Dog bit child on face.

[Panthereyes]

I am absolutely devastated, our dog bit my DC on the face this morning, he has always been an anxious dog and he has nipped them before. We have had behaviourists work with us and he seemed to have settled and been so much better recently.

And this is the way it should be 👏🏼

Another one saying that pts is sadly the best option. Even if you rehomed him successfully, he's always going to have the tendency to bite. As a responsible dog owner, take him to the vet.

DD's ex-boyfriend had a springer spaniel who bit the postman once. They spent a lot of money on re-training him and he was ok for a while because they shut him away when the postman came. One day they forgot and he bit him. More training, more shutting away, guess what, he bit again. And at that point he was pts. It was the only thing to do.

I’m consistently baffled at how people seem to have more sympathy for a dog who just injured a child, than the child who has been bitten 😕

Wow. A poor child has been bitten close to the eye, and you are there defending the dog?!? The point is, an unpredictable animal has caused injury to a poor child, and your empathy lies with the dog. People are crazy

I agree with what so many people are saying. At the end of the day you can ask all these questions about the dog and the circumstances. It's doesn't change the fact it bit your child.

Not at all. But the dog has no agency in the situation, so the humans have to make sure it can't happen again until they decide what to do with it.

😂😂😂 love it. Sorry about earlier.

I understand that this is really a very emotive subject - but this is a genuine question. Dogs live so much in the moment and are so full of emotion, that i don't understand why PTS isn't sometimes kinder than taking an anxious animal away from everything it knows and everyone it loves for an uncertain future in a kennel. Rehoming to a rescue is inevitably going to be be confusing and scary for an already frightened dog - why not spare it that?

I wouldn't put this dog to sleep either, but I would re-home to a childfree household with few visitors.

Plenty of dogs are absolute horrors in one situation and fine in others, with owners who can avoid the situations that cause them stress.

Mine spent the first 6 months not letting me touch him if he could avoid it (no idea where he originated from, probably a puppy farm, he's had multiple owners since then). He now actively seeks out physical affection. He's bitten a few times (redirected aggression) but not for several years, after a lot of hard work. He's fine in a childfree household, and deftly dodges strangers in the park, but I wouldn't trust him in a household with young children. Savvy teens maybe, but not children of your DC's age.

In the meantime, baby gates and separation.

Many of the replies on this thread are why we have so many children being killed by family dogs.

If they bite - PTS. End of.

OP you are choosing to risk your children by having this dog in their home. It's irresponsible. Phone the vet in the morning and do the right thing. You'll never forgive yourself if you don't and the dog kills one of the children.

Plus, this poor dog sounds like it has no quality of life at all, it's terrified and anxious all the time, that's no way to live.

Get rid of that horrible thing before it seriously hurts or kills a child. I don't care what the insane poor doggo crowd say- it isn't the child's fault. It needs to be put down swiftly.

Awaiting the incoming wailing from the dogs over human fanatics.

Some of the posts on here are very indicative of today's consumable society. Want a dog?
Don't want to put any work in?
Kill it and move on.

Yes- we should stop prescribing oodles of antidepressant drugs in the UK and just kill people instead. Problem solved!

Plus, this poor dog sounds like it has no quality of life at all, it's terrified and anxious all the time, that's no way to live.

So instead of giving it a second chance in a more appropriate environment, it should just be PTS?

A second chance to inflict potentially fatal injuries?

"So instead of giving it a second chance in a more appropriate environment, it should just be PTS?"

I don't understand why it's rightly considered responsible dog ownership to pts a dog that's physically miserable, but not one that's psychologically miserable. As this one obviously is.

Of course some bites are the child's fault.

Child kicks dog, dog snaps and bites, I would consider the dog entirely justified tbh. Natural consequences.

Child keeps bothering dog, dog growls and moves away etc (i.e. politely tells the child to go away), child keeps bothering dog, the dog is going to end up biting. That's the child's fault (and the parents, for allowing them to bother the dog like that, or kick it). Family dog bit me in such circumstances when I was a child, and I remember getting very little sympathy - it was my own fault.

Dogs aren't required to put up with absolutely anything and everything humans might do to them, and if they eventually lose patience it's the death penalty. Not all dogs are suitable for all homes - rather like you wouldn't leave your grumpy great aunt in a nightclub and expect her to be ok with it - but rehoming is frequently far more appropriate than PTS.

This dog is well beyond its second chance. The OP was very clear that this is not the first, or even second time it has bit her children. This dog is not only still biting them despite the OP getting in a professional behaviourist, the bites are escalating.

In this case, the 9 Yr old merely greeted the dog in the morning as is the daily routine that the dog is used to. The child bent to the dog’s level from a distance and let the dog come to them, as is the daily routine. But today, the dog went over to them and then unprovoked, bit them on the face. The bite was close to their eye and I would gather that if they had not already been wary due to being bitten before, and were not young with fast reflexes, the injury would have been much worse. Perhaps even life changing if the dog had caught their eye.

The child did not kick the dog. The child did not harass or follow the dog around- the dog went to the child. The child did not startle or surprise the dog with a sudden movement or an action outside the normal daily routine. The child has been trained on how to interact with a dog by a professional behaviourist.

And yet, victim blaming the child is very strong on this thread.

This is a bizarre comparison. Depressed people don’t go around injuring other people. Nor do depressed dogs for that matter.

I was responding less to the OP (which is why I deliberately provided a couple of examples which are significantly different to the OP's) and more to posters with no sense of context or nuance like

"I love my dog but I said before we ever got him that if he ever bit the g' kids he'd be pts without question"

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pick on you. Many posters have victim blamed the child on the thread and your post reminded me of that.