PLEASE HELP! My dog just bit my 3 yr old son!

[collielove]

Please please anyone give me some advise. I have an 18mnth collie x labrador male, adopted 2 months ago from a private house. He is very housetrained and obedient HOWEVER he keeps snapping at my 3 year old, the first time was because my son lay on him, the next time was because he stepped over him whilst he was lying in a doorway, yesterday however, he was just playing beside him and he went for him! I am distraught! I don't want him put in a rescue centre (and they won't take him anyway now cause they say he's labelled aggressive) but my sons safety is paramount.. I feel so torn. I simply don't know what to do!

[Suzette]

Until one of our seasoned trainers comes to your aid, I'll just state the obvious (and something you have hopefully already done). Separate this dog from your son and keep them separated. They should have a solid barrier between them to keep your son safe.

[Sarah83]

You need to stop your son from doing things like lying on the dog and stepping over him. How was your son playing when the dog went for him? How does your son generally interact with the dog? Does the dog try to avoid him? Did he live with children in his previous home? Has the dog been punished for growling and/or snapping? Has the dog been for a full health check? Not just a quick check over, look at teeth ears etc but full bloodwork.

A lot of dogs find young children unnerving. They stare, they grab, they pull, they approach head on, they fall over, they make strange noises etc. I'm sure some of the more experienced folks will have some advice for you but answering the questions will help them help you. The more information you can provide us with the better really.

[ladybug1802]

Aggh I just wrote a post and then pressed the wrong button!

As Sarah said - you really should have never allowed your son to lay on your dog! Not on ANY dog actually....but especially not on a rescue dog you have had for 2 months! This is the dog's way of telling you he is not happy with this situation.....a lot of people see 'aggression' as it being a bad dog, but it is only the dog's way of communicating. Much the same as if someone came and lay on us - we wouldnt like it and would tell that person in no uncertain terms to go away....but yet dog's are expected to put up with all this. Your dog is not 'aggressive'...he is scared and usnure and trying to communicate.

You should have listened to your dog at this time (altho it shouldnt have been allowed in the first place to be honest) and kept your sopn away from the dog if unsupervised. I dont think this is a veterinary issue....its a simple case that you shouldnt allow this. As Sarah has said kids are scary for a lot of dogs unless they have grown up with them....they run fast, are loud, small and are very rough with animals as they dont know how to treat them yet. For example, I do not trust my rescue dog around children unless it is ones he knows.....they are friends children and have been bought up around dogs, are sensible and know to give them their distance and dont treat them like cuddly toys. Otherwise I would keep him away from them as he would probably snap - as he has fear issues....and to be honest i wouldnt blame him!

[jacksdad]

before you panic too much, step back and really look at the bit. did it break skin (and if so was it a "paper cut" or require a doctor visit), was it just a mouth on your son, was it a pinch etc. Why this is important is a 18 month old collie/lab mix has the ability to do some VERY serious damage to an adult human, let a lone a 3 year old child. So if the bit was none serious (from a damage done point of view) there is no reason to think you have a dangerous/aggressive dog. The less damage done, the more restraint your dog is showing the greater the chance this was last resort communication.

NOW, having said that, CLEARLY we do NOT want our dogs putting their mouths on our children. So I am in no way saying that NO corrective action needs to be taken, but the corrective action may not be where you expect.

HOWEVER he keeps snapping at my 3 year old, the first time was because my son lay on him, the next time was because he stepped over him whilst he was lying in a doorway

Think about that line for a minute and compare the damage or lack of damage done to your son. The less damage the greater the chance your dog wasn't being dangerous or aggressive BUT asking to be left alone. Your son is being allowed to do things that makes your young dog VERY uncomfortable. I can almost guarantee you that your dog has asked for these things to not happen or to be stopped and the bit (particularly if there is little to no damage) was a last resort by your dog to be heard.

Not all dogs, even lab or lab mixes, have an easy time with young or very young children. they are unpredictable, have little or no impulse control and so will for exploratory reasons things like pull tails, ears and do other things that most dogs don't like and few will put up with. they will ask for these things to stop in a variety of ways. a bit that does little to no damage is often a last resort shout out of "hey I asked, you didn't listen" followed by use of the mouth.

So, what to do. your going to need to NOT let your son EVER be alone with your dog. You are going to have to mange their interaction carefully to ensure your dog NEVER feels it has to resort to biting every again. you may even consider not having your dog and son in the same room at all or for a while. At 18 months old your dog is it's self finishing up "puppy hood" and transitioning to adult dog. during this time it's possible for dogs to be a little more high strung and less tolerant etc.

an otherwise healthy, well adjusted dog does not bit for no reason. the less damage done in the bit, the more restraint the dog is showing and is essentially asking us to stop doing something because we didn't listen to his other signals. In this case, if you remove the reason for the bit, child laying on dog, stepping over or possible on dog (for all you know your son might have stepped on a paw, tail, or some other part of the dog or even just startled him) then the biting stops. again, in a otherwise healthy and well adjusted dog that has bit for a valid reason do not arbitrarily turn into biting aggressive monsters. escalation, if things escalate only happens for good cause. remove the need to escalate things, biting goes away.

[emmabeth]

Snapping is your dogs way of telling your child he is not comfortable around him - for whatever reason your dog isn't growling or choosing to move away, that could be due to previous experiences he has had, or he just doesn't feel that will work.

Your job now is to prevent the dog feeling as if he must do this, and the only way to do this given the age of your child, is to keep them seperated, because your child cannot understand what to do (although you must still tell him to not approach the dog, you cant expect him to remember yet).

It won't be forever, children grow up, dogs can learn to growl to warn, and to move away given the right training, but if you do nothing you WILL end up with a child bitten and a dog you probably have to have pts.

[springchowie11]

You may have to get rid of him. Give him to someone else that doesn't have little kids. That was wat my family GS was doing and we had to get rid of him. It was because my sis was playing with his food wen he was busy.
Is it bite or nip? They are 2 entirely different things.

[emmabeth]

Springchowie - please don't drag up posts where the original poster has not returned. What this does is pushes newer posts down so they get missed.

Additionally it is NOT usually necessary to rehome dogs with this sort of problem, unless the owners cannot or will not take the steps necessary to safely manage the dog. Things like not allowing children to mess with a dogs food or toys, and using baby gates to seperate dogs and children are simple steps that can make a HUGE difference.

[springchowie11]

sorry, it was just what was the best that we had to do for our GS. it was only a suggestion

[emmabeth]

It may have been what your family 'had' to do, but we are not talking about your family or your dog.

The original poster came here for advice which is what was given - they are fully aware they can also either rehome the dog, or have it put to sleep, that is not what they asked.

Please READ the advice given, not just the first post - you have a lot to learn and you CAN learn a heck of a lot from these forums if you want to.

Simple steps such as learning what is and isnt acceptable to ask of a dog can prevent accidents and dogs having to be rehomed unecessarily! So things like NEVER allowing small children (or indeed anyone!) to play with a dogs food and mess them about or tease them can prevent accidents and things like dogs having to be rehomed.

[ladybug1802]

Plus saying dogs can be rehomed that easily merely implies dogs are disposable....which they are not. This particular situation can be helped a lot by simply stopping the child from doing things like stepping over the dog etc.

[jacksdad]

sorry, it was just what was the best that we had to do for our GS. it was only a suggestion

Pulling from personal experience has it's place so don't feel bad for trying. But a key to helping with threads like this is looking past the "help my dog is aggressive tone" and look for what did or didn't happen. a key is the op didn't say their child ended up in the hospital. the other key was saying one of the incidents happened after the child was laying on the dog, and other piece is the dog's age.

Also, it's not uncommon for dogs to be a bit on edge with small children anyway.... combined that with realizing that often people mistake basically nips, barking, maybe low growl, etc for "OH MY GOD MY DOG IS AGGRESSIVE" when all their dog is doing is asking for the "1000th" time to please stop something. you stop doing what it is that is upsetting the dog or making them uncomfortable, you end the need for the dog to bite.

put all that together and there is a very good chance based on available information that things can be turned around and there would be no need to rehome the dog.

Clearly, safety of all must come first and should the op come back with more details that have happened since or were not shared initially advice could change to include maybe finding another home for the dog. But until something like that happens we are left with what the op gave us and based on that available information, suggesting re homing is a bit premature.