Foster dog bit my child

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We’ve got a dog we are fostering to adopt - had her 3 months, she’s not long turned a year old. She had a medical issue, was left at rescue by the breeder at 8 weeks old. She’s on long term medication. We’ve had issues from day one with her jumping up and being very mouthy, but otherwise a good dog at home. Bit too overeager meeting other dogs, but not aggressive just overly playful. She’s been pretty good with kids on the whole but gets overexcited and will jump up/snatch toys etc. She mouths a lot at hands, especially if you try to stroke her on the head, but she’s been responding well to training “gentle” and making uh-uh noises for no.

I went away for a couple days (left her with DH), she’s been nutty since I got back. She’s been really hard to deal with on walks - constantly laying down and refusing to walk, but full of energy at home. This evening my son was playing fetch in the garden and she bit him on the chest when he was about to throw the ball. I had my back turned so didn’t see what happened but I’m pretty shaken - left a red mark but no skin broken.

What on Earth do I do? It’s been such a hard situation to manage as I don’t feel like we’ve ever had much information from the rescue, we aren’t legally responsible for her and we can’t even go to the vets without the rescues permission and they can take several days to respond.

How old is the dog?
What breed?
Sounds like it was massively over excited, not that that is an excuse.

Some rescues will take the dog back and try and place with a family who has no children.
Have you spoken to the rescue?

13 months
Labrador

No I’ve not spoken to rescue yet

gets overexcited and will jump up/snatch toys etc. She mouths a lot at hands

Sounds like it was this behaviour but ddog either went a bit far or misjudged where the toy she was trying to grab was and got the chest instead?

How old is your son and how does your he feel about it all?

I do think the rescue should be providing some support with training as it's a foster dog, and I don't think she'd be suitable for a home with young children, but it doesn't sound like a make or break type situation to me.

I have an 8 month old mouthy dog who mouths hands and gets overexcited and plays too rough sometimes (sounds very similar to your foster actually). I think some dogs are more playful than others, and they can get overexcited and treat the people playing with them like dogs, who obviously play in a very different manner. Personally what you've described wouldn't be a huge cause for concern for me, many people say any dog that bites should be pts but puppies bite and if you look up mouthing you'll find lots of info saying some dogs continue to do it into adolescence (especially playful dogs!). I would go over dog body language and the importance of not getting the dog too excited with your son. I believe fetch can get dogs too excited, to the point of stress sometimes.

We have a 2 year old lab. He's still mouth and Occasionally jumps up. Was it aggressive or accidental

How old are your children? If you have very little ones I’d be tempted to end the fostering agreement, but might not be such an issue if they’re older.

Sounds like the dog needs a lot of time and attention go settle and train. Have a think about whether you can offer this, and whether you want to.

It’s ok to end the foster placement if the dog isn’t fitting with your family or if you feel unsupported by the rescue centre.

Get it put down. It's a danger.

No it’s not. She didn’t bite out of aggression but because she was excited and lunged for the ball.

I’ve actually been bitten the same way. I was throwing something for the dog and as I raised it to through, he lunged and got my leg instead.

Broke the skin and hurt but that was it. The dog was fine.

Just like this one

Tell me you know nothing about dogs without telling me you know nothing about dogs.

What food are you giving the dog?

Diet can play an important role in a dogs behaviour.

Too much exercise can over stimulate and tool little can cause behavioural problems

What about mental stimulation as well as physical walking?

DH has switched her back to something from mole hall in the last week, I switched her off it as she wasn’t eating. I’m not convinced it’s balanced enough, she keeps eating grass and poop on walks too. Do you have any recommendations?

Walking - we walk her twice a day usually an hour in morning and 30mins in evening. DH took her for 2 hours this morning but that was mostly because she found a river and refused to get out of it. We’ve still got a lot of training to do on recall/etc.

Get a grip. Look up levels of dog bite. This was clearly non agressive.

We just got an 8 week old lab puppy a few weeks ago, so I’ve been reading about that life stage.

A dog abandoned at 8 weeks is going to need extra care to recover. Can’t believe a breeder would dump a pup like that. It’s wretched.

Hope you get good advice. Is your son ok?

7 and 9, both used to Labradors.

Yes she needs more time and training- I guess we’ve been thrown with that with summer holidays. It’s hard committing to the expense of private training when we still don’t have guarantee that we will be able to adopt her. We’ve done a basic teenage dog course but don’t feel it went far enough.

I haven’t felt supported by the rescue at all. In the run up they said there would be training/guidance but there’s been none. I wasn’t even given accurate information about her medical condition- I had to ask the vet to tell me from the notes, and even now it’s clear as mud what the long term solution is. Of course I’m emotionally attached now, as are the kids!

I know, I suspect it can’t have been a good breeder.

Take it back and don’t foster any more dogs while there are children at home.

She just sounds like a young, excitable Labrador that needs training, to be honest.

Nothing you describe in her behaviour would particularly worry me - it's normal for adolescent dogs to forget their training and really go to town with mouthing and jumping for a while. That doesn't make it easier though!

However I would look to change her food to something that suits her better, and I would consider using a longline attached to her harness on walks so that you don't have repeat incident of her refusing to come back to you.

I can totally understand not wanting to commit loads of time and money if you're just going to have to hand her back. I think you need to decide whether you want to keep her and if so, really look at throwing yourselves into training. Labradors learn easily but they're also big, strong dogs so you do need to be on top of it or they can be quite dangerous.

Good luck!

Fetch can really really overstimulate/over excite some dogs and make them really hyper/manic (not to mention it’s horrendous for their shoulders). I’d look into some other games, that can be played.
There sounds like no agression here, just a hyper dog that has got silly in the heat of the moment

We absolutely do want to keep her -it’s very much a foster to adopt, we’ve just got to wait to see if she needs further surgery before the rescue will allow her to be adopted. So yes you’re right, I need to invest in more training. She responds so well on the whole, she’s doing great at waiting, going where I direct, massively improved mouthing, doing a lot better at leave it etc. just not mastering the jumping up and recall yet! She’s a gorgeous dog when she’s calm - so chilled and the most cuddly dog I’ve ever had, she pushes right into us for cuddles and just wants to be held. She is just still a mega nutty puppy at times - especially around kids and other dogs, she just wants to play, but she’s a big dog so we need to temper her a little with the kids.

Yes you’re right, fetch makes her nutty but she loves it - keeps bringing the ball to us. I’ll have to think of other games.

And yes, there’s no aggression - just slightly hyperactive at times.

My rescue lab is mouthy and excitable too. Leave it, sit etc work well, but the other thing I've been doing to stop the mouthing is to push a treat further into his mouth when he lunges for it, as opposed to pulling away.

This has had a massive effect. Pulling away makes him chase it more, but pushing it into his mouth makes him back away. I've been coupling this with the 'gently' command and the difference even in a few days is marked.

Some labs are dominant and aggressive and need extensive training and boundaries. They are not all the perfect family dog they are portrayed as. I’ve worked with many and luckily as a breed they are very responsive to training and are usually food focused so are easy to treat.

We absolutely do want to keep her -it’s very much a foster to adopt, we’ve just got to wait to see if she needs further surgery before the rescue will allow her to be adopted.

Ah okay, that makes sense :) I would definitely focus on her training then - labs are smart and love to please so it's just a matter of persevering and not allowing her to jump and ignore you

She is just still a mega nutty puppy at times - especially around kids and other dogs, she just wants to play, but she’s a big dog so we need to temper her a little with the kids.

Ha, sounds like a very normal adolescent Labrador to me! They have no concept of their size or of how strong they are!

Not sure what the medical condition is but could she be in pain?