Trouble,your post has made me re-think this whole situation.I agree with what your saying and do believe its possible to "develop strategies to ensure the "Biter" never gets the opportunity to inflict any damage"
Thing is in this case the dog has inflicted damage Regarding the incident with the 17 month child.In my opinion that little girl did nothing wrong.She had been in the OP's home for a week and a half with no previous issues.In this instance I can't see how the owner could have prevented it,aside from the absence of the dog Its disturbing to think this happened and not only were there adults in the room,the dog actually attacked the child while sitting on the owners lap No growling,no warning,straight in there and bit this poor child on the face
While that seems incomprehensible to me,I'm sure in the dogs mind there was reason,but if that is the mindset of this dog,I think it would be safer for all involved if he wasn't around children
Have little knowledge of dog behaviour training so have no idea of the chances of that working.Be brilliant if that was possible,resulting in this dog being turned around
Have to say if it was my situation,I'm pretty sure he'd now be living with the lady who is willing to give him a home and lives alone.

I can fully understand what you're saying but this behaviour didn't suddenly appear out of nowhere it's been escalating for some time now and not addressed. I think the OP like a lot of owners has made allowances and excuses for the dogs behaviour rather than address the issues. I do understand how it happens but I guess I'm not that kind of owner, I think dogs need rules and boundaries put in place by their owners for their own security and well being. Otherwise dogs tend to make up their own rules and this dog has decided what he says goes and he's willing to back it up with force to ensure he gets his own way. It makes no odds whether he's like it because he's fearful, nasty or in pain, he's been allowed to get away with it, and it's self rewarding behaviour. You don't want kids near your owner, snap at the kids and they'll go away. That works so I'll do it again.

As I have said earlier, I was replying to what I had quoted from a post you put up and not about the OPs post.

Your post about your child was not clear if an adult was with the child or not, in fact it wasn't your original post that I knew you were with the child.

I did it and if I can do it so can everyone else, it depends on how much you put on your child's safety. Toddlers definitely should not be left alone with a dog.

You do now I never left my children alone with my dog, even my grandson was never left alone with my dog, depending on the age of the child he would stay with me the dog would be behind a gate were he could see what was going on.

An adult present can get to the child and dog a lot faster than if they are in another room and save the child from more serious harm, if there is no adult in the room by the time one gets in your child could be dead.

Who said that you should have an aggressive dog when you have children? I didn't, in fact my dogs were not aggressive and adore children but I still never left them alone with my children.

WOW how nasty can you get just because I put my child's safety very high, you are twisting things again which you do a lot when people disagree with you. I never said my children were spiteful and tormented animals, they were extremely good with ALL animals and never attempted to do anything to my dog that would hurt them no matter how young they were. Nor have my children grown up to be criminals, in fact they all have good jobs, partners and children of their own as well, they pay all their taxes etc.

As I keep saying IF I CAN DO IT THEN SO CAN EVERYONE if they want to.

Post came up twice, sorry

See your point

I had boys, at one stage I had 4 boys, I was fostering, there was 2 years 8 months between all 4 of them. Boys at this age play rough with each other, they never did with our dog, her favourite game was ring a ring of roses, she would have a rubber ring in her mouth and someone would hold her tail while they all went round in a circle, she refused to fall down though While they had hold of her tail they never pulled it and the boys got fed up with the game a long time before she did.

My sons were very good with Samantha, if she was asleep they never went near her, they only played when she wanted to play and never tried to force her to. She adored them but we never allowed play fighting with her, she was a big dog, Rough Collie/Labrador and could have easily hurt them without realising it.

One thing for me stands out here is the comment and all I can say about that is we can never assume that ever ! I have had biters/children and managed them I think really well because the dogs were happy and the children safe. But I would never suggest anyone else do it. I am not big headed enough to think I am better than anyone but I cannot assume everyone is willing to put their own life on hold to make sure everything is safe and everyone is happy.

If anyone has any worries about safety or a dog has already snapped I always want to say it's too late and either the dog has to go or the child has to go. They must not be kept together. Our situation only worked because we never allowed it to get to snapping or growling, we knew what the dog could do and reacted before he could get to a point where he felt he needed to react himself. That takes a lot of time and work not everyone has time or can do it.

That's the crux of the matter Mattie, most people don't want to.

Just because I never left my dog and children alone together doesn't mean we didn't have a normal life, we did. The dog loved to play with the boys, she would fetch the ball for them when playing cricket, she would join in a game of football, slide down a slide when we went to the park etc. she even grabbed one of my sons and dragged him out of the lake in the park. He was sailing his boat at the edge of the lake and fell in, Samantha dragged him out. Hubby was standing next to my son when it happened and he couldn't react quick enough.

Accidents happen no matter what precautions you take but by being careful you can greatly reduce them or get to them quicker so less damage is done.

Mattie, not every biting dog can be turned around no matter how hard the owner wants to and no matter how much they try.

Sometimes, for everyone's sake - dog, owner, children, visitors etc - it just does not work. Biting dogs carry on biting until there is a tragedy, and then who can then say "yes but" - yes but what? "Yes but I tried so hard to turn that dog around" - but it has happened how many times in the past? And how many times in the future will it happen?

Sometimes, with some dogs, they cannot ever be turned around, however much time and effort is put into their training.