Our dog bit DS. What next?

[newnamefortoday]

NC for this one. Our JRT bit 4yo DS on the foot at the weekend. Not terrible, but a huge bruise, puncture wound, visit to minor injuries and antibiotics. We’re not sure exactly what happened, dog was in the garden, DS climbed on the gate as he has done dozens of times before but this time the dog bit his foot as he put it through. Just heard a snarl then a scream. Dog knew exactly who it was as the gate is between garden and house, not the road. It would have been much worse had the gate not been between them. We also have a small baby. We are obviously considering dog’s future and keeping him separated for now. He snarled at my mum this week and caught my ankle snapping at me last week. He’s always been a bit of a grumpy terrier but has never bitten before so we’re considering all possibilities. He’s quite old. Lots to think about but with a small baby we can’t take any chances. What would you do next, apart from taking dog to vet to check for pain etc? Would you expect any follow up from SS or HV through the hospital?

I wouldn't PTS, bit of a knee jerk reaction, but I would definitely rehome. He probably just wants a quiet life with older adults without the unpredictable behaviour of children. Can you ring around a few rescue centres to see if they're willing to work with him and assess for a different kind of home? I know it's hard. 😢

I would say it would be more normal to find out what is actually wrong with the dog first. A vet can’t diagnose epilepsy from just looking at a dog. He needs tests and scans. It may be treatable, he’s only 9. He’s reacted because he’s ill, find out what’s actually wrong, he’s part of the family.

Oh I didn't see the updates about the seizures. Poor thing. Yes I would want to find out via MRI scan etc tend to agree about PTS if it's inoperable.

StoppinBy, I'm surprised you didn't ask how the dog was feeling before it bit three people!!!!! how did it affect him?
As the childs leg appeared over the gate. Yum Yum I'll have a bite of that.
For Heavens sake.

Oh, you are so funny, hilarious in fact!

I have a strong background in dog training, vet nursing etc, I have seen how quickly these things can be turned around with simple changes and also how quickly the behaviours can appear in a previously settled, non aggressive dog simply because people had kids and never prepared their dog for changes that would occur.

OP asked for advice, mine came from a place of experience and the thought process that the best outcome for the dog and family is to correct the dog's behaviour and allow the family to keep the dog if it is safe to do so.

It's not always going to work out, the problem may not be fixable but OP has seen a vet to rule out health issues causing this, the next logical step is to address the behaviour with someone experienced and finally to consider PTS as a final choice if the problem isn't fixable.

Your inability to see that the problem may be correctable is not my problem.

Sounds like a brain tumour. Does he seem to snap at invisible flies? Vet told us that snapping at invisible flies meant the brain tumour was bound to be fatal. We pts a week later (after tests and scans to confirm)

If the dog has never bitten before but now a bite and snapping at your ankle and at your Mum it could be your dog is in pain. Get a set of bloods and a scan done. That would show up cancer for example. Not fair to dog not to try to find cause of problem. If your DH loves his dog he would do this for it. Your dog might just feel displaced by two children arriving and taking DH time from it. Could DH spend more time with dog, taking it out alone, playing with it without children around?

I think you need to reheome the dog. It is obviously not coping with current situation. Is it well?

Please see a vet.

I would be going back to the vet tbh although be warned MRI scan is in the region of £4-600 or at least that's what we had to pay for our DDog (we were covered by insurance).

It definitely sounds like the dog is unwell and I don't think it's possible to rehome if showing such behaviours and signs of illness.

Maybe when the dog saw your son's foot above him & coming through the gate he bit it in self-defense. Maybe your son has stepped on him, or accidentally kicked him.

My mother's dogs bit both my sons on the face on two different occasions. There's a 15 yr age difference in my sons btw. We live abroad and were visiting on both occasions. My oldest son was 12 months old and went to kiss the small dog when he got bit on the face. The second time was my youngest son and he was 4 yrs old. Also bit on the face. Two different little dogs many years apart. The dogs were older and not used to children at all. Our dogs home were gently giants.

Anyway my mum told me her dogs don't like to be teased and was very cross, especially towards my 4 year old when it was his turn to get bitten. I laugh about it now. Oldest son is almost 50 yrs old now and my mum (RIP) has long gone to join her nasty dogs across the fabled Rainbow Bridge.

My dog has a brain tumour (now inoperable and malignant) and is also not at all aggressive... not affected in any way actually, except for the visible mass. I don't think one necessarily leads to the other.

Treatment in the early stages cost thousands upon thousands, and that was just for diagnosis, surgery and medication - we decided not to do chemotherapy which would have doubled the cost again. It's a lot of money, and a lot of suffering for a dog who is already getting on and really can't stay in this home any longer anyway.

As much as you might want to ease your DH into a decision to rehome I think the kindest thing to do is pts.

You obviously can’t afford to spend thousands on a scan with two small dd and really how likely is it that a brain tumour might be treatable? It does sound like that is probably the cause of his seizures and behaviour changes.

The dog is probably feeling quite unwell and possibly in pain. His quality of life isn’t going to be great and he can only express himself through behavioural changes. It will only get worse and it isn’t fair on the poor dog. Hopefully your DH realises this quickly and doesn’t leave his dc or anyone at risk for long before doing what is best for the dog and the family.

I took on a six year old rescue JRT and it turned out he would bite children but never adults. The behaviourist said children were threatening to him as unpredictable and he would act defensively and had snarled then nipped toddlers before going to the breed specific rescue. We successfully managed to prevent a single incident and he died at the ripe old age of 15.

So with the right home he could be OK.... however, you've said he's been displaying worrying behaviour towards adults too so unfortunately I don't see a good outcome here

Is it possible that he thinks he is protecting your home/ baby?
Dogs can be really territorial when there's a new baby around.
My dog tried to bite my neighbour as they were leaving the house just after I had my baby. Luckily he did not actually catch her. If he had I'd have probably had him PTS.

If your husband is intent on keeping the dog in the house- as my husband has been,
The dog cannot be alone with either of the children, ever.
You'll need stair gates (maybe you'd get away with just shutting doors- but we wouldn't so have stair gates everywhere)
And you'll need to train the dog to follow you if you leave the baby sleeping and you need to do anything.
Tbh this is all probably not such helpful advice because the deciding factor in allowing my dog to stay is he's only shown aggression toward other people, never in our home.

What is the dog like with the kids generally? Ever since the baby has come home, we've made a very conscious effort to make him realise that the baby isn't "his" and that he's to take nothing more than the smallest interest in him. If baby cries, he doesn't tend to come and see what's going on, if he does, he's generally just checking, comes to the door of the room baby is in, sees stuff is in order, huffs and goes back to the sofa/ bed.
Apparently the dog being that much less involved cuts the risk of a dog bite down massively.

This is one of the most insane things I've ever read on Mnet and I've been on here nearly 20 years!!

Have my second ever biscuit!!!

My adored, trusted and loyal shadow of 13 years bit me totally out of the blue one day. I made the utterly heartbreaking decision to have her put to sleep that day.
i still miss her every day, but I also know I did the right thing. What if the next time it had been my neighbours toddler or my elderly father. I knew I couldn’t watch her 24/7, so couldn’t take that risk.

PTS. He hurt your child. And could do even more damage next time.

Surely the next step is obvious? Don't take the risk......hope your son is ok xx

I would get in touch with a reputable rescue centre before jumping straight to PTS. We got our dog from Dog’s Trust, they 100% would not rehome to someone with children, they may given it’s history not even rehome a dog like yours at all. The centre where we got our dog also kept four dogs that were not suitable for rehoming, they were living the rest of their lives out at the centre, each with their own large garden enclosure and only certain staff members were insured to work with them.
I don’t know what their history was, but they may have done something similar to your dog. They’re age in conjunction with their aggression may have also been a factor. Incidentally, the one we saw when we walked past his his enclosure was a yappy JRT.

I do understand your DH in this situation - after 9 years he must be very bonded to the dog, and the idea of putting him to sleep must be very painful for him. But he's in the wrong.

A bitey dog with epilepsy (or worse) is not a good candidate for rehoming. I'm afraid I'm with everyone else saying PTS.

This must be so stressful for you all, I'm sorry.

Unfortunately some dogs ,getting older too don't do well with kids.
I'm actually thinking pts is extreme if all avenues not crossed.when you see rescue sites quite often They will say NO children.i imagine these are similar dog types to yours.but might thrive in a single person household with no children.if you could get the right new owner this could be resolved.have you tried putting feelers out on social media.
I could be wrong.im letting emotion of pts come into it.but I've seen at least a dozen dogs like your rehomed and gone on to be loved and lives great lives.( often with very lonely sometimes grumpy new owners who keep themselves to themselves as a pair)

Yes get a vet check but be honest and face up to your responsibilities. It may be that PTS is the only sensible option.

Did you not try to find out what had caused this change in behaviour?

Epilepsy usually starts when dogs are young adults I think?
Fits in older dogs are probably due to something else, especially with a change in character.
I think it would be irresponsible to rehome as it’s likely to get worse.