Big dog hurt my little dog, now I'm questioning everything.

Hello all, just wanted to talk to someone who understands my situation. My dogs are my children, no doubt. I've had my darling Buster and Moo Moo (male and female LH chihuahua) for 13 years. Moo has a grade 6 heart murmur and is on two different pills for heart disease. She is otherwise happy and still very playful. Buster is my rock, his doctor says he has the heart of a healthy horse! He has a history of being attacked, first by a cat and then by a pack of dogs. He did chase after the dogs, he definitely has little man syndrome and thinks he's a big dog. After the pack of dogs ordeal (5 years ago) he was very skittish and would hide under the couch, always afraid. We moved 3 years ago and since then he has opened up again. My husband and I don't need an alarm because every morning at 6 am Buster pounces on us with kisses and nuzzles. It's his favorite time of day and we get so much love from him.

I also have a 2 year old Blue pit named Krystal. She was meant to be my husband's after his pug was stolen, but I fell in love immediately. Previously I wasn't thrilled about the pit bull breed, but once we got her my mind was changed instantly. She is so smart and loving! After having little dogs, training her was so easy I thought it must be too good to be true. She loves to lie in bed and cuddle, and God forbid anyone say the word "ball" because she will freak out lol. I love my chihuahuas so much I figured didn't have anymore room in my heart, until Krystal came along. I can't imagine my life without any of them.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve... we come home from visiting family and I realized only Moo and Krystal greeted me at the door. I find my sweet bubby cowered on the couch with a bloody nose, eye and swollen mouth. It was pretty obvious it was a bite from the tooth mark on his nose. We took him to our vet and are doing a round of antibiotics before possible surgery to remove some teeth that were bent. He's been on the couch constantly since then, only going out to pee twice in 3 days. He eats chicken breast I make him by licking the small slivers from my fingers. Physically he should be ok but emotionally I have no idea.

My main problem is now I feel differently towards Krystal, the pit. I am struggling to understand what could have happened to make her bite him. She grew up with them and has never shown any aggression, towards them or even other pets that visit. I've always thought she had a very submissive personality because she cowers around other dogs. Obviously she will never be left alone again with the "littles" as we call them. But is that enough? I can't even begin to think of getting rid of her, but I have been ignoring her since it happened. I know it seems crazy but I feel like I'm betraying Buster if I pet/love on Krystal.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? I'm still so shocked that Krystal did this. I feel so guilty for not being here to protect Buster, but we've been leaving them alone together for two years with no issues. 😢

I put some pics of all three, Buster is brown and moo moo is black and white. Krystal is the blue one. I also put a pic of Bubby after he was bitten.

While it's probably true that Krystal was responsible you have no idea what triggered it and you're fairly naturally assuming the worst. By all means crate the little ones for their safety when you go out but try to treat them all as normally as possible and be observant around them. All I can say is my Staffie and my Pug had an incident but I was there and know it was completely accidental. Food was involved and my Staffie caught his tooth up my Pugs nostril, there was a lot of blood but no hostility between them at all, they still adore each other. Had I not been there to witness it I might have reached a completely wrong conclusion.

Well said Trouble - and I would add that we have to remember at the end of the day that our dogs are dogs - an entirely separate species from our own, and thus we must take care not to be anthropomorphic - what may appear unfair, unjust to us is anything but to a dog. Gucci and Diesel, my daughter's two entire male chihuahuas, had an extremely noisy and vicious sounding spat in their cage when we all returned from a long walk this afternoon. The cause was a christmas treat that Holly had given them and it was buried in their blankets! One had taken it, the other one wanted it, hence WW3 broke out! I removed it from their cage and Ben was the beneficiary! Why should we be concerned over these little fracas? They are entirely normal and natural if you are a dog - sometimes for sure there is an injury, but these are usually accidental - unfortunate, but nonetheless accidental - I personally leave my dogs - Ben, weighing in at 45 kilos, and the two chis, weighing in at around 2 or 3 kilos each, to sort things out between them - they have spats, but never is anyone ever hurt. Dogs have enormous self-control, even though the spats sound horrendous, and the best thing we can do is to keep the faith!

Oh please don't ignore Krystal she wont know why you are dont it and it will cause her stress. You mentioned they were your children your babies. You wouldn't ignore your human children please don't ignore you fur baby. I concur with Trouble and Gnasher. Dogs are dogs they have forgotten the incident I'm sure.

Loving the pics,they are gorgeous