dog bites

bfs dad was telling me today about a collie he had ages ago, when my bf and his sis were younger. Anyway, he said she was his dog and one day bfs sister went to sit on the dads lap and the dog bit her on the face. They took her to vets next day and had her pts.

What i cant understand is why they didnt see a behaviourist? This sort of thing happens alot and people jus have their pets pts. If it were my dog, i would sure as hell find out how to solve the problem.

My first reaction was based on pack theory, which i dont totally agree with. My thoughts were that perhaps the dog thought its place were higher up in the pack and could possibly sorted out through some adjustments with how the dog is treated within the family.


what are everyones views on situations like this? do u believe most problems can be sorted out or do u think the dog shud be pts without question?

Hi Jenni, i agree i didn't believe these people existed till i found a site call the www. doglistener, have learnt so much from him.

I think that putting a dog to sleep MUST be the last resort, that dog thought that bf's sister sitting on his masters knee was wrong and was only defending his master - IMO.

Ian

it saddens me when i read about people who jus have their dog pts. Like, how many times do u hear 'if the dog bites the hand that feeds him he shud be pts'. I really dont think that is right! I think most problems can be solved with a bit of time and effort.

In my book dogs don't bite people, particularly children. Trying a trainer is fine but the dog must be kept muzzled or shut away from people until it can be sorted. I have a bitch of 11 years who hates children and since this have become obvious she has not been allowed the opportunity to even threaten to bite because if she did I would not feel I could risk it happening twice, and as much as I love her one injured child would be one too many.

If I had a dog that bit a child, I would have it pts.

Jenny firstly as you say the incident with your dad happened some time ago, behaviourists are a relatively new phenomenon and there probably were none around at the time , there certainly were non around in 1912 when my Grampas dog (WH fox terrier) bit my Father, Grampa took the dog in the quarry and shot her, he was heart broken at having to do this . To solve a problem like preventing a dog biteing a child takes a whole lot of time and effort and some people are just not prepared to make that effort, in many cases the situation arises in the first place because people have handled a situation badly or not heeded the danger signes and wait until it is too late and a dog bites, a dog who bites is a risk to other children so rehoming it is not easy, at times being PTS is the only option when no one is prepared to spend time and money training a dog . For my own part I hope the situation will never arise, I never trust dogs with strange children, children are unpredictable my dogs are always introduced to family children with great care. When my son was small I had a rescue dog aged 4, she growled at my son through fear and it took months of work and training CHILD AND DOG to reach a happy outcome

mini do u believe if someone puts the time in, then most problems can be tackled?

I truely believe that most behaviours such as a dog biting a child can be corrected without having to have the dog pts, and i for one would be doing everything possible to avoid that situation and correct it if it ever happened with one of my own animals.

Yes Jenny I do.... but not everyone is prepared to put in the time and some people don't understand, mostly the problem is circumstances related and should never have happend in the first place, so people that allow it to happen are probably not going to be able to put it right . For my own part I believe prevention is better than cure, and when I go to a house with strange children who are not trained I keep them away from Amy