gutted - one of my dogs just snapped at my lo

[janmk]

lo is 14 months old. she has been trying to annoy the dogs a lot but this evening she only gave a stroke and got a lick. dh was standing right with them then my dog turned and snapped. she has a slight puncture/ scratch on her face that even though dh thinks they did not come into contact we cannot explain otherwise. We have another lo on the way .....where do we go from here ????

This is awful for you we had a springer spanial once he was a fantastic dog for my husband did exactly what he was told. But when he went out it was a different thing we could not move for him, he would lie on the stairs and if we moved him he would go for us, he bit my DS on the arm and he was only walking past him and there were other instances with him. In the end my DH took him to the vet and the dog didn't come back we thought we would be passing the problem to another family if we re homed him. What you do is up to you but how would you feel if something happened.

How old is the dog - could he/she be in pain? What breed is the dog?

You say that your dc has annoyed the dogs in the past (as we all know young children so), can your dog get away somewhere safe from dc? For example can you gate their bed off so dog can lie/sleep peacefully without being pestered?

I'm not going to tell you to have the dog put down or to get rid of it as I don't know the full circumstances and it might be that you just need to give the dog more child-free space while dc are small... can you step back from the situation and see what triggered it? What changes you could try? Is the dog usually happy round dc? Is it worth a vet check-up?

she is only 3, a rescue. i wasnt in the room but dh was. she was probably tired and lying down. dh said a minute before lo gave her a stroke and dog gave her a lick. then not long after the growly noise came
dh is unsure if it was out of the blue or if maybe lo was putting weight on dog to push to standing....i guess we will never know
currently looking at room dividers....

you say your DD was trying to annoy the dogs alot - i think you have your problem!

I'm not sure room dividers are going to cut it. A 14 month old can't "try" to annoy anything. Your dog has developed a problem with your baby. You need to take this more seriously.

Sorry, but I would be looking at rehoming the dog.

I agree with you star no dog is worth your kids getting hurt

Letting your 14 month annoy the dogs and bother them when they're lying down, pushing up to stand etc - all sounds like a very bad idea to me.

Rehome dog or child. I'm afraid that's it. Ultimately one gets a potential death threat otherwise.

A toddler isn't deliberately "annoying" the dog. They are just curious about the world. It sounds almost like you blame the toddler.

Dog should go. A puncture wound.....? Sorry but that's one wound too many IMO

Doesn't really matter what the toddler's intention is - the result is the same for the dog. That's why dogs and small children need to be kept separate and supervised.

Creature, i certainly don't blame the toddler, any more than a blame the dog - I blame the parents for not supervising adequately.

You can't be everywhere at once and should having a pet be such hard work

Of course having dogs and babies/toddlers is going to be hard work.

oh dear....maybe i regret posting this. As with a lot of posts on this site i always end up feeling like a bad pet owner or a bad parent. I do blame us but none of us are perfect 100 % of the time. Always feel like I get a good telling off from some posters on here. my dogs are rescues and have been challenging but are getting much better thanks to the hard work we put in. think we will.look at some initial solutions to give lo and the dogs more space from eachother.

surely if your dogs are rescues and challenging that is even MORE reason to be vigilant and not let your children annoy them and push up to a standing position from them. Its not about telling people off, its about expressing an opinion, i'm sorry if you don't like what you read but would you rather people say "ah don't worry, it will be fine, the dog was having a bad day"

In the 7.5 years of DS's life with mistledog, we had two growl / annoyed yaps from mistledog - each time DS got told off immediately. DS was not allowed to do anything that would annoy the dog, he had to be very gentle with her, was not allowed to lean on her in any way. Yes, this took some policing, but it was doable.

Your dog needs somewhere safe where it can go where there is absolutely no interference from any child - some people find a crate is ideal, often with something over the top - but your child must learn that it is the dog's private area and they cannot interact with the dog in any way whilst it is there.

Work on the positive interaction (very closely supervised, holding the child's hand for strokes etc if necessary. Give the child small biscuits to throw for the dog.

This happened to us. We rehomed the dog. We couldn't rehome our DD obviously so there was no choice. Similar injury too.

How fair is it to expect the dog to understand the toddler is only 14 months and not to snap if he's being annoyed!!
In my experience dogs snap to say BACK OFF and if your dog felt the need to express that then your toddler needs to back off! If that's not possible then find the dog somewhere to live where he can be expected to be a dog and no more than that.
I was snapped at and bitten by a dog when I was 12 - I had gone after him when he went into his bed and continued petting him - not realising that he'd gone to his bed to get away from me. My parents had no sympathy for me saying at that age I should've known better and now I realise they were right, I would never let small children pester my dog - who is very placid and has been through two of my lo's toddler stage but they wouldn't have been allowed touch her except gently and under supervision.

duffle like dogs, toddlers don't understand and unless it is possible to watch both at ALL times, then I would advise the OP not to have a dog. She's got no choice about the toddler.

So what do people who are suggesting the dog has to go think will happen to the dog? Go away to live on a farm?

It's going to be hard keeping them apart and it's only going to get harder when the other baby comes along.

First thing you need to do is stop your DC from pushing herself up on the dog and to not disturb him when he is lying down/sleeping/eating etc.

I would rehome tbh.

I have a staffy. Luckily she is the most laid back placid dog going but if she snapped at my children and left a wound, especially on the face could so easily have been her eye, she'd be out, it would be heartbreaking but I just wouldn't be able to trust her. I'd probably contemplate rehoming the children first though. summer holiday madness

Sadly with children and dogs you do have to be on the ball 100% of the time because if you're not that will be the occasion that someone gets bitten . It is fairly simple to keep dogs and children apart unless they are being properly supervised ,all you need is a few baby gates . My children were bought up around my mums very snappy terriers and no one got bitten ,likewise my mum keeps her terriers away from her indoor cat ,yes you have to be vigilant but that's not too difficult if you want to keep your dog .