We don't hit our dog to discipline him; I've never laid a hand on him before that night. Trust me, if you saw your dog leap across the room and bite your child, you'd hit him too. I was in total shock.
Our dog bit my son!
- Thread starter Aslan
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I'm glad that you're going to meet with a trainer. A good trainer will help you determine, first of all, what it was that led to this bite in the first place.
I'm kind of confused about what it was, if anything, that led this dog to bite your son. If you determine that it is true human aggression, I would euthanize rather than re-home. You don't want to pass along a human-aggressive dog to someone else; that wouldn't be fair.
I'm kind of confused about what it was, if anything, that led this dog to bite your son. If you determine that it is true human aggression, I would euthanize rather than re-home. You don't want to pass along a human-aggressive dog to someone else; that wouldn't be fair.
i have read through the thread and i think you are doing the best with the cards you are given Aslan. It is an understandable mistake to let small dogs get away with things one would not do with a larger dog, but now that you know it is a mistake, it looks like you are taking steps to correct it.
i also understand about getting a pet and then realizing that someone in the family is allergic, we got two kittens from the shelter, and it was not until we got the second one that i realized i was allergic. Many people told me to give them up but i had bonded so closely with the first one that i could never, i take allergy medicine (nasonex and costco brand zyrtec) together they work great and able to fully interact with my furbabies. i think if part of the issue for the your son is allergies, consider taking him to an allergist, my allergist told me that it is unusally to be allergic to only one thing, so by having a full list of allergy items and proper medicine for all the allergies (which is often just one pill a day) it might improve his confromt level with the dog as well as address other less obvious allergies he may have.
overall however it seems to me that you are taking great steps to address any pass mistake and that is what matters. if the dog needs to be rehomed, dont worry, small cute and young dogs are easy to find homes for. consider taking him into a local shelter or rescue, if you live in or near a big city, most of them have very good or outright excellent animal care resources. they would screen potential adopters as well as offer anything he might need in terms of care or training.
I would agree that your home is not the ideal place for this particular dog. I would be fearful of another, more severe attack on your son and your new baby. Training could help, but I doubt that it would make your son feel better about a dog he does not care for, especially one that attacked him.
Update: So, we have been keeping Edward and my son apart (which I thought would be pretty easy since my son has school during the week and afterschool thereafter). I had the dog on the leash yesterday when I came into the house the other day and my son was coming out of the bathroom.
Edward pulled on the leash and tried to snap at my son. :cry:
I'm calling around to a few of my friends to see if they can take him. We have an appointment with the behaviorist next week, but I don't want to take the risk of having them under the same roof at this point. It's also not fair to the dog to have to be in his crate or leashed the entire time my son out and about in the house.
I feel very sad.
Edward pulled on the leash and tried to snap at my son. :cry:
I'm calling around to a few of my friends to see if they can take him. We have an appointment with the behaviorist next week, but I don't want to take the risk of having them under the same roof at this point. It's also not fair to the dog to have to be in his crate or leashed the entire time my son out and about in the house.
I feel very sad.
I'm sorry, Aslan.
Please be sure to disclose fully what is going on with your son and ensure that whoever takes this dog will use the services of a qualified trainer. It should be someone you trust 1000% to make sure that no one else gets hurt.
I'm nervous about your rehoming what appears to be an unstable, and potentially human aggressive, dog.
Please be sure to disclose fully what is going on with your son and ensure that whoever takes this dog will use the services of a qualified trainer. It should be someone you trust 1000% to make sure that no one else gets hurt.
I'm nervous about your rehoming what appears to be an unstable, and potentially human aggressive, dog.
Aslan, you're doing the best you can in the situation you have. Keeping Edward on a leash inside the house while your son is home is a good idea.. and firmly giving Edward a "correction" tug when he displays unwanted behavior will hopefully send Edward the message that, that behavior will not be tolerated.
As frustrated & sad you are feeling right now..there will be a resolution to this.. whether it be re-homing Edward, or working together as a family with a behavior trainer. It will turn out for the best.. hang in there Aslan
As frustrated & sad you are feeling right now..there will be a resolution to this.. whether it be re-homing Edward, or working together as a family with a behavior trainer. It will turn out for the best.. hang in there Aslan
Thanks everyone for the kind and supportive words. I keep re-reading many of your posts and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
He's perfectly fine around new adults. He's never snapped or growled at any adult we introduce him to. He's playful and shows his belly. He's very submissive to DH. I've been talking about this to a friend who knows the dog and us and she simply didn't believe me when I told her this was happening. I think children just make him nervous.
I'm so sorry about your situation. It must be a very difficult one to be in. We have two rescue dogs, one of them is an indoor dog we trust completely with our daughter (or as completely as you can trust a dog with a toddler without being careless) as she knows exactly where she stands on the hierarchy of animals in our home and it may be top dog but it's well below even the most annoying child. The other is a mostly outdoor dog because as much as he loves people and means well, we know that he is quite excitable and can easily knock our daughter over or accidentally nip her while playing. While I love both of my dogs very very much (especially our indoor dog who is like a second child), if either of them ever growled or bit my daughter, they would be out of the house and onto a new home without kids. As much as I love animals and believe in training and rehabilitation, when it comes to my own child, any aggression from my dog is just a risk I could not take.
On the other hand, my best friend has a poodle that is absolutely viscous towards strangers. When she had her son they worked on socializing them correctly, but given the dog's general mental state towards other people, he has bitten her son on at least two occasions. She has had her dog for over 7 years and is very attached to him, so re-homing him wasn't an option. She tried training and it's a little better, but in my mind the dog is a time bomb. I guess, it's just a personal decision everyone has to make. Your dog may never bite your son again. On the other hand, someone else's perfect dog could one day lash out against their child. While they may seem like children to us in our heart, the reality is that they are animals and all we can do is try our best to understand, predict and control their behavior. Good luck to you in making your decision. I'm sure no matter what you decide your dog appreciates all the love you have given him and for you taking him in to begin with.
On the other hand, my best friend has a poodle that is absolutely viscous towards strangers. When she had her son they worked on socializing them correctly, but given the dog's general mental state towards other people, he has bitten her son on at least two occasions. She has had her dog for over 7 years and is very attached to him, so re-homing him wasn't an option. She tried training and it's a little better, but in my mind the dog is a time bomb. I guess, it's just a personal decision everyone has to make. Your dog may never bite your son again. On the other hand, someone else's perfect dog could one day lash out against their child. While they may seem like children to us in our heart, the reality is that they are animals and all we can do is try our best to understand, predict and control their behavior. Good luck to you in making your decision. I'm sure no matter what you decide your dog appreciates all the love you have given him and for you taking him in to begin with.
Now I feel really guilty when I think about how our actions were re-enforcing Edward's negative behavior.
But how many dogs will *never* be exposed to children? I'm sorry, I know this is hard. I do think a good trainer should evaluate him and determine what is going on. But if his aggression really is unprovoked, then in my opinion it is a mistake to rehome him.
Oh no, I wasn't telling you that to make you feel guilty. I just wanted to let you know that your situation is not unique.
You are really in a tough situation right now. I don't think you should blame yourself for what happened. You didn't know what the dog's history was before you got him. And if you were a first time dog owner, you really wouldn't know that his previous acts were actually aggression.
I think you are doing the best thing for him and your family by having him temporarily re-homed until he can be evaluated.
And contrary to what others have said, dogs that are aggressive can be retrained. Some forms of aggression take more time and effort than others to correct. You certainly shouldn't feel guilty if you need to re-home him. And contrary to what other posters have said, dogs can be placed in homes without children and lead relatively normal lives. You just need to be honest with the rescue group/shelter/etc if you surrender him.
I think we'll have to agree to disagree. But I want to clarify that I do think that some forms of "aggression" -- such as fear aggression or dog aggression -- can be addressed or managed successfully with training. Dogs should *not* be human aggressive; they should not bite children unprovoked. Nor would any shelter or rescue accept a human-aggressive dog -- it's a liability issue (not to mention that with overcrowding these days, they have to be choosier).
Just to chime in with an experience I once had with a dog around kids. I rescued a 100 pound Doberman from his life as a guard dog for a used car lot. He was about 2 years old, had never been socialized, his only reaction to humans was aggressive. My boyfriend at the time and myself took him and worked very hard with him with a trainer.
However, despite all the work we did, I still saw warning signs. He was OK around my boyfriend and I - but would become very agitated when we got too close to each other - esp. playing around. It's like he didn't know which one of us he wanted to protect. While he seemed OK (not great) around other people, whenever he saw kids he would growl and get agitated. If a kid approached our car when he was in it, he would go ballistic. One day we were at home and the doorbell rang. The dog was sitting on the couch, and the girl at the door was about 13 years old. The dog leapt off the couch and went for her face. He did leave a mark, but thankfully I think most of the damage was psychological.
I got a call from the girl's father telling me if he didn't have proof that the dog had been put down within 7 days he was going to sue and that it was not going to end well for us. We used that week to talk to trainers, vets, everyone, and everyone reached the conclusion that the dog was not stable and that he should be put down.
Now granted your situation is not as dire - this was a 100 pound dog who was trained for one thing only - to be vicious. It wasn't the dog's fault what was done to him, but unfortunately there were too many red flags to ignore and I did end up putting him down but it absolutely killed me. I was only 22 at the time. If this had happened now, I may have rethought it, but I had so many professionals telling me I was going to end up the victim of one or more massive lawsuits if the dog attacked again - and all indications were that he would have.
So my point here is to say don't feel bad. I don't see anything that you did wrong, but sometimes dogs (and people) can be wired with behavioural problems. In your case maybe these can be fixed, or maybe putting the dog in another home is an option. At least it's not a 100 pound dog that could do the kind of damage my Dobe could.
I feel for you and I just want to let you know this isn't your fault. You sound like you have done and are continuing to do all the right things.
Let us know how things are progressing.
However, despite all the work we did, I still saw warning signs. He was OK around my boyfriend and I - but would become very agitated when we got too close to each other - esp. playing around. It's like he didn't know which one of us he wanted to protect. While he seemed OK (not great) around other people, whenever he saw kids he would growl and get agitated. If a kid approached our car when he was in it, he would go ballistic. One day we were at home and the doorbell rang. The dog was sitting on the couch, and the girl at the door was about 13 years old. The dog leapt off the couch and went for her face. He did leave a mark, but thankfully I think most of the damage was psychological.
I got a call from the girl's father telling me if he didn't have proof that the dog had been put down within 7 days he was going to sue and that it was not going to end well for us. We used that week to talk to trainers, vets, everyone, and everyone reached the conclusion that the dog was not stable and that he should be put down.
Now granted your situation is not as dire - this was a 100 pound dog who was trained for one thing only - to be vicious. It wasn't the dog's fault what was done to him, but unfortunately there were too many red flags to ignore and I did end up putting him down but it absolutely killed me. I was only 22 at the time. If this had happened now, I may have rethought it, but I had so many professionals telling me I was going to end up the victim of one or more massive lawsuits if the dog attacked again - and all indications were that he would have.
So my point here is to say don't feel bad. I don't see anything that you did wrong, but sometimes dogs (and people) can be wired with behavioural problems. In your case maybe these can be fixed, or maybe putting the dog in another home is an option. At least it's not a 100 pound dog that could do the kind of damage my Dobe could.
I feel for you and I just want to let you know this isn't your fault. You sound like you have done and are continuing to do all the right things.
Let us know how things are progressing.