Brother’s dog attacked my 2 year old

[ADR25]

Hi,
Looking for some advice. Me,my husband and our 2 year old were at my mum’s house for a family lunch yesterday. My brother has recently moved back in with my mum with his dog (a British bulldog). The dog has always been boisterous but yesterday my son was standing quietly in the garden holding hands with my husband about 6 feet from the dog and she just went for him and had her mouth around his leg. Fortunately she did not puncture the skin but he was obviously very scared and upset. Me and my husband are very shaken up too (particularly my husband who witnessed it and was in floods of tears) and he is saying he doesn’t want him in the same house as the dog ever again. According to gov.uk aggressive behaviour is against the law.
My mum supports us and says the dog needs to go to kennels when she has my son overnight and needs to be elsewhere when she has him on Fridays, although we’ve said she could just have him at our house. Yesterday my brother was very remorseful and talked about rehoming her as her behaviour in general has been concerning. But today he is adamant that he’s not rehoming her and my stepdad says my mum should just see our son at our house.
So my son is not welcome at his grandparent’s house because we’re afraid he might be mauled to death?
It would be another story if it had happened to my stepdad’s precious daughter or granddaughter.

Dog trainer here. This dog is clearly struggling to cope and your family do not understand how to keep her from being in situations beyond her limits. The kindest thing for the dog is to be helped by professionals. Ie- a qualified behaviourist. Would your brother agree to that in lieu of you reporting it?
Absolutely the dog should not be around children in the meantime - or quite possibly forever. Reactive behaviour is often only manageable rather than curable. As an aside, the fact that no skin was broken is a massive positive, in that the dog has shown bite inhibition. If she intended to harm, she would have done. That’s not to diminish the seriousness of the situation of course and these cases generally get more serious with each ‘event’ but shows your brother is still at a point where a professional might gauge it is an improvable situation

Cross posted. No not training - they need a full behaviour assessment from a qualified behaviourist
Training classes will do absolutely nothing towards fixing this issue

It’s very simple. Take emotion out of the situation. The dog is aggressive and attacked a small child. The dog has displayed worrying behaviour recently as well.

Report your brother and the dog to the police. Your DC never goes to the house when the dog is there. Period.

I understand this will upset your brother and your mum but rather that than have the dog maul or kill your child in the future.

You have to report it. Unfortunately.

You could do so via the GP or HV if that makes it easier.... get child seen on Monday. They have a duty of care to report on, or to have notes to say they told you too..... and then you will have to.

The dog is potentially dangerous and you would never forgive yourself if an other child was badly injured or worse.

And your child must never go to that house without your personal supervision ever again. Personally I wouldn't trust that dog even with a muzzle on.

Very distressing as a family.

I'd leave it a few days and see where things land before being too full on with the family but don't let that bond up you making a report.

It is Your mum's house so she needs to feel safe too.

So sorry this has happened.

My dad and brother share a Rottweiler. My daughter does not go to either of their houses if the dog is there

I decided this about a year ago after my DD now 5 got scared as it is poorly trained and very boisterous and my father brought it back inside after putting it outside for less than five minutes then made fun of my DD for being scared

My rule is now set in stone. Children's safety comes first

Any dog that's bites/attacks somebody should be reported to the police. All the info is online op

Personally I'd be reporting the attack to the police especially with their attitude but that's just me🤷🏽‍♀️

This. You need to report it. It doesn't matter that there could be fall out, you could be protecting other children.

Thank you. My brother has apparently been talking about taking her to training but whether he actually does or not is anyone’s guess. This morning he allowed his girlfriend to take the dog for a walk to the park off the lead, so clearly has no concerns about her attacking another child. Even if she does see a trainer, there’s no way my husband will change his mind.

Could you maybe talk to the gp, ask them to chat with your son and get the GP to report it? Then you can tell family that your son mentioned it off his own back and the gp said they had no choice- kind of allows you to claim you didn’t want to report it but had to..or nursery…

I would be reporting this, fuck the potential fall out, what is more important your son or a fucking aggressive dog? If it attacked another child or adult and caused injuries or death can you turn a blind eye because it's family?

You need to report this to the police. Whether it causes a family fall out is irrelevant, this dog could go on to attack another person with much worse consequences. Edited to add if your brother and dad are this irresponsible they wouldn’t be welcome around my child either. They allow the thing to attack a 17 year old dog? God they sound delightful.

The dog was off a lead out walking?? Some of your family are seriously fucked up.

woah letting this dog off lead in a park? you need to take control now before the dog does something terrible

No vet will recommend rehoming a dog with behavioural issues. Its just passing the buck.

There are some things you just can't train out of a dog or be assured that they won't happen again, so it would be unethical for a vet to say that they think the dog would do better living elsewhere as it could just cause more problems with another family.

Training is for obedience, but you just can't change the temperament of dogs just the same as you can't change the temperament of people.

I don’t think my son remembers it now to report it to nursery and wouldn’t be able to verbally recount it anyway but I have considered speaking to the health visitor. He was very unsettled going to sleep last night and was then up at 4 for 2 hours before crashing out in our bed. But we saw lots of dogs when we went out today and he was fine and smiling at them like he always does. I’m relieved it hasn’t made him scared of animals .

I would report the dog. Even if you fall out with some family members. Better that then the dog hurting someone in the future

Gosh, after that update about being off leash in the park, the sooner you report to the police, the better. Please, for the sake of all the other children who haven't had the warning shot you and yours did.

If it had its mouth around his leg but didn't leave any marks I'd be more inclined to think of it as a training issue rather than aggression. It's a strong breed, if it wanted to bite him it would have.

This sounds like more of a grab or dominance thing which can often be more of a problem than just plain aggression because its not about triggers, its just instinct to be billy big bollocks. If it wants to be 'in charge' so to speak and is willing to physically assert itself over him then I wouldn't be letting any child near it. As they get older and start acting less submissive to it, is it going to escalate the behaviour?

I wouldn't go as far as reporting it because what are you going to say? The dog did not leave a mark or break the skin? They've got better things to do and will ignore you. But I'd want that dog muzzled and no way should it be around children of any age and I wouldn't trust it with smaller animals either. If they're smart, they'll get a trainer but doesn't sound like they are.

Do NOT let your children near it, even supervised. It doesn't sound aggressive as such, its not that so there may not be any warnings before it goes for him.

It would be non negotiable for me. I wouldn't go back there as long as the dog is there. I have a dog, dogs and kids need to be carefully managed but this is way beyond manageable now.
My dog is slightly spooked when around kids when they are loud and running around. No kids in the family, so she's not used to them, but I've noticed this during the holidays when out walking. I manage this by ensuring I am in control of the dog. She's not aggressive but a scared dog is a risk. Any responsible owner would do this.
Your brother has laid his cards on the table, as have your parents.
Follow your instincts, stay away.

I had a very similar situation a couple years ago, my DS was around 6 months old.
We have a dog of our own and I absolutely adore all animals but I swore that day we wouldn't be going back into that house while the dog was there. The inlaws are welcome to our house whenever they want, but, my children's safety is priority over anyone else's hurt feelings.
I think you need to trust your gut and stick to your decision. You'd never forgive yourself if anything did happen to your kids or someone else's. X

This sounds like a very poorly trained dog. It's worrying that the owner does not seem to see it as a problem.

yeah, I’m suggesting you can just have that conversation with a professional, explain it like you have on here, get them to chat to your son briefly and then they may be able to report on your behalf. Don’t know if it would work but it might, and could cause less stress than reporting your brother which will likely cause a shitstorm.
also, why were the parents of the other kids allowing the dog near them? They obviously knew it wasn’t safe. Not cool

Don't take your son to the house again. Report the dog attack to the police. If it causes a falling out with your brother, too bad. If that dog attacks another child because you said nothing, how will you feel then? It's totally irresponsible of your brother/mother to keep the dog after it's bitten your son.

In your position I wouldn't be letting my son in that house unless I knew with certainty that the dog wouldn't be there.

If that means you won't be there at Christmas then so be it. Safety comes first and you wouldn't forgive yourself if something happened.

Your brother doesn't seem to be taking this seriously enough, which is concerning.

This might be a daft question, but can a British bulldog be muzzled? They don't seem to have proper muzzles, just sort of squished up noses, poor things don't look like they could pant or breathe properly.