My dog bit an old lady.

[Milliemoons]

And I feel so awful about it. He’s a chihuahua, he’s tiny but he still drew blood. He’s never done it before. It was super windy, I had my newborn in a pram and my three year old who was running off and I took my eye off him for one second and he just launched himself at this poor lady.

He was off lead but he usually is and I’ve never had a problem (he’s 7). We were in a public park where dogs are permitted off lead. Needless to say I won’t be risking that again.

She was really worried about needing to go to the doctor to be vaccinated (I assured her he was fully vaccinated and healthy). I apologised over and over but the poor woman was shaken up.

I just keep thinking about it. DH says not to worry, I apologised and I reassured her I would not be allowing him off lead again.

Has this happened to anyone else?

I absolutely would not want him around my DC if I were you.
Gosh OP having young children or any child with a dog that has shown he can turn so quickly is a worry. Appreciate you’ve been on it, say you don’t leave them alone but you can’t do that 24/7. Someone leaves door open, nips to loo, turns back etc, I am sure you love your pooch and easy for others to say but if it were me I’d re-home.
That poor lady. As others have said she should still have got medical attention and could’ve taken her details to follow up if nothing else. Older people can take longer to recover and don’t know what other conditions she has.
DH reaction is dismissive and doesn’t reflect what happened. Sorry you were shaken too.

I was at the vet with my very gentle dog who was limping so we were seeking advice. I was calmly stroking her when the vet must have moved her paw in a painful direction and ddog snapped and caught my thumb.
The vet spent longer bathing and dressing my thumb than treating ddog.
Months later my knuckle swelled up and is permanently deformed on one side where ddog bit it.

The old lady needed to have the bite bathed thoroughly, I hope she got some help.

The wording below is from our local police website. Dogs bites by any size dog are clearly a serious matter according to the law:

“If a dog has attacked a person or animal, it is a police matter and you should contact them directly. Call 101 (or 999 in emergencies only).
If a dog poses an immediate threat to the safety of the public, the police or other responsible person (e.g. vet/local authority) can order that the dog be lawfully destroyed. It is a criminal offence for the person in charge of the dog to allow it to be 'dangerously out of control' anywhere in England and Wales, whether or not it is in a public place.
The following list explains when a dog may be considered dangerously out of control -
if it injures a person or an assistance dog, or
it causes a person to worry that it may injure them or an assistance dog, and the person in charge of the dog has no proper control of it.
The court could also decide that a dog is dangerously out of control if either of the following apply -
If it attacks another person's animal, or
the owner of an animal thinks that they could be injured trying to stop your dog attacking their animal.
If the dog has been established as dangerously out of control but does not pose an immediate threat to the public etc., the police and local authorities now have the power to act early to prevent dog attacks before they occur. These measures could include; attending dog training classes, repairing fencing to their property to prevent the dog from escaping or requiring the dog to be muzzled when out in public. See Q837 and Q835 for examples of orders the police can enforce.”

Nothing you can do now but in future I would walk the dog separately, don't take it out when you have hands full with DC as that's too much to juggle.

Put the dog on a leash at all times and muzzle it. If you cannot, then you are not a responsible dog owner.
For that matter put reins on the toddler too and parent properly.
Find the lady and apologise/check she is OK.

If my Labrador had done this, there would be calls it’s a large dangerous dog and would need to be pts. Just because it’s a small dog doesn’t mean it’s any less dangerous etc. OP are you honestly going to try and let the dog around your kids, their friends etc you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to make adjustments and potentially excuses.

It’s shocking that a few people are being so blasé about it, comparing it to toddler bites or saying it would be ‘murder’ to be PTS today’s attitude is why so many dogs are out of control.
I love my dogs, but they are animals, not people or children. They are treated like dogs not babies and are well rounded and well behaved because of it. I am accountable for their behaviour and have walked my dogs and children together for years, all sorts of breeds however despite having over 40 dogs come through my home in my adult life not one of them has ever chomped on anyone or caused anyone to fearful or distressed.
People need to stop humanising animals and start being responsible, which starts with doing the right thing when something like this has happened which isn’t saying ‘it’s only a small dog, it didn’t mean it and there would have been a valid reason why’ None of that actually matters….

This. If it had bitten me, I would not be walking away. I would be getting your details and reporting to the police.

Wish people would keep their dogs on leads. But he needs to run blah blah. Then don't get one if you don't have your own space. Parks were built for humans and they are over filled as it is and not enough of them.

I'm sorry you had the stress of this though OP.

Any first time is a shock- you can’t know you need to prevent something, if it’s not happened before.

This is absolute nonsense. It should be assumed that all dogs are capable of biting. This is a perfect example of the issue with dog owners. You all believe your dogs are safe and when they’re proven not to be you say it’s a freak incident and couldn’t possibly have been foreseen. The dog shouldn’t have been off the lead. Especially when its owner was distracted with two small children. Completely irresponsible behaviour.

It's posts like this that make all the dog people look so fucking stupid.

I know. It's been such a measured thread, as well, including the contributions of the OP.

This. If the OP is really so lacking in awareness of the damage that a dog can do, she really shouldn't be a dog owner. Completely irresponsible. I hope that the woman didn't take this advice.

I've had several dogs over the years and, in my experience, apart from the obvious thugs with their "hard" breeds, the biggest problem are those with little dogs who seem to think that the dog's size means that they can't do much damage, don't need to be trained, etc.

Not all the dog people hopefully…. There are some normal ones of us around.
TBH if any toddler ‘launched’ itself at anyone and bit so hard it broke the skin at nursery it would be a safe guarding incident, noted down etc
My toddler was badly bitten by a child at nursery and still has the scar on her leg…. No one said it was ‘fine’ because it was ‘only a small child’ 🤦‍♀️😂

Good grief! He was off his lead. Don’t try and excuse yourself. All dogs should be on leads unless in their own house.

I hope she goes to the doctor for a tetanus jab as she will also need antibiotics and the sooner the better.

Excellent points. Responsible owners know this. All the anthropomorphic behaviour by many is very damaging "fur baby" "part of the family" etc.
Very true.

Your dog was able to bite when you were there, so your children aren’t safe. Even with you present it will be possible for it to bite them. There was no reason or warning.

I’m an animal person @Milliemoons so don’t say this lightly. I’d be going to the vets for a full assessment to see if the dog is unwell in any way. If no explanation found, then the dog is pts. I’d be devastated but I couldn’t risk my kids.

Sorry OP, but the fact that your dog is fully vaccinated doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone he/she bites will be ‘OK’ . The poor lady certainly needed a tetanus jab.
As has been stated already, extreme weather can make normally placid animals very skittish. Didn’t you exchange contact details with the lady so you at least check up on her? That would have been the best and sensible option.

Echo PP above - I would arrange a vet visit to rule out any underlying medical/pain reason that may be making your dog grumpy. It can also be behavioural if you’ve recently had a baby, a dog can feel displaced and therefore be grumpy/irritable/defensive, so you may want to discuss this with them too.

In the interim I would not leave baby unattended with the dog - and I might also ask DH to have baby a few days a week for an hour so that I could take dog on one to one (lead) walks and give them some of the same level of attention they were used to before baby arrived, to reassure them.

I thought dogs had to be put down when they bit someone?

I would perhaps muzzle it when out and then it protects you and the any potential victims. But don’t agree with people on here hating on all dogs just for the actions of some. I mean, you can’t generalise for all dogs based on the actions of this one dog. It’s like when a man rapes a woman, we don’t generalise all men and say they should all be castrated. For every incident where a dog bites someone, there are millions that don’t.

I am very surprised that you did not exchange contact details. Appreciate it might have been a stressful situation but that’s basic imo. You could be checking up on the lady and seeing if she wanted to report it.

But this particular park allows off lead dogs? As do many other parks tbh..

@Milliemoons how refreshing to read a thread where the OP takes on board all advice and isn’t defensive at all.