Urgent help needed please - dog bit toddler.

[WheresMaHairyToe]

Rescued my dog 7 months ago, he was a stray and is between 3 and 5 years old. Lab/ lurcher type mongrel.
He has been wonderful - quick response to training in the home, not quite 100% on toileting but getting there, fantastic with my kids (all over 8.)
Today, we were at the beach for a couple of hours with my 3 plus 5 assorted niece and nephews. Dog completely fine.
Got home, everyone settled, kids playing in garden. Dog took himself to bed in another room. 2 year old niece followed. Nobody witnessed what happened, but niece was bitten on the face. Small cut and bruising - bad enough!
My brother wants the dog out of my house. He isn't insisting on PTS. I rang 4 shelters, all said he was not able to be rehomed, so would be destroyed.
I've put him in kennels to give us all some breathing space, and am waiting on two shelters calling me back. He had never shown a single sign of aggression before this, but apparently did not growl before biting. My brother got to him seconds after the bite, and said he was also aggressive to him.
I got home about 10 mins after bite to a very unhappy dog.
I am heart broken, I don't know what to do. I am considering building him an outdoor run and muzzling him when he's near children, but that seems awful.
Sorry if this is incoherent. I'm in a bit of a state!
Please help with advice if you can! Or if you know of a no- kill shelter anywhere in NI.

id get my own dog PTS if she bit my childs face

I'm not a doggy person, mainly because I'm always worried they're going to bite me (!!) but my daughter loves them and has had a few warning snaps/movements from other people's dogs, none of which have actually touched her - just warnings - and this has been with the owners holding the dogs and me holding dd!! I just think that dogs and small children really can't be trusted together. Small children do things to animals (like fingers in eyes, pulling tails, fingers up bottoms as one pp reported earlier) and you can't blame a dog for snapping. After all, it can't say "Please stop that" can it? I think your niece should never have been left unsupervised with a dog in the house, and the OP is doing all she can to remedy a situation which is actually of her brother's making.

No dog is safe with a small child, and no small child is safe with a dog. Similarly cats - they don't always bite, because they can scratch. And scratch they do. Dogs don't have that option.

I knoe op wasnt there.

But this is why my dog is cratr trained and not allowed around children if me or dh arent there.

I would not have my dog pts because an unsupervised child hurt the dog and it retaliated.

I dont allow my kids around pets unsupervised either its actually the brothers fauly

Your DB will need to seek medical care for his dd, not just for the injury, but also due to the chance of infection. In our area a child under 5 attending with a dog bite for medical care gets reported to the police. This may be out of your hands depending on what they say.

Sad because this definitely sounds like a supervision issue of the toddler, poor dog. Thing is you can't take the risk. Do you know anyone who could rehome the dog who does not have children, a single older person maybe?

7 months. Or 200 odd days.

Since Christmas.

That's how long OP has had that dog.

Frankly she bas no idea what it is capable of yet or what it has been capable of in the past.

Yet all the dog lovers on here blaming anyone else and looking for any solution but to get rid of the dog.

If the op wants to risk her children and everyone elses for a stray who cant even be toileted at that age then words fail me.

Frankly she bas no idea what it is capable of yet or what it has been capable of in the past.

No who has a dog or any pet knows what they are capable of when they are hurt. Thats why you dont leave them alone with young kids. As the ops brother did.

How many days they have had the dog is not relevant at all.

A human child you are related to and your own brother or a dog you've had 5 mins that has such a poor background it cant even shit outside and now has bitten a child in the face.

That's the choice.

I can't believe how blind dog lovers are.

Not blind at all just exploring g all other possibilities before leaping to kneejerk pts conclusion. Dogs aren't just throwaway Poundland bits of tat, this was an incident with extenuating circumstances, op is absolutely right to consider other options.

People use the term dog lover as if it's an insult. Strange.

I wonder how the "PTS brigade" would react if someone, a child for example, would fall on top of you while sleeping... or you get repeatedly poked and prodded and you have said no don't for the 100's time.
And when you finally snap, some guy -about 10x bigger than you- is having a go at you.
Of course it's easy to condemn the dog (it's only an animal), but we all would defend ourselves in the above scenario. Unfortunately dog does not speak human and only has teeth to defend - op has done the absolute right thing by keeping the dog.
So, PTS people, next time you feel like walking away because someone is annoying don't! Enjoy being tormented, because that is what you are asking of our pets.

That dog is a living breathing animal. It reacted how animals do when they are threatened or hurt.

The child acted like a 2 year. Who can not grasp consquences.

So the dog acted like a dog and the child acted like a child.

The person responsible for the child is the person responsible for what happened.

I woild not put a living being down because it did what comes naturally, when someone else didnt do what they were suppossed to.

That dog is a living breathing animal yes but should not be homed with children.

He's fine with the OP's older children and she is putting management in place for when there are other strange younger children around. Totally responsible.