Not even going to bother answering the above posts - no point,.

I have my priorities and others have theirs, mine is the welfare of my kids before animals - so sorry if that is not good enough for some people. There are anti kid people on here as has been proved by your posts and obvious as you find someone putting kids before dogs so unreasonable. Its been obvious on other threads as well imo.

Thanks to Cheeky Chihuahua for sticking her neck above the parapet so to speak

You are soooooooooooo welcome, GreyhoundK. No problem at all. Where I come from, kids will always come before pets but perhaps we are in the minority. Who knows. More's to the point, who cares

I would just like to point out that i did not say that I put my pet before my child, what I did say is that I would fully investigate if my dog bit my child and note i say BITE not maul. There is a difference after all, a nip can draw blood so if your line is merely that if the dog draws blood then it should be rehomed or PTS then that worries me.

Bruno once ran into Luca in the hall and Luca fell over and hit his mouth on the wall - made him bleed .... should I put Bruno down???

Every situation has to be taken on individual circumstances and i can say that if Bruno was in a situation where he bit Luca due to pain caused by Luca for example, I would not PTS or rehome him, I would make sure that Luca never got the opportunity again and try and work with Bruno to make sure it didnt happen again.

As i have said before its easy to say things and hindsight also is a wonderful thing, but because I have always monitored Bruno and luca and know that Bruno adores Luca and the feeling is mutual ( when Luca is upset Bruno comes and licks his face and seems worried for him etc)
I would be very very surprised if Bruno ever bit anyone let alone my child, I just dont believe he has it in him.

I do feel that its easy to say just to give the dog up etc if anything happened but its not so easy to do, and I dont believe that for GreyhoundK it would have been an easy situation, however it would not be the first thing that I did.

I have heard many people state that there dog bit their child so they took it to the vets that day and PTS !! I think thats a very sad thing to happen with no investigation or thought as to why.

I could have taken him to the vet but i didn't ! - it wasn't just a nip either btw. No i wouldn't expect your dog to be put down if your child tripped over him - thats different to the dog biting your child entirely !

I think this has been done to death now so its finito for me.

i dont know why you are getting so defensive - I have said that i didnt think it was an easy decision and whilst I dont agree with it necessarily i havent been rude or offensive to you - this is a discussion after all so we are all perfectly able to discuss things without people getting upset about it.

I actually think that what you did was better than just taking him to the vets as you allowed him to be assessed, however I made the point that many people dont and just get them PTS no questions asked. and that i wouldnt do that.....

However I dont believe that makes me putting my dog before my child which is what has been implied that i am doing.

Neither do I , not sure where this anti kids and putting dogs before kids came into play...

I think like you and others we all agree , everyone must do as they feel is the right decision for them.

Not sure why some are getting so uptight because others have a different opinion than them

As you say , it is a discussion, and as with all discussions opinions will differ.

Same here too. We have kids....strangers to my dogs,we have 9 grandchildren all under 7 and neices and nephews calling all day every day, but everyone has an opinion. All I said was I'd want to work out and question why it happened before i ran up the road to have a dog PTS.

Oh yes, me too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't keep raking up the same old muck, eh

Yes you are sort of right


It was first mentioned, if I'm correct, in the BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Behavioural Medicine (2002) in a chapter about the development of behaviour, social behaviour and communication in dogs written by vet Kendal Shepherd (she's a very well respected behaviourist dealing with aggression).

It's basically a ladder showing how dogs react to stress or threat, here's a bit from the book:

"A more realistic interpretation in the vast majority of aggressive episodes is to consider all behaviours shown not as belonging to a specific ... category but as a continuum of context-specific, threat-averting gestures...Such gestures may include proposed "calming signals" and can be illustrated as a "ladder of aggression" with the least overt signals on the lowest rungs, progressing to overt aggression at the top..if noticed and responded to appropriately, any of the gestures on the ladder should result in the recipient immediately reducing the threat presented, thereby ending potential conflict....If ignored or misinterpreted, however, other strategies may be employed, such as aggression, and such escalation may occur within one episode or over a period of time..."

Lots more but in my view this can sometimes explain what happens when a dog may bite with no warning, as to a dog there is always a reason (even if to us it's not something we'd necessarily realise or "agree" with which was due to past happenings, triggered by something in the present).

The start of the ladder is nose licking, yawning and blinking (many owners don't recognise these at all....)

followed by:

turning head away
turning body away, sitting, pawing
walking away (often never noticed as a problem...)
creeping, ears back
Standing crouched, tail tucked under
Lying down, leg up
Stiffening up, stare
Growl
Snap
Bite

There's a lot going on before, as humans, we notice it, very often ... what happens with some dogs is that they have been used to showing the lower rungs of the ladder signals, which have been ignored (not necessarily on purpose, or by the current owner) or possibly punished (eg growling is often punished) and the dog then goes up one rung of the ladder....

So a dog who was in a new home and who was used to having his canine communication ignored by humans previously may simply go straight to "bite" for example. Right to the top rung. We will never know exactly why, but for instance if a child is bitten it could be that in a previous home (or even in that home) the dog gave signals that were not noticed or were punished and so in the end bit.

If the dog has little bite inhibition then the resulting injuries can be severe, sadly as well as the mental scars.

There is more info here as Kendal has written about it, hoping to help parents keep an eye on what is happening with their children and the family dogs:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1...SIN=1874092559

The book is called The Canine Commandments

Here's some more info:
http://www.endangereddogs.com/EDDRChildrenandDogs.htm

I hope this is of interest, it's not meant to be in answer to anything in particular on here, but is meant more as a general bit of info which I think is well worth knowing about

Wys
x

Very interesting indeed, Wys. I will definitely look into this as, having eight dogs and kids, I think it will be good to be able to recognise any signs of aggression, just in case any of my Chis ever feel a bit aggravated. So far, I've been very lucky. Mind you, my kids are older now (youngest 7) and they have been brought up with dogs, so they pretty much know how to behave around them. I think sometimes little kids make dogs nervous, as they move so quickly and can be very noisy and unpredictable. My dogs tend to go to their beds of they want to be left alone and the kids know that is a no-go area, as far as getting in their face. I like to think their bed is the place they can get peace at any time, should they require it. Unusual for my dogs though, as a lap is the first option every time. Probably why Chis are labelled "lapdogs"