Puppy just bit 4yo dd's face.

[KrisCringleWinterWonderland]

She has a small gash above her eyebrow. My older DD was getting the dog riled up and hyper, and I was upstairs not realising the situation. Puppy then ran into the kitchen and 4yo DD was interacting with her but puppy jumped up with mouth open, I assume?

There was no aggression but this isn't acceptable. We have been training at home but this is beyond me. I am going to contact a trainer in the new year.

I have a rule of keeping the little ones separate from the dog if I'm not around, but what use is that if people don't follow it.

I'm really upset.

Any advice, @momjeansep, or just criticism?!

OP how is your youngest, is she okay? Hopefully she sees it as an accident & doesn't hate DDog!

Thanks. She's ok. We've talked about how the dog wanted to play but was being too rough, and that she isn't allowed alone with the dog etc. Tomorrow is a fresh start!

Talking of biting is like saying I kicked a child when I tripped over one, or something.

It wasn’t a bite.

Absolutely! New day, new start. Don't sweat it, see it as a learning curve all round

@Reallytired17 you are right. I was quite upset when I started the thread. Not thinking straight.

Thank you @mustbemad17

"I've told my DC not to be alone with the puppy"
Er, but you left them alone with the puppy (or did they climb over the gate(s) to get to the puppy?)!

"It wasn't a bite, from what I can tell but just a tooth catching her."
Ah, that's ok then, if a tooth 'just catches; one of your kids eyeballs or rips part of their lip off, that'll be ok.

No, dogs are not 'anaconda's', but they have the potential to seriously injure human beings and owning a dog includes taking FULL responsibility for them and every person and other animal that they come into contact with. This shouldn't have happened in the first place had you not left your children unsupervised with the dog (however it was that they got access to it).

How did you know the children were winding the dog up - was that from post-incident questioning...?

I made a huge error in judgement. I got complacent. I went upstairs for a few minutes while the DC were downstairs watching TV or in the kitchen. 7yo DD was playing rough with the puppy without my knowledge. Puppy ran through to the kitchen where 4yo DD was colouring. She interacted with the dog somehow, I believe over a toy, and puppy jumped up being mouthy. I don't know for sure. This is true. I screwed up, and it makes my blood run cold to think how bad it could have been.

Trust me when I say you cannot flog me more than I've already flogged myself, in spite of the brave face I'm putting on in this thread. I'm very upset.

What are people getting out of having a go at me, I wonder.

Some people jump on the ‘get rid of the dog bus’ far too quick - my mother told me to put my dog to sleep yesterday because she caught my nose while playing! She’s got a neurological problem too and has ‘unwell’ moments, she doesn’t understand that.
Go to some training classes, have a look at the good citizen dog award, a great way to interact safely for everybody. And keep supervised!

You have no idea what happened as you werent there and expected a 7 year old to supervise a puppy with a 4 year old. Unacceptable behaviour, you owe all of them a higher duty of care to be fair

@HisBetterHalf thanks for rephrasing what I just said upthread.

I'm not going to have a go at you!
We have a 15 month old giant breed. I was on the floor with her a few months ago when she "bit" my head. Well actually what happened was she turned round with her mouth open and hit her tooth on my head. It hurt. I don't know who was more shocked TBH.
The kids need reading the riot act I'm afraid. And training is NEVER a bad idea. Just find the right person. Preferably APDT accredited. No pack leader or dominance theory rubbish.
Don't be too hard on yourself and hope your DD is ok.

A mother who minimises a dog bite to her child’s face deserves criticism. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again eh?

The dog didn’t bite.

Sorry ‘it’s tooth caught, leaving a a gash’
🙄

Some people need to calm down, puppies bite, our dog was very bitey as a pup, yes she bit ds and me and DH. She’s an adult dog now and I can’t even imagine her biting anyone!

Thanks for the clarification @momjeansep.

I'm not minimising. I'm upset about the situation. I'm trying to find ways to fix it, to prevent future incidents, to make it better. But thanks for being such a big help. Your derision really improves my situation.

My 9 year old staff almost knocked my 5 year old DD out after an unfortunate collision - DD & DDog both fine, lesson learned on DD's part. Also prompted me to alter training slightly so - with both sides!! Accidents happen. This is not a malicious dog ffs, the dog didn't just decide to attack the 4 year old.

I hope those of you spouting abuse don't own animals. Of any kind. God forbid one accidentally catches you after a bit of excitement!!

OP you must take on board every piece of advice - or criticism - from what must be absolutely perfect parents on here. I mean, if they're berating you for an accident, clearly they absolutely must be picture perfect.

Those in glass houses...

Have yourself a glass of wine (or whatever your poison is) & ignore the vitreol on here.

Hide this thread OP - it’s not worth it.

Look we all fuck up now and again. Main thing is we learn from our mistakes and be glad everyone is still healthy and safe.

Have a Bailey’s and get to bed. Hope you’ve had a nice day x

I'm totally with you momjeansep.

Generally, the oft-used approach of treating dogs as people ('he's my baaabbbyyyy') is half at the root of this (in general, not saying in this instance, I don't know what the approach is in this case). They're DOGS. Not miniature people. And we should never ever forget that or lose one shred of respect for their ability to injure, maim or kill - or just terrify a child. The issue is that people seem to think that you can only love that dog and make it happy if you treat it like a child with human emotions because anything to do with honouring their doggyness, their animalness, must mean you don't love them.

Maybe it would be ok for a child to be given a lifelong overwhelming fear of dogs by one running up and jumping on them in the style of 'oooh he's just being friendly' - cos that's not a bite either and therefore it's ok....

I won't apologise about the fact that I absolutely cannot abide irresponsibility around dog ownership on any level and have pretty much a zero tolerance attitude to it simply because of the potential (for a child especially) to be maimed or killed due to under-exercised, undisciplined, frustrated dogs in the family (and these are more general comments not necessary relevant to this particular example, but might be).

Bloody dogs - it is entirely beyond my understanding that parents put their children at risk. Just...plain...crazy.

You sound very sensible OP

Please read the links on the ‘Useful resources’ thread pinned at the top of the Foghouse.

Lots of great links to info on dog behaviour and dog-child interactions on there which I think will be super-useful for you and your DC moving forwards

Good luck

*Doghouse obvs!

She sound sensible? She left her children unsupervised with young dog!!