Please help, my dog bit someone

[Lisa231186]

I can’t believe I’m even having to think about this let alone write for advice but I just don’t know who to turn to and I’m so lost.
Some back story. I have a 3 year old male (neutered) Alaskan malamute. I know everyone says “my dog has never shown aggression” but hand on heart he never has. In fact, he’s sort of known locally for being so friendly and a bit of a dope if I’m honest. He loves people, he’s a fluffy sort of handsome dog and gets a lot of attention. And absolutely loves it. Loves being petted. Has only ever been very docile. We have 3 children who adore him and and who he adores. I’ve always been sensible as I know he’s a dog at the end of the day but never has any fear or worry of him being touched, petted, played with. When people have asked to to pet him I have always said yes he’s friendly. It’s hard to put into this short space just how friendly he’s been until now.
So, on Thursday, I was walking him (it’s usually me who walks him) he was on lead and just walking calmly next to me. We saw our local postman (who knows us and my dog by name) and he said hello (our names) we went to say hi. He was petting bear, and he sort of lent over him and got down to his face. And out of nowhere it felt, my dog bit his lip. I pulled him back as quickly as I could but it was too late. My dog didn’t pull to get back he just sat there didn’t show any further aggression. I know it was still aggression in first instance just want to explain he wasn’t sort of savaging him.
I immediately called 999 myself, the operator asked me what the dog was doing now and he was sat there like nothing had happened. I was a wreck. I’ve never felt so bad for someone and so guilty. They told me to secure him. I live a few minutes away from where it happened so I ran back and secured him in the house and went back to help the postman. By now people had come out of their houses understandably and it was a bit of a witch hunt of me being told what have I done etc. I was really crying and trying to help the post man who kept saying “it was an accident” but I felt like no it was my dog and this is my fault. Anyway, he really didn’t want an ambulance but he called his friend to take him to a local walk in centre and I waited for him to go. I called 101 when I got back and said I need to report what has happened. They told me it had already been done by the 999 operator and I needed to wait to hear from a police officer. I had a call around an hour later from a police lady. She explained she had spoken to the postman, a witness and the dog warden and they had decided it was an accident, not an attack. And that there would be no further action. She said the postman had been adamant he wanted no further action.
But I didn’t feel relieved, I am struggling to explain how I feel. I just never in a million years thought this could happen. I guess I feel like the trust is gone. And with having kids I think I’m catastrophising thinking what if it was a child, one my children, what if he was more badly injured and again, I just never thought this would ever be something he would do.
Since then, I’ve contacted the dogs trust for advice. I’ve booked him in for a vet appointment which is tomorrow. Explained to them, they were shocked too as they know him and couldn’t believe it as he’s always been so gentle and sweet even when having not so nice things done. I’ve also paid for a dog behaviourist to come to my home on Tuesday. He’s been great, he put my mind at rest a bit and has said it could be a totally isolated incident but of course before he meets us doesn’t know a lot more than about what happened Thursday. Both the vets and dog behaviourist have said try not to treat him too differently. But that’s the thing I can’t. I’m so worried, I’m on edge, anxious. I feel so scared of him even being around my kids now. I’ve been getting up at 5:30 to walk him before anyone is around and taking him out late at night in the evening. I keep saying it but I just can’t explain this feeling I have, I’ve never had it before. It’s like I just can’t believe he did it and I’m so fearful that it could happen again.
We’ve explained to the kids (the vet gave us this advice) that he has been feeling under the weather so to give him more space than usual. But even with them doing that, I’m just so on edge. My partner thinks I’m in a bit of shock from the whole thing. I don’t know, all I know is it feels like he was my best friend (he is a mummy’s boy we spend all our time together) to me now, if I’m honest a bit scared of.

He didn’t attack though. He defended his space. There’s a big difference. The OP has discussed this with vets, the police, the dogs trust and a behaviourist. They all sound like they agree that this wasn’t an attack. The OP sounds like she’s being very sensible.

I've just read this whole thread and I feel for you. I have a 10 year old German Shepherd. We got her as a 5 year old rescue and she'd been mistreated, but is so food with people. The one thing she really hates is men looming over her. We realised this first a friend of ours leaned right down onto her face and she air snapped at him. It was a warning to keep away from her, but frightened the life out of him. I'm always careful to tell people not to lean over her. I never let small children approach her as they'd be at face level and I'm not taking a chance.
We get a lot of people asking to pet her. Sometimes I say yes, but I'll also say that she's had enough and needs to be left alone. I can tell from her body language.
I'm glad you're giving yours a second chance. Now you're aware, you can make sure that he gets space from too many people.

Sure, any dog could bite. But not all dogs do. We've got more than enough dogs about, we don't need to keep the massive ones that bite faces.

I agree, that’s harsh!

Do as your vet suggests keep off this site for a while. I’ve read some of the VILE comments. You’re shocked and upset, give yourself some time to work it out. You know that he could be rehomed, you have a back up plan.

I’m wishing you all the best for the future with your dog, you need to decide what’s best for you, your family and your dog, take care 🤗

It was a nip. Your dog hasnt attacked anyone

The dog nipped someone’s lip, who was leaning over him. I think you are totally overreacting. Putting to sleep for one (smallish) bite?

I don’t get in my dog’s face (who loves me) because I know it makes her uncomfortable. I certainly wouldn’t get in anyone else’s dog’s face.

But, you can muzzle him when you’re out, if it helps you to relax. It wasn’t an attack- he sat back down; it was a ‘get away’.

You can take steps at home so that the dog is contained if your children have friends round, or if there are any other visitors.

You can make absolutely sure that your children know not to get in his face too.

You are doing all the right things, but you need to relax a bit too- be careful but don’t let it consume you.

Even though people on here from rehoming charities say they rehome dogs that have bitten?

Well, the fact that shelters do this does not excuse the practice. Shelters are faced with a lot of dicey dogs who they are desperate to rehome. And, I hate to say this, but a lot of people who work for animal shelters are.....pretty peculiar people , with a strong tendency to over-sentimentalize animals at the expense of humans.

Fwiw. I don't think she needs to euthanize the dog. I do think she should muzzle in public and use a reactive dog-signifying lead. It's just not good enough to say, well people shouldn't get in the dog's face. A child could do this simply by being dog-face-height. An adult could do this by accident. Muzzle please.

From my experience, and I’ve only got this one to go by as never dealt with a rehoming centre before. They have been very thorough about the incident. I was asked things like, how is he at the vets, the groomers. All of which we’ve never had a problem. The opposite in fact. They went really into detail about exactly what happened. I think (again I don’t know) if you was to describe an incident like some of the ones that have been shared here. Having to fight the dog off, an attack etc the outcome might be different and they might not be able to help. I guess it’s a case by case basis.

Glad things went relatively well at the vets @Lisa231186 and good luck for today’s visit

Please try to ignore the baying mob on here. There are some utterly ludicrous posts from people who clearly know absolute nothing about dogs. Keep in mind that every person on here who has identified themselves as either a professional or stated a wide ranging level of experience have backed up what the professionals on the ground have been saying to you. PTS is not even vaguely on my radar from the history here and I have no qualms suggesting it when the need arises generally
I don’t think you are over reacting though for what it’s worth to be considering rehoming Clearly your dog will have to be strictly managed around people from now on and that is damn hard to achieve in a houseful of children and in a suburban setting, with the type of lifestyle that goes along with that. Add to that your obvious and understandable mistrust now you’ve had this incident and how that will affect you all moving forwards. If keeping him will have to mean a huge amount of segregation from the family and a heap of worry for you, then the kindest thing for him would be to rehome him with full disclosure as you have, so a home that’s prepared to take on his ‘warts and all’ personality without children in a quieter home can be found - the rescue you’ve talked to sound fab

Good grief OP; I wondered how things were going and can see some comments are just not helpful and remind me of a crowd baying for blood!
You're doing everything (and more) to sort your situation and some people.....rude at best and some downright offensive. Calling people morons is absolutely disgusting

I wish you luck with your dog as it comes across that you love him ❤️ but want the best solution.

I can show a picture of what happened to me when a supposedly friendly dog attacked me in a patients home.

My postman was also attacked by a neighbours friendly dog - he ended up needing skin grafts and was off work for months. The police ensured the dog was put down.

it wasn’t a life changing injury physically for me but I don’t want dogs anywhere near me now. You go to a pub and people have dogs there - ‘oh they’re just being friendly’ - there could be that one time they turn and that terrifies me. If a dog has done it once it can do it again.

You may feel awful but that dog has shown what it’s capable of

Fxxk off you idiot who obviously knows nothing about dogs!!!

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Just get a muzzle for him to wear when he is in public. Feed him treats through it so that he is happy enough to wear it. It will not be an ordeal for him. Everything will be fine and you will know for certain that n
othing similar can ever happen again. (The postman seems like a good and decent guy).

We had a golden retriever years ago who ran up to a bull mastiff who reacted badly and had him around the neck for a full 10 minutes, blood everywhere. It took my Dad to get him off eventually and he got bitten in the process and owner just stood looking on.

That is an attack. I feel that it was the postie leaning over his face that caused him to react on this occasion. He might have been feeling under the weather, he may have been more protective towards you as he could sense you hadn't been well. If he meant to cause serious injury he would have done.

I think using muzzle might make you feel a bit easier when you're taking him out and shows the neighbourhood you are addressing the issue.

You're doing all you can and have been very responsible since the incident. Putting him down for us animal lovers would be like putting one of our children down. Give it a good old think before you think rehoming. Your dog trainer will give you a lot of advice as to whether he can be trusted with the kids but I feel with a bit of time it will be resolved x

Excellent point
Dogs oftentimes just jump up to greet & might accidentally hurt someone 💚

Luckily the vet isn't going to do this given that they don't even think a muzzle is appropriate.

I think it sounds like you have a standup dog there who you and your family have a wonderful relationship with. There are quite a few suggestions to re-home him that I can see so just wanted to offer a different perspective.

My dog is a small dog (a Shih Tzu) who is absolutely wonderful with the kids and lots of people say that if they know they could have a dog like him they would get a dog in an instant. However I do need to be careful with him, especially around dogs that are larger than him because he sees it as threatening behaviour if they come up close to him quickly. Learning over him causes him to react to defend himself offensively, which makes total sense, especially given he was actually attacked twice by very large dogs when he was just a young pup (being so fluffy he almost looked like a guinea pig or bunny). I realise this is not the back story for your dog but just when you think about it this is nature on both sides - to protect themselves if they sense danger and to chase smaller animals.

There are a few things I have noticed with my dogs behaviour too that seems to echo your issue:

• if it is just me and him he is more protective. I guess he feels he is taking on the Alfa role in our family, a.k.a pack when my hubby is not around. He has also been know to be more protective when my children have been young babes in arms.
• If he is on a lead and the other dog isn't, there is a sense that he cannot protect himself or me as fully as that other dog can attack. Therefore he is normally first to scare off the other dog with a noise (genuinely a case of bark is worse than bite but some people have been scared by it before and told me off for allowing him to do it, as if I control the noise my dog makes when he is scared!).

I think what has happened is that the post man came upon him so quickly he misjudged the situation as a threat. It sounds like he is a slightly older dog/not a puppy. Is there a chance this could have something to do with it?. I.e. is he losing his sight in one eye or something that meant he did not see the post man as quickly as usual.

I think that while it is good to be sensible, and you have done and are doing everything you possibly can to get on top of the situation, you should accept that the person it happened to is not pressing changes and was quite insistent about it. Everyone else who were part of the 'witch hunt' you mentioned were either not there at the time or did not see what happened as well as you postman, you and your dog did.

My sincerest hope is that you are not too quick to re-home or put down your wonderful sounding dog, he is clearly a member of your family. I am so glad you have a dog behaviourist involved as he can work with you around it but remember that from your dogs point of view he was probably trying to protect you and now is getting a wide berth from everyone in the family as a reward for his protective behaviour that was almost certainly second nature. Dogs often don't understand things done later as being linked to behaviour even earlier the same day: he will be feeling the isolation and not understand why.

At the end of the day the witch hunt people can do one, some people just love the drama and they will no doubt forget anyway. The people that matter can see you are doing everything in your power to help rectify the issue and are assuring you it is nothing to be overly concerned about. I would get a Julius-K9 harness with a message like 'easily startled' if you are worried and then you won't need to keep asking people to back away. The people who know him will no doubt still say hi as normal but it just helps protect you against the worry when out.

Best of luck and hopefully you sort it all out soon.

Please do not rehome the family pet..he's never done this before and even the postman knows he's done wrong by probably spooking him..yes you have kids but they're not tiny..the dog does not know what's going on and you're treating him so bad..do not listen to the idiots saying have him out down..

I'm sorry but people who are putting comments like this are not dog lovers, they are the sort of people who cross the road when they see a dog to avoid it.

That is fine in the street but on here they are just putting their views over as fact. Your responsibility to yourself, your family, your dog and your local community is to take every measure, and you are already doing that. Well done you, ignore these nitwits!