Dog has bitten my 7 year old

[DharmaBums]

I'm hoping for some advice. My son has recently been diagnosed with ADHD and sensory processing issues along with anger issues. Put simply he's really hard to handle! Yesterday he had a full blown anger episode, smashing things up, screaming at me, etc. in the middle of all my (75lb) English Bulldog bit his hand quite severely and we ended up in ER. My bulldog is pretty chilled out but very protective of me and I think he was probably feeling stressed out with all the noise, etc. my question is what can I do now.,it's going to break my heart to PTS but I don't know whether he will be easy to rehome after biting a child. He's only 2 years old. Any words of wisdom?

Either regime the dog or regime the child. If neither is possible the dog will have to be pts

Yes they were our cats, we never had dogs before, so having Huskies as a first dog was a shocking learning curve

Perhaps you should have studied the breed before subjecting your cats to them then? 😡

Poor things must have been terrified

That post really upset me.

CallMeKate

No its not acceptable, it was a pretty stressful and traumatic time, granted we should have done some research before we rescued them, but nothing ever goes to plan.

Some breeds are definitely better suited to domestication than others. Huskies are definitely a breed not suited to the UK.

Didn't set out to upset people but its reality of our experience

Depends on how bad. Almost every dog I came across has bitten a small child (that’s Why I tell people no matter what, do NOT trust your dog with small children.) But they nip and do not cause bleeding. If he ripped the skin off or something similar, time for him to have a new home.

The husky post is disgusting. Why would you post something like that?

So a further update. I called my vet today to see what his opinion was...the dog is currently taking a short course of steroids which the vet says has a tendency to cause short-term aggression. I'm so flipping confused! This hasn't helped our decision at all. Not helped by the vet telling us what a placid, calm dog he is!

granted we should have done some research before we rescued them

Oh you think? Irresponsible idiot. The rescue place were also completely stupid to let you rehome huskies with cats.

I can't believe someone would get two huskies when they already had cats. What a stupid thing to do.

OP that does complicate it. I was going to say dog definitely needs to be rehomed for the safety of everyone (Inc dog), but obviously if dog only really reacted due to the meds, that's different.

Although I think most dogs would react like that if they feel their main carer is under attack - which is how that situation would look from dogs perspective.

Key things that I think you should consider;

• Is there a clear build up in your DS before a meltdown properly starts? If yes could you guarantee that you could quickly send dog into another room/outside before the shouting or physical outbursts actually start? If yes then it's possible you could keep dog, with planning and preparation to prevent dog ever being present during one of your DS's meltdowns.
• do you think you would be able to deal with getting dog out of room, whilst your DS is going towards meltdown point (it's something that wouldn't necessarily be easy to do, when actually in the situation - depends very much on you, your DS and dog).

If any of that is no or only a maybe, re-home for everyone's safety. If it's all a confident yes then, you need to work out exactly how you'll manage various scenarios and do practices on getting dog out of room fast, etc.

There is no reason to get dog pts, as I think you've already realised, he just needs either a home completely away from that kind of behaviour, or to stay where he is but with strict protocols in place to ensure he's not caught up in a situation like that again.

Dog owners spend less time researching their puppy than their shoes before purchase
www.vettimes.co.uk/news/damning-kc-research-exposes-buying-habits/

kurst is a classic example.

Sorry, this isn't about OP managing her ds so the dog feels settled. This is about her son. He has the right to live in his own house without fear of being attacked by his dog. Which is what it was. This wasn't a situation where he accidentally stood on the dog and the dog bit in defence. Your son was having a melt down and the dog ran to him and bit him to the extent he needed treatment. Yes, it was a high stress situation and probably wouldn't have happened otherwise so technically wasn't the dogs "fault", but I think most attacks could be justified from the dogs point of view if you really tried. You have a son who has additional needs that makes this situation very likely to happen again and your dog cannot be trusted. By the sounds of what happened I wouldn't trust him around any child, whose to say how he will react to any noisy shreaky situation and the level of damage he has the potential to inflict is not worth the risk. Put your son first and rehome the dog.

Would just like to post that we have a husky age 4. Had her from 8 weeks after a year of hard research! We also have 2 cats who we had for a year before we got her. They get on great - dcat has her under his thumb (if he had one so maybe under the claws?) She has 3 ddog friends and a racing scooter to keep her occupied. Having a husky is not like having a dog at all. . As a pp found out. .
They should be a banned breed without a recognised animal behaviourist qualification. Dog licence with conditions should be a thing anyway imo.

Please don't pts your just sadly not compatible.

If you want to discuss huskies, then please start another thread on it. The OPs dog is not a husky and none of the husky related posts have been relevant to her situation. The thread is now in danger of being split between separate topics which would make it hard to follow.

It's difficult OP but even with the steroid course I think rehoming would be best. Although your son's aggression is not directed at the dog, it is still uncontrollable and a very high stress situation for a dog to be in. You risk the dog forming a negative reaction in response to your son and other children.

Thing is though, rehoming isn't the answer. Because realistically there may not BE a home for a dog who has bitten a child to the extent he needed to go to hospital.

A breed specific rescue would do their utmost to find a suitable home and work with behaviourists to ensure the dog hasn't formed any negative associations.
Don't forget, this situation is not a common occurrence for a lot of dog owners but unfortunately is becoming so for the OP, which makes it unsuitable for the dog.

Rehoming will be the answer. A placid dog other than in this instant, will be fine in the right home.

How d'you know only shrieky kids set himmoff though, Through?

I'm not trying to be an awkward bastard Just that many lovely dogs are waiting for homes at any one time. How can we be sure anyone would want a tricky and aggressive breed?

Even with the vets input, I would still rehome. I don't say that lightly, I'm very much a dog person and cannot stand irresponsible owners who fill our rescue centres with dogs they simply change their minds about, but, in your case, I believe you would be doing it FOR the dog. It's unfair for the dog to be in a situation that he has no control over and no understanding of. It's not his fault he reacted and he has no idea what is going on in his home.

Look at breed specific rescues, big up all the good things about him and explain that your home situation and DSs difficulties mean that it is no longer a safe place to have a dog.

I wish you all the best.

Ophelia my friend has rehomed a whippet cross about 3 years ago. She bit an 8 year old (I think, 8-10 ish anyway) girl in her previous home on the face. The girl had sort of jumped on her whilst she was asleep to hug her and the dog woke up in a start, maybe in pain if the girl was rough and nipped her face. The dad threw her in a crate, whacking her round a bit first, and was about to take her off to be pts, when somehow my friend got to hear about it and could intervene to take her.

She has been the most perfect little dog, with older calmer children in the house. She is lovely. I can't bear the thought she was so close to death because so an owners decision.

Every dog deserves a second chance, in a different environment if necessary.

Yes, I'm not saying it never happens. I'm glad the whippet got a second shot. But, that's really different. I actually wouldn't (personally) rehome a dog who bit in the circumstances you describe. Let sleeping dogs lie is a saying for a reason!

But here the dog intervened with aggression even though the dog himself was not being hurt. I can't see there being a queue of people to take him; i'm sorry

I think I would keep DS away from the dog and evaluate again when the steroids are up?

Oh and to a PP, we have a dog who wouldn't dream of biting, although bizarrely he does sometimes growl and wag his tail at the same time

OP, really consider things.

We rehomed a dog due to a similar scenario (son doesn't have ADHD but was boisterous at the time), our dog didn't properly bite him but we felt like it was the next step.

What we've learnt is that our son needed a month or two to grow up. 2 years on and he's lovely with our other dogs.

I wish we'd kept our dog, separated them a little with baby gates. I really struggle with the "loss" of this dog. I've found it harder than dogs that have died, as there's no real closure.

Knowing now that my son and dog would have loved eachother

Obviously that's just my scenario, you know your child and dog. But with what the vet said take a little time. Look for warnings in your dogs body language to whether they dislike your son etc xxx

Also, if you haven't done, spray your dog. It helps their behaviour xxx

Ophelia " Oh and to a PP, we have a dog who wouldn't dream of biting, although bizarrely he does sometimes growl and wag his tail at the same time "

Please look into dog body language a wagging tail can mean lots of things. So growling and wagging is not a contradictory behaviour as you seem to think - please find out what your dog is actually trying to tell you. Dependent on the rest of his body language he may actually be fairly close to biting.

Also it seems odd to me that you think it's ok if a dog bites because it was asleep but not if dog is in the middle of a high volatile and violent situation, which the dog is not capable of understanding, where as far as dog is concerned, dog's main carer is 'under attack' and dog could easily be harmed during this violence too.
Reality is most dogs would bite when put into a situation like that.