My dog has bitten DD. Help

[rottielove]

He's never been aggressive to people before, let alone DD. I left them alone for two minute when I went to answer the door, I come back and DD is hysterical as she has been bitten on her arm. I don't think the dog meant it as no skin has been broken and he's a Rottweiler so if he really wanted to hurt her he could have. But like I say he is normally so good with him, I didn't think twice about leaving them for afew seconds. DD is 6, dog is 10., could it be dementia? Not sure where to go from here.

This dog could probably have bitten clean through that child’s hand, but it didn’t. It realised who it was/what was happening and stopped.
That’s why I would be wary going forward rather than rehoming or pts.
I startled my dog once, he was in a stressful situation and I touched him on the back of his head, he grabbed me but quickly realised it was me and stopped. There was a tiny red mark that was gone within hours.
I didn’t even class it as a bite.
Anyone who has seen a dog bite clean through a chicken wing or similar will realise that this dog didn’t mean to harm the child.

Yeah. If it was hard enough to cause a 'nasty bruise', there was a fair bit of force. In a dog with sharper teeth, it probably would have broken the skin.

I'm not defending the bite, BUT a dog the size of a Rottweiler could bite clean through an arm bone if it wanted to. My dog has had raw bones before and he can crunch through a chicken wing in a matter of seconds.

“Anyone who has seen a dog bite clean through a chicken wing or similar will realise that this dog didn’t mean to harm the child.”

It was beef ribs I was thinking of tbh, the bones look so thick and they break them in one bite.

I can’t imagine keeping my six year old child in a home with a Rottweiler that had already bitten her. But having read the other posts, I can’t conceive of keeping her in a home with an animal that has the capacity to bite clean through an arm bone in the first place.

On the topic of the dog having a medical condition - I was attacked by a dog who it turned out had a brain tumour and guess what? Finding that out didn’t make the attack any less terrifying and traumatic. Given that one of the ways you find out that a dog is ill or is in pain is because it attacks out of character, I don’t understand how people can feel safe and have confidence in having something like that in a home with a child.

Yes the bite could have been worse. Rottweilers are second deadliest dog when looking at fatal dog attacks. But the fact it could have been worse doesn’t prove the dog did not mean to harm the child. Dogs are perfectly capable of controlled aggression as studies into dominance behaviour show. This aggression tends to escalate over time...and the OP is risking her child’s safety by keeping the dog in their home.

But even if you’re right and the dog didn’t mean to harm that child, that is not comforting at all. That just means they cannot control themselves. That means a dog capable of killing a child and with no control over their actions due to age and illness is still being kept in the home with a child it bit- both terrifying and bruising the child per OPs testimony.

So, really what the dog meant doesn’t matter. It still bit and harmed a child. That’s too much risk for me as a parent. I had to rehome my dog when it snapped at my toddler. And that dog was just a corgi. Not the second deadliest breed!

@Hoppinggreen

This dog could probably have bitten clean through that child’s hand, but it didn’t. It realised who it was/what was happening and stopped. That’s why I would be wary going forward rather than rehoming or pts. I startled my dog once, he was in a stressful situation and I touched him on the back of his head, he grabbed me but quickly realised it was me and stopped. There was a tiny red mark that was gone within hours. I didn’t even class it as a bite. Anyone who has seen a dog bite clean through a chicken wing or similar will realise that this dog didn’t mean to harm the child.

Exactly. A tiny red mark that disappeared quickly. Not a nasty bruise.

I'm not saying he bit with full force, but nor was it a warning shot across the bow.