Childminder's dog has bitten DD

[Jugglingitall85]

Last week my childminder's dog bit my DD on the face. What would you do? I feel like I have lost trust in their judgement and allowing this to happen.

Why on earth would you use a childminder with a dog? It’s not just her judgement that’s iffy.

Report to OFSTED and find another minder/nursery.

For all the people saying 'why on earth would you have a childminder with a dog'-.I don't love it either but it is so, so common. When looking for a childminder a few years ago, I looked only at childminders who were Ofsted registered good or above andrecommended by other parents. Around half had dogs. I chose one that didn't - and then she got a dog! She sent a full policy around how safety around the dog would be managed, had gates in the house to separate the children from the dog etc. but I still never felt great about it and probably would have looked elsewhere if we hadn't been due to move shortly anyway. But it really isn't some unusual madness that OP's childminder has a dog.

Sorry but it literally sounds like your child was rough with the dog and the poor thing retaliated and snapped. Why are you making excuses for your daughter? She’s 3. By that age they should know animals aren’t toys.

I can't understand the victim blaming from the dog lovers. It's embarrassing to read.

Report the dog and never send her back there.

Put the dog down!!!

My nephew has a learning disability and will flap and make excited happy noises around dogs. Different small children are capable of learning different things. Owners have to be responsible, especially a childminder with a dog in the house.

I don't understand why police haven't been called already if op took her child to a hospital for treatment and antibiotics. I thought staff were obliged to call them in this situation.

OP do you have a dog yourself?

If you don't, then there is no reason to think a three year old would automatically know how to behave around a dog, if anything they would be more at danger because they have never been taught the risks and what not to do. I'd ignore posters like that tbh.

I do think that the childminder may be fibbing slightly when said the child 'ran into the room' and startled the dog though, only because if it was anything other than then she would have to admit that she had left them alone together unsupervised.

I think it's more likely that she left them alone and something happened, not the child or the dogs fault, IMO most dogs only lash out when they are frightened, being hurt or defending themselves, if the dog would randomly bite someone coming in to a room she shouldn't be allowing the dog anywhere near the children anyway.

She's 3.

I'm a CM and will admit I judge CM's who have a dog.
I really don't understand why you would take the risk but people on here saying a TODDLER should know better is disgusting.

I would never ever assume a toddler knows how to act around an animal or how they would react in any situation TBH they're not known for their predicatability so it is 100% on the cm to keep the children safe.
Disusting blaming a small child

You can teach a 3 year old to be kind to animals, but 3 year olds do not have the impulse control or memory of an adult. A three year old will need reminding not to run etc around dogs, especially if they don't have one at home. The childminder has 100% fault. A child should never be left unsupervised with a dog. And tbh if a dog can't be trusted around children, it has no business being around them. Kids should be allowed to run around outside etc without the fear of triggering a dog. Young kids move quickly and make loud noises sometimes. It's highly unreasonable to expect them not to do that.

This poster is probably one of those people who would blame a member of the public for triggering a Pitbull. Gross.

Imagine victim blaming a child 🙃 3 year olds are rough sometimes as they're still learning. Have a word with yourself if you're assuming a child that young can be safe and act perfectly around a dog.

If you have a dog that randomly bites because someone has come into a room, that is not a safe pet.

How many times do we read on here and elsewhere about dog attacks and the majority of dog owners say their dogs are lovely members of the family and daft as a brush…BUT they would never leave their dogs alone around children because they are good responsible owners. The child minder is at fault, a risk assessment should have been done and the dog should have been kept securely away from any child. This is not on the child at all.

This. I can remember walking our family dog when I was a teenager. Some kid ran up to her and smacked her on the nose and shouted 'doggy' at her. She snapped at him but I was able to pull her back and she didn't bite him but it was close and I was worried what his Mum would say. She actually apologised to me and told me it would teach him not to do it again. It scared me though as it could have been so different and it wouldn't have been my dog's fault

I would be very unhappy. Children and dogs need to be very closely supervised. If this was the case of the child winding the dog up, the childminder should have intervened as soon as the dog's body language suggested it wasn't happy, and stopped the child from doing whatever it was that provoked the dog into biting. A reactive dog who is liable to get aggressive at short notice shouldn't be around children at all.

My daughter's childminder had two dogs but they were very old and placid. They were always closely supervised and you'd have really had to have to have taken it quite far to have got them even to get up off the comfy spot on the rug. I see posts on SM with children lying all over big, powerful dogs, or joking that they can pull their ears/tail without getting a reaction, or a parent walking in and finding them happily playing together having been left together unattended. The message is often an anti-BSB one and the dog is a pitbull or bully. So unfair to the child and dog.

It would be nice to have a basic understanding of safety around animals but I don’t think the general public should have to be responsible for other people who want to own pets, especially ones that can bite. The pet owner should be responsible for ensuring their animal is safe for the public or keeping it away from situations where it might become distressed.

It seems very poor judgment to leave someone else’s child unsupervised around a dog. The child is lucky not to have lost an eye. If the childminder believed their dog was suitable to live alongside the young children she is paid to look after then it is the childminders responsibility to teach safety around her pet to the children and their parents.

Im sick of this argument that if you are walking down the street and someone’s untrained dog goes for you that you should have known how to approach it safely. Dog owners should take responsibility.

The phrase "he/she has never done that before" is the default knee jerk reaction from dog owners when their animal bites someone.
It is then followed by something which places the blame on the victim, EG you startled the dog, it's because you're wearing a hat, etc.

I have the loveliest, soppiest, most laid-back dog in the world. She's never shown a single sign of aggression. I would still never, ever leave her alone with a child, not even my own.

This is 100% the childminder's fault and at MINIMUM she needs to make sure her dog is never around a child again. Even the loveliest dogs can snap, especially as they start to get older and may be confused or in pain.

Take her out the childminder and report it to your local council in Ofsted that’s highly dangerous behaviour. It would be classified as a near miss. She’s playing it down it could’ve been so much worse. She had to get rid of the dog or be shut down.

So today I had a plumber round. Before he even got out of the van I said I have dogs is that ok with you. If he’d said I’m not comfortable around dogs I would have shut them away. He said he was fine. My young dog is standoffish/wary of strangers. The young man read the dogs body language correctly and said “he’s a bit wary of strangers”. The dog kept his distance but was obviously alert to what was going on, when we started moving furniture around the dogs views was WTF is going on and started barking. I shut the dog away. I live in a big house and the dog can go anywhere but I couldn’t guarantee that this seemingly sensible dog savvy young man wouldn’t accidentally corner the dog whilst scrabbling about on the floor fixing my leak or even try and befriend the dog and make him uncomfortable causing him to growl or even snap. I dont want that situation to arise for either the sake of the plumber or my dog.
If he’d said I’m not comfortable with dogs I wouldn’t have got on the phone to the company that sent him out and blamed them for not training him how to behave around dogs.
What really worries me is the number of people on here who think a 3 yr old can be taught how to behave correctly around a dog at all times and that if they dont it’s the child fault for not doing as they were taught. This displays a worrying lack of understanding/knowledge about child development. I’m a HCP I worked in paeds A and E for 15 years and maybe this explains the worrying rise in dog bites that we were seeing especially in small children. All dog bites are reported to SS.
As dog owners we are responsible for our dogs actions, our dogs are relying on us to not put them in situations where they feel a need to bite/snap/growl or chase sheep/bite the postman etc. We cannot expect/assume other people of any age will behave correctly around our dogs. Therefore as dog owners we need to be vigilant at all times and do everything we can to ensure a situation like that described by the OP doesn’t arise.

It doesn't matter what action the minder took after the event. They clearly didn't take the right actions beforehand. It should never have happened and if I were the parent I would push for prosecution as the childminder neglected the child and allowed her / him to come to harm.

Dogs don’t need to be kept well away from the children but interactions do need to be supervised. Risk assessments, not necessarily written, have to be in place and consideration must be given to where the dogs eats and sleeps. You also need to have strategies in place to ensure the dog is kept away from the children whilst the children are eating and other similar situations. Having a dog can be an incredible learning experience and many parents will actively look for childminders who own dogs.

Clearly something has gone wrong here.

The sad thing is that this could result in the dog losing it's life. The dog may well have been scared or hurt by the child. No one can say what actually happened because they were unsupervised. The fault here lies with the childminder for putting both the child and the dog in a potentially dangerous situation.

For everyone calling for the dog to be 'PTS' or 'put down' please stop sanitizing your language and say it for what it is, you want the dog to be killed.

pts is a very common phrase meaning killed.
Not sure why using pts is annoying you.

It's entirely likely that a 3-year-old antagonised the dog and directly caused what happened.

But small kids do things like that. That's why you were paying the childminder to watch her and keep her safe. The childminder didn't.

I wouldn't use her again, and I would report. There's no explanation for why she let your child get bitten that doesn't make her unattractive as childcare provider.

You have absolutely no idea what happened so stop making shit up.

Bottom line is a childminder should not allow their dog to be in contact with children they're minding. For the safety of both child and dog. Really poor judgement on the part of the childminder.
Whatever led to this happening doesn't really matter - it happened, a child was bitten on the face and it should be reported to the relevant authorities.

I was bitten by a dog when I was a child but it was my fault. I got too close to his face and he felt threatened. We had retrievers and I would never let them alone with a child.