outside a shop, not fair on the dog.

So both op and the child’s parents were at fault. Hopefully all adults will have learned from this and neither child nor dog will be put in similar situation again.

This or handing yourself to the police is overkill.

Your dog had a normal for-a-dog reaction to a surprise at speed invasion of their space by a stranger. It didn't sound as if they did bite, just bumped the kid's lip. You spoke to kid's mum. That's the end of the event.

I would now use a muzzle (a cage one so he can still pant, that's really important) when you're out of the home with him, and never leave him in a position where a stranger can approach him unattended again.

FWIW I think the muzzle is overkill but it's protecting yourself, him and strangers against what-if future events that probably won't happen.

As a dog owner I would never leave my dog unattended outside a shop
As a parent I would never let my child run up to an unattended dog

Both parties are to blame for what happened
Dog doesn’t need to be muzzled , child needs to be told it’s not ok to run up to any animal the way they did

Im sure both parties will learn a lesson from today