My dog has bitten my toddler - new home needed urgently or PTS within 2 weeks

[lil88]

P is a former rescue lurcher dog is 7 years old and has been with us for over 3 years and been in and out of foster homes before we had her. It was not until we had her for a few months that we found out one of the reasons she was given up for fostering was because she has bitten a toddler climbing into her bed. She also has nervous aggression with other dogs which was only apparent after a few months with us and still suffers from separation anxiety. To cut a long story short, My husband and I were fortunate to have a baby nearly 18 months after we had homed P. With a young baby to cope with we knew it would be difficult to give P the attention she needed and also we had some concerns about the risk of P biting the baby at some stage and therefore had her up for rehoming at EXXX where she came from. However we have not had any one interested and despite our attempts to enquire with other rehoming centres, we have drawn a blank as they have either told us, to return her to EXXX, she was a difficult dog to rehome, or they had a long waiting list. Further EXXX has not come up with an appropriate foster home for her nor will take P back. Our baby is now a 23 months old strong minded child and she and P always compete for our attention. Indeed our LO can be rough with P who has generally responded with baring her teeth at our LO or run away from her. We have tried to tell our LO to be gentle with P otherwise she would be bitten but she does not listen. Things came to a head on Sunday, when my LO was bitten on the wrist by P after when our LO had patted her quite strongly and lost her balance and fell on P. This took place at the doorway of my kitchen. This incident has not fazed our LO and I only fear that matters will escalate. I am afraid that our LO's safety is our priorty and although P is not to blame for the incident due to the nature of our LO, we can not risk any future incidents which could end up with a worse result for my LO. We have decided that if P can not be taken in by one of the dog charities, we will arrange for her to be put to sleep in 2 weeks time. So can anyone provide a kennel or foster home or home P. We are based in Worcestershire.
This has also been posted in Lurcherlink appeals for help

It is my personal and professional opinion that sitting on a dog is mistreatment and is beyond the realms of what is reasonable. You may find my opinions ridiculous if you wish.

leave soveryhard alone ffs! This animal is not being abused. The owner sounds responsible and like she knows what she is doing and more importantly, she knows the dog's limits. This is a personal attack on her, leave her alone! The dog is hardly being rodeo ridden for hours on end! Calm down everyone!

I'm much less concerned about her dog than I am about her children. I don't see an attack anywhere.

Thanks nuggets don't worry about me - I find it amusing that people who believe you can't telll if a dog is happy/unhappy in a situation, think they can dish out advice.

DCs and poor mistreated dog are currently playing knights, in which dog is Gallagad, DS is Mike the Knight and DD is Evie.

There is a small (toy) knife through her collar and she is charging around the house with the DCs.

When she has had enough of this, she will no doubt go and lie down in her basket, if she wants a rest, she will lie down in the hall just outside the main room, which for the information of those who believe you can't tell what a dog wants, means she wants her basket brought into the hall so she can chill in it while having company.

Oh and as I type - she has done exactly that, she is in her basket, DCs are with me.

Of course she is poor, abused and mistreated.

No wonder people think the advice dished out here is over hysterical and slightly insane. That would be because it is.

Once DS was crawling he would go and lie with his head on the dog, weave his fingers into her fur etc. I would go and lift him off and move him to another part of the room. She would stand up, glare at me and huff, and then go lie against him and nudge him until he snuggled in again.

He learnt to walk by leaning on her, and his first word was her name - which we didn't recognise, but if he shouted this particular word, she'd come charging up to him, no matter what she was up to.

It is seriously hard to teach a toddler to respect the dog when the dog is the one breaking the rules, so I understand what Sovery is saying. So long as the dog can walk away, that is all that is needed.

Yes quite - thank you.

Dog is very happy here - I have lovely pictures of dog fast asleep and DC fast asleep with head on her.

She does have enough of them and then she walks away.

It's a pleasure to watch then all play together - we have been incredibly lucky with her - she is so good natured. When they were babies she would sleep under the pram while they were napping. I think it's because we got her just before dc was born so they have grown up together.

Sovery, you sound like a lovely parent and dog owner.

Thank you, today dh and brat1 ds went for a bike ride with dog, while I and brat2 dd toddled along behind.

Dog has played football and knights and is currently sleeping in basket.

I've been back over the thread and read out the funniest bits to dh, the DCs running wild, being brats and our dog being abused and mistreated while she tolerates her life with DCs amused him most.

mrszoldberg what an absolutely lovely post love that your dog got up and went over toddler to resume snuggles sobery u sound like a lovely mum and dog owner. Some people on here a very unhinged

Clearly. :)

*are

With regard to the OP, just wanted to add that I emailed the rescue concerned yesterday, which has come in for a lot of stick on this thread. Understandably, they have a policy of not getting sucked in to these sorts of public debates. However, they have said that they are delighted to answer any questions, concerns etc. about this case or any aspect of their work if people want to email them. I'd urge anyone who has expressed concerns to contact them. Please PM me if you would like the contact details.

Personally think there's a big difference between a scared dog giving a warning mouthy type nip, and a proper bite with blood drawn etc. Sounds as though the dog gave the former rather than the latter and I think many really gentle dogs might do that if fallen on. Certainly I have had a friend's dog do that when I trod on a paw by accident, and it was very different from full on aggression. I think the OP sounds too inexperienced for this dog and should have never taken her on to start with. I hope she finds a quiet home with adults where she can be looked after properly.

scuttle a bit surprised as surely OP entitled to privacy. This is meant to be a site where people can post without being noted in RL. By alerting rescue place you've outted op to them which IMO is bang out of order and breaches mn code I'd have thought.

Actually quite you did this and fairly stalkerish too.

Outed not noted

^wot MamaMaiasura said^

Not comfortable with what scuttle's done at all.

Scuttle hasn't breached OPs privacy at all. She hasn't named the Rescue (which the OP actually did, herself, on LL), nor the OP, and hasn't directed the rescue to this thread. She has offered to be a 'middleman' for any questions about the Rescue should someone have one.

The OP was a little more 'vocal' on LL, leading other people to express surprise and annoyance at the Rescue. This way the Rescue can correct any notions of wrongdoing on its behalf.

What is LL? And is it attached to mumsnet?

Agree with LtEve - I don't see where she has outed anyone

Lurcher Link I think

That the rescue centre now know she has posted her and could see another other threads (in dog related) should they wish. Therefore she has bee outed to them.

Dh stupidly told my dsis my mn name and specific topic is posted on because he thought she'd find it interesting. He didn't consider that I have other posts which aren't for her to see. Had to change my mnet name ad delete that thread, quick.

Yes, Lurcher Link, and no, it's not connected to MN.

Well then, what has what she posts on another site have to do with here? As in, just because she outed herself there, it doesn't give clearance ere iyswim. This site isn't just about dogs

Where does Scuttle say she told the Rescue that OP had posted on MN, or her MN posting name?

Far more likely that Scuttle went to the Rescue via LL.

9/6 23:16 I can't copy as paste but from what I can see she emailed them about the stick on this thread. They can't get involved in "public" debate and would answer questions via email.