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My Dog Snapped At My Childs Face.


GardenGnome
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Sounds like you have a lovely dog, please stop the child treating the dog like a climbing object or playing with her like a toy. She is a dog and deserves to be treated with respect, in fact she is demanding it in my opinion by sitting on your child.

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Sounds like a pain reaction.

Your dog WARNED your son that his behaviour hurt her. Count your blessings.

She's not a pillow and he's getting bigger all the time. Stop this behaviour now.

And thank your dog for having both excellent bite inhibition and would appear, up to now, to be a high degree of tolerance.

There will not be a bite if you ensure that your son behaves more appropriately to your dog and that you supervise them or separate them when you can't be around.

Very much agree with this post.

Agree with this

How do you think your belly would feel after a c section? Would you like someone laying across it?

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Thanks so much everyone :) reading all the posts has been very helpful and I am thinking some more boundaries/safe playing rules to help both of them ( and us!) are needed and watching her signals much more closely. And thanks bite me and persephone for those, I am going through them now with S (my son) :)

Edited by ermm
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I'm with everyone else - she was obviously hurt and you have a great dog who gives warnings and has great bite inhibition. She should be praised for warning him without touching him.

No more son lying on doggy - your son sounds like a lovely young man too!

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I am sorry but I am a firm believer that a dog should not act in this way. If I accidentally hurt one of my dogs, stepped on their tail in the walkway, I would expect they would yelp and move or run, I would not expect them to straight away turn around and bite....

Is this what most of you think is allowable? If you accidentally hurt your dog (in whatever way) would you expect them to turn around and bite you or snap towards you?

Whilst I 100% agree parents need to educate children on how to behave around dogs and teach respect and boundaries and children should never be left unsupervised with children for the safety of both child and dog.

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Thank you for replies everyone.

Yes, I told my son strait away that he must stop lying on her and he agreed and told me "she did that because she got very hurt from it, and I wont do it again"

Sounds like a nice youngster. :)

Yep agreed. You sound like a lovely family dealing sensibly with one incident with a lovely dog. Will be very interested to read how you get on. Good luck. :)

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Sorry pockets but I am quite happy if my dogs growl/snap/ show teeth so long as they don't make contact. They have good bite inhibition but they have the right to warn that they are annoyed. It sounds like this dog gave plenty of warning that she was uncomfortable, and both child and parents heeded it.

OP obviously you can see that your child needs to modify his behaviour with the dog, he knows it too and I do think you need to monitor and stay in control but overall you are on top of it.

Edited by Saxonpup
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I am sorry but I am a firm believer that a dog should not act in this way. If I accidentally hurt one of my dogs, stepped on their tail in the walkway, I would expect they would yelp and move or run, I would not expect them to straight away turn around and bite....

Is this what most of you think is allowable? If you accidentally hurt your dog (in whatever way) would you expect them to turn around and bite you or snap towards you?

Whilst I 100% agree parents need to educate children on how to behave around dogs and teach respect and boundaries and children should never be left unsupervised with children for the safety of both child and dog.

I would expect mine to try to get away, but only if it could get away. However there is a big difference between an air snap, a real bite, and a sustained attack.

I think maybe the OP should consult a dog trainer for help. There may be a situation where because of the way the child plays with the dog on the floor that the dog isn't as respectful as it should be and is treating the boy like another dog. Dogs expect other dogs to heed non-verbal warnings before resorting to snapping.

But before seeing a trainer, have a vet check up to make sure the dog is healing ok and there isn't any problem there causing the dog to be in extra pain. Constant pain will lower a dog's tolerance to being pushed around.

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I would expect they would yelp and move or run, I would not expect them to straight away turn around and bite....

Agree -my dogs would do the same .. but this isn't your dog, or mine .

this dog did have a child draped over her , which makes running away difficult - and she did not bite.

and I agree with greyt's post ..

I think maybe the OP should consult a dog trainer for help. There may be a situation where because of the way the child plays with the dog on the floor that the dog isn't as respectful as it should be and is treating the boy like another dog. Dogs expect other dogs to heed non-verbal warnings before resorting to snapping.

But before seeing a trainer, have a vet check up to make sure the dog is healing ok and there isn't any problem there causing the dog to be in extra pain. Constant pain will lower a dog's tolerance to being pushed around.

Edited by persephone
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I am sorry but I am a firm believer that a dog should not act in this way. If I accidentally hurt one of my dogs, stepped on their tail in the walkway, I would expect they would yelp and move or run, I would not expect them to straight away turn around and bite....

Is this what most of you think is allowable? If you accidentally hurt your dog (in whatever way) would you expect them to turn around and bite you or snap towards you?

if I accidently hurt the dog bad enough then yes I would expect to get snapped at or bitten. The dog had only been spayed 3 weeks prior, it is a major operation, she would still be healing. Big difference to having your tail trod on, and how could the dog run away with a child laying on her?

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I am sorry but I am a firm believer that a dog should not act in this way. If I accidentally hurt one of my dogs, stepped on their tail in the walkway, I would expect they would yelp and move or run, I would not expect them to straight away turn around and bite....

Is this what most of you think is allowable? If you accidentally hurt your dog (in whatever way) would you expect them to turn around and bite you or snap towards you?

if I accidently hurt the dog bad enough then yes I would expect to get snapped at or bitten. The dog had only been spayed 3 weeks prior, it is a major operation, she would still be healing. Big difference to having your tail trod on, and how could the dog run away with a child laying on her?

I agree, big difference.

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I am sorry but I am a firm believer that a dog should not act in this way. If I accidentally hurt one of my dogs, stepped on their tail in the walkway, I would expect they would yelp and move or run, I would not expect them to straight away turn around and bite....

Is this what most of you think is allowable? If you accidentally hurt your dog (in whatever way) would you expect them to turn around and bite you or snap towards you?

if I accidently hurt the dog bad enough then yes I would expect to get snapped at or bitten. The dog had only been spayed 3 weeks prior, it is a major operation, she would still be healing. Big difference to having your tail trod on, and how could the dog run away with a child laying on her?

I agree, big difference.

Glad to hear you have the opportunity to resolve this without anyone being hurt (except maybe poor dog who is still healing and is also a bit out of sorts??)

Sometimes when a dog feels cornered and can't get away snapping is resorted to. Dog really hate "hugs" and yet people will think it okay to give a dog a hug as we tend to humanise their emotions in line with ours.

When my youngest daughter used to sit on the couch with our Cavalier and hold her in a death grip hug I had to tell her not to do this repeatedly, until one day the dog, having had enough growled at her and I explained to my daughter, who was 7 at the time if the dog bit her it would be her fault the dog would be PTS. This finally drove the message home to her and we have had no more "human hugs" on dogs.

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You must remember our domestic dogs are decedents from the wild pack animals, this is the discipline that the parents did/do when a pup has done wrong,

this is all part of dog language & a lot of humans do not understand it

Perfect example, we took in a 3yr bitch that was hit by a 9yr boy (owners son) with a piece of 4x2 wood, yes the bitch did bite the child, when she arrived here being a Rottie she looked like a starving Greyhound & pregnant to boot. the bitch gave birth 18hrs later to 14 pups (all lived) :D. Now this dog lived with me & my 2 girls (7yrs & 12yr at the time) , the bitch ended up being the biggest damm sook ever. We housed her with a couple who had a 5yr daughter. she lived her days out with this family without a hassle at all, the poor girl died at the ripe old age of 11 1/2yrs bloody good age for a Rottweiler :D

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You know why the dog snapped & what to do to stop it happening again.

Perfectly normal reaction from the dog given the circumstances. I wouldn't bother with a behaviourist. Its a few hundred $'s & you know what to do.

Stop your son being this way with the dog. He sounds a lovely kind,sensible & good little boy so this should be a one off incident.

I hate it when people expect a dog to put up with anything without any reaction at all.

Once saw a child pull a dogs ears until it squealed & the parent said the dogs so good it puts up with anything from the kids :mad

It shouldn't have to. I would have done the mean mum thing called discipline.

Edited by Christina
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