Whoa, there is usually a underlying reason......

No one but the dog and the kid know what happened. Maybe the attack was "out of the blue." Maybe the attack seemed "out of the blue" to the child, who had no idea that she'd done something threatening.

I can't help but wonder if it went something like this: child whistles to do. Dog comes. Child, laying on bed, hugs dog's head. Dog freaks out, and bites face to get away.  And while the injuries are terrifying and not to be taken lightly, the girl was not mauled. She had cuts, scratches, and bruises. That suggests a dog who does not mean to do serious injury.

There is a reason most dog bites to kids happen on the face ....

Obviously the dog can't stay with the family, as they are unprepared to deal with him. In an ideal world a competent behaviorist could evaluate the dog and see if he is suitable for a dog-savy home, but it would be better to euthanize the dog  than send it off to a home not prepared to handle him.

Tolak

denise m

AuroraLove

So dog attacks are unfortunately a common story we hear on the news. Typically if you look hard enough you can find a reason, wether it be provoked or not. I've found a majority of attacks occur with male unaltered dogs. dogs who have health issues or jusr plain irresponsible owners but thsi story is pretty shocking.......

 

Although I agree that more often than not a 'reason' can be found for dog attacks I am also of the belief that dogs are animals and therefore are unpredictable by nature. Sometimes there is simply no explanation. To state that ALL dog attacks can be explained, suggests that we as humans have the ability to 100% understand how the dog brain works. Tragic story all round.

 

 

  My thoughts exactly.  We can not predict how a human that we know closely will react in any & all given situations, and we have the ability to communicate much better human to human.  The communications between humans & dogs are much more difficult, there may be signs that the family missed here, or that anyone might miss.  Treat all dogs as what they are, animals descendant from wolves,  and handle yourself accordingly.

 

I think dogs are much easier to understand than humans.  Just because we are humans ourselves, doesn't make us an open and shut case.  Human beings are the least instinctual animals on the planet.    We do things constantly which are against the laws of nature.  Humans also have the ability to lie.  As far as I know no other animal on the planet can do that.  Dog's almost never act unnaturally, and in that way we can almost always figure out what the trigger of such an attack was, even if it has to be as broad as past treatment.  

stardog85

Does anyone else find it disturbing that they are trying to *rehome* a dog after something like this?  If you don't want to keep a dog after an incident I understand, but seriously, do the right thing and either call in a behaviorist and do a vet check or have the dog euthed, not pass your problem on to someone else!!! 

Ditto.  My words exactly, almost word for word, on reading the article and the thread. 

ron2

There doesn't seem to be a way to answer this thread without the risk of offending someone.

This is EXACTLY right IMO.  It's just NOT WORTH THE RISK.  No matter HOW placid and wonderful the dog is.  The phrases afterwards are always the same.

I simply don't trust children around dogs....I have seen and heard too many horror stories of children mishandling and being mean towards dogs......there is no telling what happened in this situation......some dogs seriously don't like to be hugged, especially around the neck or head....some kids don't understand this concept and try to give affection this way.......if this dog meant to really attack there would have been more damage.......

IMO, every dog is capable of a bite......just because one loves their dogs"TO BITS"....doesn't mean nothing will ever happen.....

I would PTS although I know that will cause a stir for some. I do not think re-homing the dog is much of an option unless they can find a professional willing to try.

 Very sad.

Edited to avoid clarifying later:

There most likely was some sort of trigger. I doubt the dog just went for her for no reason at all. There may have been some medical reason. But in the end there are so very many dogs out there that need homes that have not bitten a child in this manner. IMO if I were the owners I would PTS. And it is very sad that the poor dog has no idea what is wrong and why he is locked in the bedroom and unable to socialize with his family. This should be taken care of and IMO, PTS is better than subjecting the poor animal to isolation.

dgriego

I would PTS although I know that will cause a stir for some. I do not think re-homing the dog is much of an option unless they can find a professional willing to try.

 

 Very sad.

I am gonna guess, and say that this dog would probably do well with a knowledgable/experienced dog owner.....kids are out,of course........

At this point in my life, I'm finding that "dogs bite" is practically my motto. Not "dogs maul", but dogs bite. They just do. Almost every dog I know has bitten at some point, whether it was accidental, or caused by fear, pain, or aggression. Sometimes dogs bite excessively and irrationally, just like..people sometimes lose their tempers and act excessively or irrationally. I can't help but think of kids fighting when I hear about dog bite cases like this one. When I was 7 or 8, my sister (6 years older than me) and I got in an argument. No clue what it was about, but it ended with me punching her in the face. Excessive and irrational. We had several fights like this... No one tried to separate us permanently. No one suggested euthanizing me because I was aggressive and attacked my sister. So what, dogs are members of the family until they lose their tempers once? This dog didn't maul the girl. She's not seriously or permanently injured. So her "sibling" got a little excessive. It happens.

Maybe I'm too lenient..but IMO, the rest of the friggin world is too strict. They're DOGS. They have TEETH. They are not exactly reasonable beings. If you can't deal with that, and abandon or kill them when you realize that your dog too is just a dog, don't get a friggin dog in the first place!

snownose

I simply don't trust children around dogs...

 I think this is a very good point.  If you allow child and dog free access to one another, you have two parties to trust.  That's A LOT of trust.  It's not going to happen in this house....  As someone else said, any and all of us can do stupid/irrational/excessive/mean things sometimes.  You have to allow for that, and allow for it that little bit more when it's an animal involved... and then some MORE when there's a child involved too.

 I guess I see the underlying reason, as I don't quite believe the child's story. She's probably afraid to tell the truth. My take on it...the child was teasing the dog with the whistle. Try to whistle and see how your dogs react. If I continue to whistle, my dogs get very stimulated and come towards me. They are not acting aggressively, but they appear to me anyway, as they aren't too happy with that high pitch that is coming out of my mouth. However, I'm not approaching them and backing them into a corner and whistling in their face, which is perhaps something close to what this girl was doing. It was mentioned that she'd whistled like that a lot...which even convinces me more that it is something she found annoyed the dog.

I've seen people blow in my dogs faces and they go nuts.  It makes other people laught but it drives me crazy.  They obviously don't LIKE it, so why the heck is it funny?????  But I could almost imagine the child seeing someone doing it to their dog and thinking "it was okay" style of thing... and the dog responded differently to a child than he would to an adult?

Seems unfair to assume though. 

But, bottom line - no one knows what happened here - and I think to rehome this dog, could be dangerous. I would not want a dog in my home that had sent a child to the ER, I don't know about any of you. Yes - my dog has bitten - but not to the same extent of this dog. But not knowing what exactly happened, the family has a responsibility to do what is in the best interest of the public and the dog. Maybe he was provoked, maybe not. We will never know -and to sit and say 'well it had to have been provoked' is not worth any of our time - because we don't know. We weren't there. It was just the child and the dog (which yes - is a huge mistake). But would having a parent there prevented this situation? We don't know.

And...I have to disagree with Chelsea. Dogs to not rationalize things the way children do. They fight- yes. But it's not the same as children. Dogs don't think like we do - they are animals. Yes - all animal have teeth and will bite, people have to understand that.

And let's not assume the child will grow up with horrible fears of dogs - look at what happened to me - and where I work now. Children forget things, they more on. They are much more forgiving than adults.

stardog85

Does anyone else find it disturbing that they are trying to *rehome* a dog after something like this?  If you don't want to keep a dog after an incident I understand, but seriously, do the right thing and either call in a behaviorist and do a vet check or have the dog euthed, not pass your problem on to someone else!!! 

Dog_ma

I can't help but wonder if it went something like this: child whistles to do. Dog comes. Child, laying on bed, hugs dog's head. Dog freaks out, and bites face to get away.  And while the injuries are terrifying and not to be taken lightly, the girl was not mauled. She had cuts, scratches, and bruises. That suggests a dog who does not mean to do serious injury.

HoundMusic

Dog_ma

I can't help but wonder if it went something like this: child whistles to do. Dog comes. Child, laying on bed, hugs dog's head. Dog freaks out, and bites face to get away.  And while the injuries are terrifying and not to be taken lightly, the girl was not mauled. She had cuts, scratches, and bruises. That suggests a dog who does not mean to do serious injury.

     If that did occur (and it very well may have) that dog had one helluva unstable temperament. I grew up with a Lhasa mix who was aggressive, protective, feisty ... yet I was with that dog from the time I was 2yrs old until twelve years later ... he got hugged, squeezed, carried, dressed up, tripped over. He would have sooner bitten himself than me. I have "my" pups in homes with kids as young as 2-4 yrs, while they were approved because they were gentle & well behaved, kids will be kids and can be rough, have quick movements. If their temperament is not stable enough to withstand hugging and some rough play from kids ... they just don't have a stable temperament, period. JMHO.

Ok, I wasn't going to go there.......one must understand, to have a stable environment at any home for any dog, it takes a responsible owner.....I am not saying this owner is irresponsible, but some folks point fingers at this poor dog not knowing what really happened.....lets's take a look.....if we are to apply the same judgement on how things could have gone down, then we must look at all things.....we know this dog was adopted.....so, we have no idea what has happened to this dog.........now, same application to the owner.....she claims to be 27(she was pregnant at 14).....her oldest child is 12....do the math, .....3 children and now living with a partner......ok.......not attacking the owner, but, if we blame the dog, we must look at the owner..........yeah, guys.........fire away.......I know it's coming......all I am saying is.......we don't know anything.....correct?

What I am saying is........don't give the dog all the blame before looking at all points....eh....