My dog has bitten my DS

[georgie262]

My dog who is usually wonderful with my children has just bitten my 8 year old DS hard on the stomach. The situation was my son was stood up giving me a high five because he'd just got his spellings right and the dog bit him as he went in to high five me. He's not broken the skin but it's hard enough to leave a mark. I also have two younger children. I don't know what to do because I'm in shock. My DS is in tears because he thinks we'll have to get rid of the dog. But the bite floored him. I don't really know where else to go for advice except to call my vet in the morning???

@georgie262

I meant yo ask, hoe did your dog behave after he'd bit your son? When ours bit my dd he immediately knew he'd done something wrong and went and hid under the table.

Imo a dog biting/mauling and having to be physically stopped is a very different situation to a dog nipping/biting (even if it does leave a mark) but stopping of it's own accord. That's more a defensive or startled reaction.

@Pinkyyy

Do you actually think the op's dog is going to go on to maul a child to death or cause serious harm based on one bite?

Surely the more common sense approach would be to rule out any medical cause if the dog continues to act out of character and some training /see a dog behaviourist if the op feels this is necessary.

I'm sure the op is quite capable of safeguarding her children from a cockapoo in the mean time.

To pin my colours to the mast, I'm not a dog lover (not a hater either - I'll give friends' dogs some fuss and agree they can be very appealing at times) and have never owned one as an adult (had one briefly as a child, but then my father's job took us abroad for a few years so we decided that it was kinder to re-home her with the next door neighbours than take her to a hot climate and then put her through quarantine when we returned).

However, I don't think I've ever read an instance of a dog seriously biting/mauling someone when they haven't been described as always being a big softy, fine with children etc.
The daughter of the woman who was killed recently said that her children used to use the dogs as pillows.

Three first hand experiences have made me very wary.

My grandmother's corgi bit my hand badly when I was walking past her. Just me in the room (about 7yo), dog lying on the floor and I was going to the kitchen. Tbf, she was known to snappy and hhad given "nips" so I never touched her.
I guess I'll never know why she suddenly leapt up and bit my hand.
Luckily, I got the use back in it after an operation (but the hospital stay was no fun for a child).

Another was a friend's daughter's dog (Cavalier King Charles) who was lovely, brilliant with children and so forth.
Until he suddenly turned on my friend's grandson (offspring of the lady who owned the dog) when he was a baby lying in a carry cot on the sofa.
Poor child ended up with some awful facial scarring.

Lastly, MiL used to breed guide dogs and had previously bred another breed for 30 years. So knew her way around dogs.
One of those attacked the postman when he was handing over a parcel - enough the rip his trousers and draw blood.

So maybe I'd describe myself as not a dog truster.

I know people get great joy from their dogs and the vast majority of dogs never bite.
But this one has and I would never have it around children again myself.

Actually yes, @Astillbe that's exactly what I think could happen. And even the smallest chance would be too much of a chance for me. Why sit and wait for it to happen again before you do something? You might think it's 'only a cockerpoo' but I can assure you, it's jaws are stronger than a small child.

@LaMarschallin

The dogs that mauled that lady to death were American Bulldogs, and from the report I read she hadn't owned them from pups. There is no way I would ever own certain breed dogs due to the fact if for any reason they did become aggressive I would not be able to physically stop them.

I don't think you can compare breeds such as spaniels, collies, poodles, labradors etc. with breeds like Bulldogs, Akita's, Rottweilers, Staffies.

All of the above dogs can be lovely family pets, Staffies particularly are great with kids. As I said though I wouldn't own a dog I couldn't physically stop if it did attack.

@Astillbe

Fair enough. That was only one example from the media though; obviously stuck in my mind because it was so recent.

The "real life", as it were, examples known to me were a corgi, a King Charles and a Golden Labrador.

I'm sure an adult could have physically stopped the corgi but I couldn't.
The dog's owner physically stopped the King Charles as soon as she could, but it wasn't soon enough.
And my MiL and the postman physically stopped the lab, but, again, not soon enough.

Admittedly none of those incidents were fatal, but they were bad enough to put me off owning a dog, especially when I had children of my own.

@Pinkyyy you weren’t speaking out to save a child being potentially bitten again in the future. You were being rude ‘my guess is sweet f all’ is not a heroic speech where you are sacrificing your politeness to rescue a child it is not constructive it is rude. Many people in this thread have spoken that they think of the dog has done it once it could do it again and I’ve listened to that because they are balanced and considered opinions usually based on experience and I’m grateful they took the time out to comment. You’ve been passive aggressive from the outset and then full on rude so don’t try and paint yourself in glory when you’re nothing but an unpleasant person.

All three had been had from pups.
As I said, MiL had been the breeder of the Lab.

I suppose I was just giving my opinion and I'm afraid it's unlikely to change.

@Grannybags he’s fine this morning thanks he feels sorry sorry for the dog than himself bless him.

@LaMarschallin thank you I appreciate it. We are taking this seriously and I’m going to get the professional opinion of an accredited behaviourist before we make any decisions. Someone upthread I think maybe @Veterinari gave the details for the accreditation and I’ve found someone luckily who lives in the next postcode to us. I’m going to follow their advice whether to retrain or rehome. It’s a sad day in the 262 household.

My DD was bitten on the face by our dog after startling dog out of sleep.
This was not long after we got dog at 5 years old from RSPCA.
Have had dog 6 years now and it has not been repeated.
Good luck with what you decide.
I hope DS feels better soon.

@georgie262 glad to hear that. Did he at least manage to wangle a day off school?!

Whatever OP. Hopefully you've learned that when you snap at people with silly sarcasm, you'll get attitude back.

Tbh OP that doesn't look like a bite mark. It looks more like the dogs canine tooth snagged your sons skin.

I have 2 cockapoos. They are very calm when there is nothing going on but the minute my grandchildren come in, with excited raised voices and typical fast child movements, the dogs immediately become very excited and want to play.

Once my 10 year old granddaughter was blowing bubbles for the dogs to catch. Then she held the bubble wand over her head, dog (around 7 months old at the time) jumped up at the wand and accidently made contact with granddaughters cheek. It wasn't a bite. It was an unfortunate accident. The mark on her cheek looked very similar to the mark on your sons tummy. One superficial puncture wound where the canine tooth made contact and a long scratch mark where the tooth dragged the skin.

I wouldn't put an, otherwise, fantastic dog down for one accident. You know your dog OP. You know if it has a tendency to be aggressive.

My gut feeling is you and your son became excited that he got his spellings right and used raised voices, even if just "High 5" the dog was alerted and wanted to join in with your "game", jumped up when he saw your hands meet and accidently snagged your sons tummy as he jumped.

When my young grandchildren come over I put the dogs in another room. Not because they are in any way aggressive, but they can be very clumsy when in excited mode and when dogs get excited accidents happen. The older children have now been taught to be calm around the dogs. Any excitement from the children and the dogs are told to go to their beds.