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?

Sorry but it makes no difference that you never leave the dog unattended with your children. If for some unknown reason he suddenly bit one of them, it would happen too quickly for you to be able to stop it. It won’t be windy in your house (though it might be in the garden) but there could be other stressors you won’t be aware of until too late.

I'm a dog lover and I feel for you, but you have to put your children's safety first.

She will need to go on antibiotics. Anyone who gets bitten by a dog is at risk for an infection. She should absolutely see a doctor. Infection can turn serious fast and into sepsis. Dog/cat bites are more prone to infection because the bacteria on their teeth. I say this as someone who has a child that had to spend 48 hours in hospital with an antibiotic drip because of a very tiny minor dog nip on his finger....which started to swell even when he was on oral antibiotics. The hospital took it very serious, w xrays, admitted him straight away and put him up in a room with a bed, talks about having to do surgery to clean it down to his bone. Thankfully after 24 hours the iv antibiotics started to work and all was well.

Windy weather does funny things to school children too.

Ask any teacher. On a par with snow and a wasp in the room.

Yes but seems only if deemed ‘dangerously out of control’:
https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public

Your dog now has a bite history, so how are you going to protect your children, yourself and the public going forward? I personally would PTS, I couldn't live with the guilt if I kept an aggressive dog and it then went on to scar one of my children, or worse.

You need to put your flameproof pants on and try to find the lady via social media. At her age I would worry about her ability to fight infection or get herself to the doctor.

I worry that you say it’s lucky he is small and didn’t cause damage.

Being small and not killing or severely disfiguring the lady doesn’t negate the severity that ANY dog bite can pose.

as others have pointed out a puncture bite from dogs can lead to infections setting in within the wound

how do you know this lady doesn’t have another medical condition that means she has a higher risk factor for infection? The very fact that she’s on an older person means her immune system isn’t going to work as well.

If you are actually lucky the lady has enough sense or has someone around her to tell her to seek medical attention.

if you are unlucky she’ll have a husband like yours who will tell her not to worry about it 🙄

Others have given sound advice about dog behaviour/vet advice/muzzling etc. but honestly if your dogs had an unprovoked biting incident he does need removing from your children for their safety. You will never forgive yourself if he bites one of them. You’ll not consider yourself lucky he’s small then

You shouldn't have taken a very small dog out in high winds. It can be very painful and disorienting for them. Also, those dogs are not good dogs to have with small children. You should know this and not have got one if you planned to have children.

This 100%.

Thank you to you as well for taking these replies so seriously. Lots of dog owners try to minimise/justify dangerous behaviour in their dogs, which is worrying.

Please please take this as a wake up call. No off lead walks and don’t take your eyes off him near strangers. Time and time again I’ve had small dog owners say ‘he’s never done it before’ then find out their dog has always been aggressive or temperamental but they just haven’t seen the behaviour for what it was or were in denial. Not saying this is the case here but think back to see if there have truthfully ever been incidents in the past where he has shown aggressive tendencies because some small breeds are notorious for showing aggression but it gets misinterpreted or minimised in ways it never would if a larger breed did it.

Dog needs to be pts. Could be your child next time !

I don't believe for a second people who say their dog is never left alone with the children for a moment. It is impossible to police that; you just demonstrated that today: you couldn't control the dog and were hampered by the fact that you had a new born and 3 year old. They all cannot live together now.

It’s very unusual behaviour for your dog to bite unprovoked. Definitely go to the vets to get him checked out. You can’t change what happened and how you reacted, but you can do the right thing moving forward and you have been receptive to all the advice here. It was a shocking and unexpected incident op and sometimes we don’t react in the best way. You sound as if you are taking this seriously which is all you can do under the circumstances.

Once a dog is a bite risk please be super vigilant around your children, different scenario but my dog bit once we then muzzled outside of the home, he then mauled a family member in the home and unfortunately due to the severity he had to be PTS. A change in behaviour may be stress, or it could be a health issue. Definitely worth having a full check up and bloods done to make sure there's nothing more serious going on to cause it. But as I said please be vigilant with your young children he may only be a chihuahua but could still cause life changing injuries to an infant or child. I'd recommend having them separated and never leaving them alone together. Not even for a single second.

I was bitten by a dog I was just walking past. It took a sideways swipe and bit my leg and held on for a few seconds. I had bruises from the canine teeth for six months and a newfound nervousness of dogs. Owner was unconcerned!

This really isn't okay. It's a criminal offence. You might not have expected this to happen but now it has, you know it will bite. And once your dog has bitten unprovoked you should consider it volatile and dangerous. The size of the dog is immaterial, it has injured a person. It's good that you're going to muzzle it in public going forwards, but what about your children, at home?

If this was my dog I would be making a final appointment for it at the vet's. I couldn't cope with the constant worry that it might decide to have a go at my children, who are more vulnerable as their faces are much closer to the dog. As a responsible parent, their safety takes priority over a pet. No excuses

I won't make comment on the dog as it's not my area of knowledge, but giving someone medical advice that prevents them seeking appropriate care, especially when from a vulnerable population, when you clearly have no knowledge or training is pretty awful. I'm not sure if that was motivated by protecting yourself, which would be appalling, but even in ignorance is a huge overstep.

Minor dog bites aren't given antibiotics any longer (only cat bites). If you sponsor Dogs Trust c £20 per annum they give you free public liability insurance for dogs. She'll be fine stop over panicking about it.

How do you know "she'll be fine"?

Because by all accounts it was a minor bite. What are you thinking will happen to her? Wow this place is full of crazies 😂

Her skin could break down, need repeated bandage changes, infection, leg ulcers etc have you worked with elderly people in a medical setting to know that she’ll be fine? Because given the age of the lady bitten there is a high chance that she won’t just ‘be fine’

Ideally you would have swapped numbers but you are human and didn’t. Not maliciously but you were overwhelmed. Try to not worry about that, nothing you can do about it now.

We have leads from this range. Link. One dog has friendly the other nervous. Caution would be good. Keep him on the lead and you remove the risk of it happening again.

At home with your children is trickier though. Best will in the world and it is impossible to guarantee they will always be supervised. And even then a dog is increasingly quick and you might not be in time. For your own peace of mind you could contract breed specific rescue centres and get him rehomed into an adult only household.

The OP believed that because her dog is up to date with their jabs the victim didn’t need medical attention. There is an infection risk which for an elderly person can be debilitating.

I say different scenario but it is strikingly similar just different because my dog was 8 stone and had the potential to kill a fully grown adult and almost did had there not been others to step in. I couldn't risk that it was my child next. I would make the same decision again in a heartbeat to protect my children.

Let me tell you what happened to my DH.

He was bitten by a dog who bit his leg. He was out cycling at the time and the owner was a dog walker.

He got her phone number (the dog walker) and a photo of the dog.

Obviously the walker said the usual thing of 'oh, he's never done this before' blah blah.

DH went to the GP and had a tetanus jab.

He also went to the local police. The police contacted the owner and visited her.
She got a stern warning BUT was told had the dog bitten a child or someone's face it would have been put down, no question.

There is something she needs to do now, she needs by law to report on the non emergency number/email.

Dear God you are all mad on here. Yes we can all take worst case scenarios, perhaps she was startled so walked in front of a car on her way home and got killed outright. She was an adult with capacity, she could have asked for the owners details had she wanted to. She is also presumably (as a competent adult) sensible enough to get herself checked out should she need to if the wound looks infected. This place is a hot bed of women looking for drama and to make others feel bad for no sensible reason I am off to enjoy my Sunday I'll leave you to your exaggerated scenarios on here 🙄