Mothers chihuahua ate half of my babies grape

[Anonymous23458d]

Just as the title states.. I took my boys 1 and 3 years old to my mothers. She never makes the effort to visit us i see her every other week. She lives with my two other older siblings and my dad. Last year they've bought another chihuahua that is just crazy. They don't train it it bites my children and now my baby is crawling it bites his face and is vicious, it steals food and items and growls when I try and get them. They don't do anything to help just idolise this dog. They have about a 2 metre crate for it, which I have to put it in when it gets vicious with my children.
I went because my eldest loves my older sister who lives there and loves seeing her. I was feeding my one year old downstairs whilst the dog was upstairs. I didn't realise the dog ran down and at the same time my baby threw one half of a grape then another one and the dog ran and ate them up. My sister and mum started screaming and rang the vet who said they must rush her down. All the while so hostile and angry at me when I said I didn't realise and im sorry. I know dogs cant eat grapes but I have a baby and toddler and thought the dog was upstairs. It's hard to manage in basically a glass house with so many ornaments and crap everywhere. It's the opposite of baby proof which I don't expect it to be but she doesn't even help me one bit when I come round. My mum only has interest in her new dog not her grandchildren. She has now sent me the receipt for £105 she's had to pay to make the dog be sick at the vets. I am not paying it and for one don't have that money. AiBu?

Well as lovely as it is to have personal
aspirations in life. I would suggest prioritising your sense of humour first.

I've always had dogs - all cocker spaniels who are very docile & family-friendly dogs, but tend to be rather greedy (which helps when training them LOL!) but they will steal food if left where they can reach it & if no-one is there to tell them 'no'.

I have never left a dog unsupervised with a child - even for a couple of seconds while I pop into the kitchen to turn something on the cooker down. I have always taken the dog/s with me.

My youngest GC is now 8, even now I wouldn't leave her alone with a dog as, despite my current pair of elderly cocker's who she's known all her life are very reliable & wouldn't hurt her, they are animals & you never know how they may react to a situation (such as a sudden loud noise waking them from sleeping) - I wouldn't take the risk.

Having said that, my dogs have been taught to leave people alone when they're eating at the table, they go to their baskets & don't beg. However, I wouldn't trust them if I had a small child eating a biscuit sitting in the living room if they weren't being watched. I am certain that one in particular could beg & may possibly decide to help herself if someone (eg: an adult) wasn't there to tell her to go to her bed & leave it alone. She's a very good dog especially with small children, she sits & bows her head, avoiding eye contact to let them pet her - but that's when in the company of a Responsible Adult (RA). But if there was a toddler eating a biscuit & no RA around.....I wouldn't trust her. The other one is so laid back he doesn't know what's going on until the other one tells him that the postie is at the door & he has a duty to bark & protect the house. 🙃

I would never, ever allow the kind of behaviour that you're describing. My dogs would be put into another room, crated or whatever.

Personally I wouldn't take the child there again. It's never acceptable for a dog to 'nip' (in other words bite) a child & if it was my child I'd be incandescent with anger. If I was the Granny I wouldn't be sorry enough - I'd be devastated & blaming myself for being so neglectful of my GC.

edited for grammar

Send a Get Well card... and a bunch of grapes.

The dog bites your child's face, yet you continue to take them there? Because your adult sister chooses not to visit you... So you'd rather put your baby in danger.

You are getting a lot of rude replies from posters on here. If people have nothing nice to type they shouldn't bother typing. Your Mum and sister don't sound so nice. Lots of photos of the new dog and none of the GC's. I would put the dog in the crate as soon as I arrived. It hasn't been trained properly so it is dangerous. I'm sure one grape would have been fine. Back in the 80s dogs used to eat grapes and chocolate and nothing ever happened. To rush to the vets over one grape is bonkers. Sounds like they wanted to guilt trip you. I wouldn't pay the fee as they should chill out. If it was going to cause a big family row I might pay half. Show them this thread.

Unfortunately not very sensible to take grapes to that household if you knew grapes are toxic to dogs - so you might consider making a small contribution to the bill if you can afford it. But definitely not worth going there again.

This.

I cannot remotely comprehend why you are even in a position to be asking such a silly question. You know your children are at risk from these dogs and you are still visiting and allowing them near your children.

It bites your children and bites your crawling baby's face? They wouldn't be anywhere near her house in the first place. Fuck the grape and the vet bills.

Perhaps you’re using your ‘edginess’ as a crutch to disguise the fact you’re not very funny. HTH.

I thought it was pretty obvious the post was in jest. I doubt the OP would have actually followed through on it.

The dog’s owner needs to wake up and start training it. It shouldn’t be eating anything off the floor unless it’s been told it can. They have a crate for it and if the dog had been in the crate, which it sounds for several reasons would have been a good idea, the whole episode could have been avoided. That’s on the owner. As is the fact it sounds like the owner wasn’t properly supervising the dog when it ran downstairs.

The OP mentioned the dog had form for resource guarding before “grape gate,” so coupled with the lack of training and owner supervision the dog eating something it shouldn’t was inevitable. Imagine if the OP hadn’t been witness to the dog eating the grape; the owner would have been none the wiser.
The owner is the dickhead in this story and for several reasons too.

"and your baby for throwing the grape."

🤣🤣🤣

why precisley was your child on the floor with the dog to get bitten in the first place? that is my first quesiotn - it reeks of irrisponsability.

2 - for a chi - a grape could well be really bad - the bigger the dog the kess problematic unless it was a lot of grapes - but chi's are tiny.

also, dogs dont bite without provocation - what was the child doing at the time? was it grabbinfg at the dog, too close? trying to get in the dogs space?

Personally I would pay up and stop going to your mums at all

Oooooh careful now!

It's probably a puppy. Puppies, like human babies, mouth & bite things. Everyone who's had their nipple bitten by a breast-feeding baby will understand. 😱

However, I always kept puppies away from my human children for this reason. Puppies should be crated or kept in a different room from small humans.

Probably quite a lot like this one, given they won't train it

Have only read OP's posts, so I expect I'm just repeating what others have said.

I can honestly say - STOP visiting them. The add nothing to your life, quite the opposite they give you nothing but stress.

As for "I went because my eldest loves my older sister who lives there and loves seeing her" - he's three. He loves everybody. Stop going there and after a few weeks he will have other people / things to love.

You are the adult here, and it is your job to protect your children. It would be lovely if your mother/sister were worth a damn, but they're not. You need to stop going to their house to protect your children from the dog, and to protect your children from your mother/sister. Just as you noticed there are no pictures of your children on the walls, so will they (eventually). Or they'll have just felt the lack of love from them. Don't subject your children to that, surround them with loving people.

You don't mention your father at all, except to say that he lives with your mother/sister. And there's another sister? What's your relationship like with them?

But, main point - don't go to their house again. Invite them to yours by all means (safe in the knowledge that they won't).

And DO NOT pay the vet's bill. That came about because they have failed to train their dog, and that is on them.

I wouldn’t pay and they massively over reacted . No doubt the vet looked at the dog, said dig would be fine and charged them £100 .

Don’t visit a household where free-roaming dogs bite children. This is parenting 101.

Given that your view of child safeguarding is clearly impaired, you may not be aware that grapes are a choking hazard for children and should always be cut up.

The vet bill is your mother’s responsibility.

You need to be firm OP and put some measures in place when you visit, including the dog being shut in the crate for the whole of time. Or see your relatives somewhere else without the dog. You sound as though you feel at the mercy of your mum but you're not. She'll miss her DGC if the meetings stop.

Hmmm- the number is post reactions would largely disagree with you. But not
to worry. Some folk just really struggle with humour. I hope for your own happiness that can be improved for yourself in
the future. All the best!

I was half-expecting Freddie Starr to make an appearance.

I wouldn’t say she was a proper mom to your sister given the unhealthy codependency between them where your 36 year old sister can’t go anywhere without her mother.

Having said that I would distance myself from them to protect your children but also your mental health instead of forcing yourself on people who don’t care about you.

All the socks do increase the number of post reactions you can give yourself I suppose. 🙄

Stop putting your children in danger. You are their protector yet you take them somewhere they can be harmed or worse killed!
and yes for pp upthread grapes are highly toxic for dogs.
one grape can indeed kill. And I am guessing it’s even more dangerous the smaller the dog.
for everyone whose dog ate a few grapes and were fine . I’m glad they were ok. But not all dogs are so lucky.
The household seems to have a weird dynamic, I’m not sure what any of you get out of these visits. But for your children’s sakes stay away.

You take your children to a house with a dog that bites them….. ??