If your dog bit someone, would you put it down?

I’m afraid that wouldn’t be my decision, would it? If the authorities were involved wouldn’t that be their decision?

Yes, the situation and severity of the bite would definitely influence my decision.

Say my dog got lost in a unfamiliar area, maybe during a road trip. He has been running around in distress for a week. He is missing his people, he’s thirsty, hungry, tired, and terrified.

When he reaches a suburban neighbourhood, he finds a sheltered spot behind a garden shed. Exhausted, he falls asleep.

He wakes up to the sight of a twelve-year-old. The kid is already reaching out for him. There is no space to back up, and no room to dash away. My dog gives it everything he’s got. He averts his gaze and makes himself as small as possible. He flicks his tongue and raises a paw in appeasement. The boy, intent on grabbing that awesome new pet, takes no notice. My dog becomes clearer. He growls softly, then louder. The child reaches for his collar, and begins dragging his new toy out of his hiding spot.

In panic, my dog turns his head and grabs the boy’s forearm. He presses down, but does not break the skin. As soon as he is let go, he runs away.

Low probability of my dog ever being in the same situation again. Low intensity of the bite, and, very importantly, ample warning signs. These things matter.

We even differentiate when one human hurts another. Surely it is fair to apply the same standard to animals?

I have a border collie that snaps at kids; he’s never made contact. I take great care to avoid situations in which problems can arise. But if he snapped at a kid, short of legal action, no.

I have a friend who had a jack russell terrier that was a repeat offender and could not be trusted with her own kid once she had a child. They tried training, a behaviorist, drugs, and avoidance – all to no avail. They opted to euthanize the dog and I don’t think it was a bad choice.

Fear biting, protectiveness, resource guarding…all of these are less serious issues in my mind. But dogs with a strong prey drive that attack to kill – yes, in a heartbeat.

It would depend on circumstances, really. I can’t even imagine Dakota snapping at anyone, certainly not a small child. Dutchess….well, if she snapped at a kid just because the kid came up behind her or something, I’d consider putting her down.

@longgone To me, your dog was very restrained in the situation he found himself in. A 12 year old is certainly old enough to understand the warning signs.

I partly agree with @ragingloli in that kids are notorious for just getting in a dogs face and that is the worst thing anyone can do with any dog and dogs will react to that intrusion into their space. That said I would have to lay blame on the owner or myself if I let my dog interact with a child unsupervised and it bit the child or anyone for that matter. My dog is VERY protective and I know her disposition and what I need to do to keep my dog under control and if she ever bit someone it would then be my fault.

If my dog viciously attacked someone anyone as opposed to a simple bite, I would then have to seriously consider putting it down.

@dammitjanetfromvegas Animal control usually doesn’t require euthanizing an animal for first time offenses.

Here is the actual scenario that prompted the question: a three year old was bitten in the face by a husky while playing with it and may lose eyesight in one eye.

If it was out of character, i’d fight tooth & nail against any such order, one I certainly wouldn’t give myself.

How does the dog know this is bad behavior? At least with people we have prisons.

One of my exes was playing with a dog and the dog snapped and bit her eye leading to tens of thousands in surgery bills and them needing to put plastic tubes in her eye so she wouldn’t have permanent tears.

Kill the dog or disallow the owner from having a dog. This is basically puppy terrorism. Drastic measures are needed.

It depends but if it was an actual bit then it is quite possible I would have to but it would be extremely hard. It really depends on the nature of the bite and the extent of the injury.

Yes. In many places, the county, city, or state would. If a dog bites a person around here, the dog is dead.

If I really, really loved the dog, I’d look into moving away, even if it was a different neighborhood in a distant location.

On the one hand, it probably wasn’t the dog’s fault.
On the other hand, every time the child’s parent’s see the dog, they’re going to be reminded, likely hurt, and enraged.

I don’t think you can expect the family that suffered the loss and the dog to co-exist peacefully.

@Dutchess_III Exactly.

@AdventureElephants Do you know any other details? Was anyone watching the two? What were they playing with, and does the dog exhibit bite inhibition in other scenarios? “Bite inhibition” as described in my lost dog story – ideally, avoidance and appeasement before threats, and even after all this, restraint in jaw pressure.

@longgone All I know is that the dog has gotten into dog fights before, but never shown people aggression. There were several people in the room with the little girl and the dog. I overheard the owner telling someone that when he went back to the house the dog “knew he had done something bad. He was cowering in a corner and acting guilty.”

I think this would be so tough. This is the kind of dog that would get into livestock if you found it a farm to live on. A kid losing eyesight is very serious, and I saw the bite. There were 4 different puncture marks on her face. It wasn’t an issue of a bad aim accidental tooth – it was a full on face bite.

Depends on the specific situation and past behavior. If the dog always seems at the ready to be violent I would not want it in my house. That means either find another home or euthanize. If the dog actually bit someone it would drive my need to make a decision faster than if I was just worried it’s a little edgy. First bite, if not severe I might still be in my bubble of denial, unless the bite was not just a quick bite to maybe defend itself. If the dog held on for a deep bite, or several bites, not being able to calm down, that dog is out the door. Either the authorities deal with it or I do, and I would serious consider euthanizing the dog, but it freaks me out a little to, to kill a dog. I’d feel pretty sad and anxious about it.

I’m afraid of dogs to some degree, so I have little tolerance for aggressively violent dogs.

I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if my dog seriously injured someone.

Dogs need to be on leashes or behind a fence, and kids really need to know dogs can hurt them if provoked.

Yes, very tough decision. However, unless the dog is suffering from nerological issues, there will have been warning signs, and lots of them. How good is your friend at reading canine body language? The amount of dog owners who do not understand their pets is insane. In our dog training centre, 90% of clients can’t spot a play sequence about to turn into a fight. Most of them still believe that a wagging tail translates to a friendly dog – and that is what children are taught, too.

I feel for your friend. The Lassie syndrome is alive and well – we all like to believe our dogs would not hurt a fly. And yet, by ignoring or misunderstanding their (sometimes desperate) calls for help, we are systematically teaching them to attack. If no-one ever listens until teeth are involved, using those teeth becomes very tempting.

Another thing to consider is the quality of life the owners can offer the dog if the dog is no longer allowed to interact with other people. Kid’s specifically.
If the dog is the least bit aggressive and becomes isolated because of this incident, the aggression is only likely to mount, IMO.

I would not. I know enough to know that if the dog bite someone then that someone did something to provoke the dog.

I’ve been bit and still have the deep scar on my thigh. I don’t blame the dog. I was a child and did something dumb. The dog didn’t know me and he had been tied up and probably felt very afraid. My son has been nipped on his hand my one of my sister’s dogs. He was little and had been told to stay away and the dog was ‘trapped’ in his tiny travel kennel at the time. Kids must be taught about dogs. My son wasn’t hurt as badly as I was, but he learned his lesson. We don’t blame the dogs involved because we later came to know them. Bitzy (my sister’s dog) accepted my son after my son spent the night with my sister in her bed. He was a very protective little dog (Bichion cross) just not used to small kids. By the end of our stay he was lying on his back, letting my son scratch his tummy. Relationships with dogs are as dynamic as they are with people. Now, if the dog continued being aggressive towards my son or other kids, I would have had a real problem, but it wasn’t a pattern of behaviour. It was a one-off.

@cazzie

I still have a scar on my hand from being bit by a dog when I was 13 (and frankly old enough to know better). Thing is it was my dog and I knew him well, and I could tell he wasn’t feeling very well, or just wasn’t in a good mood, at the time. Still I kept trying to pet him on his head when he had clearly shown me (by pulling away) that he just wanted to be left alone. Finally he snapped at me and bit, and as soon as it happen I thought “Yup, I deserved that”.

@JLeslie “Dogs need to be on leashes or behind a fence, and kids really need to know dogs can hurt them if provoked.”

By themselves, these two measures could be dangerous. They might create (even more) frustrated dogs, as well as fearful children.

Dogs need to run. It is not only that they want to – they need to run. Almost any dog will get frustrated by a life on leash, and frustration is often the cause of aggression.

The children, in my opinion, need to be taught how to recognize (warning) signs, as well as what not to do. Don’t try to discipline or hug dogs. Ever. Don’t take anything away from a dog. Don’t startle him, don’t crowd him, and never get involved in a dog fight.

Unfortunately, many children observe their parents using intimidation and/or violence to force the dog into obedience. The alpha myth is still prevalent. Children who copy these dangerous techniques are very much at risk.

You could also preemtively remove all the dog’s teeth.

^ That would work, too.

No, there are usually extenuating circumstances. I wouldn’t even put down a dog that bit me if it was for a reason.

I broke up a dog fight between my dog (a BC) and a much larger dog (Black Lab) that belonged to my son and got bit. It resulted in a puncture with additional tearing in the fleshy portion of the hand between the thumb and forefinger so I went to a clinic to get it cleaned up and treated. They called the authorities because, they said, that is what they had to do.

The pound police told me the dogs would have to be quarantined and the guilty party could possibly be put down because of an aggressive nature. They got rather irate because I would not tell them more about the incident other than I got bit by a dog breaking up a fight.

I was not very forthcoming with the information they wanted. I am fairly certain they knew I was lying about not knowing the identity and whereabouts of the other dog because they made not-so-veiled threats about arrests and tickets but they could not prove anything.

The end result was that I had to keep my dog confined for a couple of weeks even though it was not him that bit me. I am sure they scoured the neighborhood looking for the other dog with no success. But, it was my fault I got bit and my dogs fault there was a fight.
So it goes.

@longgone I want them to run. I should qualify that by behind a fence I mean when left alone. If the owner is there I wouldn’t say they have to always be behind a fence. However, if a dog loves to jump on people or mean bark at passers by, or has a history of being aggressive, then I prefer not to walk by that dog if he isn’t under control somehow. A golden retriever playing fetch with his master isn’t going to scare me, but a pit bull barking and standing at the ready as he watches me approach does.

@JLeslie Ah. Yes, I agree that dogs need to be secured when they are not supervised, definitely.

I have had two pets attack someone. Each was one time only. Both were to protect me. I rewarded them both. Neither had a second occurrence.
Someone who has a pet which attacks an innocent human, even once, will not likely put that pet down.
Responsible owners have safe pets.

It depends on the circumstance but in my, fairly vast, experiemce, a bite is never unprovoked (unless there is an underlying health issue) and rarely comes without warning. The problem, as @longgone has already said, is that many, many dog owners do not educate themselves in basic body language and warning signals and still assume that their dog is “being dominant” when they do give a warning. Many dogs are punished for growling and so they learn, very quickly, that if they do try and ask the threat to back off they will get reprimanded and so they skip that step. A growling dog is warning the threat that he is being pushed to his limit. Don’t punish a growl, listen to it and back off.

A dog growls at me, I back off, @OpryLeigh. Period. 9 times out of 10 the owner will say, “Oh, he’s a big pussycat…wouldn’t hurt a fly!”
I’ve had more than one dog growl, then bite my leg only to come away with nothing but a mouthful of denim.
“Oh, she’s just playing!”

Get a clue! Get ahold of your freaking dog while I get the heck out of here. I was raised in the sticks with outdoor German Shepherds, and a growl means worse is on the way.

Yes, and sadly, I once had to do this with a 5 year old hound breed we had raised from a puppy. He was given the best of care, never abused, slept indoors with the family, was in several obedience classes, and worked with a personal trainer, but…he was highly protective, aggressive and when he bit my BIL and ME and my daughter was 7 years old and bringing friends over for play dates we decided the risk was too high and also that we could not re-home in good conscience because of his known biting. Broke my heart, he was a beautiful dog but when your own dog bites you and there are children in the home, not worth the risk. Some dogs are just off and born bad seeds with traits that cannot be amended to safely justify their keeping.

Both bites were unprovoked and out of the blue, no warning at all, and, the dog had also aggressively chased our real estate agent and a neighbor when he accidentally got out of the front door on two occasions.
When you have a 3 foot tall, 96 lb. dog that is face level with children, no way. Sad but the responsible thing to do all they around. You cannot pass of a biter to anyone IMO if you have any integrity whatsoever.

Dog bites are never out of the blue. The warnings are always there whether you take notice of them or not.

@Darth_Algar I’ve been walking my dog and a dog has gotten out of its fence and charged up to us in full attack mode. That’s what I consider out of the blue. We saw it coming but it wasn’t provoked. It doesn’t mean you can prevent it, either, in those situations.

My daughter and I were taking a walk one day. She was about 4. Out of nowhere this German Shepherd charged us, barked in her face and ran back to the porch of the house where, I assume, he lived. He sat there laughing, with his tongue hanging out. He wasn’t attacking though. He was just having fun. But if he had been attacking, there would have been no warning and he could have really hurt my daughter.

@Darth_Algar you can not blame a two year old child for not recognizing the warnings. If they can’t be recognized, then they are not there.

I have never had a dog bite me.

@Darth Algar Not always. My dog always slept on the landing of our staircase and the night he bit me wasn’t any different than any other night. Walking upstairs, said goodnight to him and reached down to pat his head and bam nailed my hand. Out of the blue, no warning, 10 stitches, a crushed knuckle, 4 punctures, lots of pain and a trip to the ER at midnight.

He had been disgruntled because we had company and he had to stay in the garage for a few hours because of his anti-social issues and his previous biting of my BIL.
He bit me, completely unprovoked and without earning because he was in a bad mood. Unacceptable, bye bye bad dog. He was a bad seed, had mental issues, just like some people.

@Darth_Algar Tell that to the woman I know whose daughter’s arm was mauled. It was Halloween, the dog came charging from it’s house and tackled her. You might argue she was wearing something that scared he dog, but tough shit. An off duty cop/friend tried to pull the dog off. He shot the dog dead there on the spot. Her arm will never be the same, serious damage.

@Coloma

You knew full and well that the dog had a history of certain behaviors, thus the bites were not “out of the blue”. You’ve proved my point.

@Darth_Algar You said there are always “warnings”, as in growling or other indications the dog might be on the verge of snapping, literally and figuratively.
Yes, I took precautions due to his behavior towards strangers but he had never growled at me or shown any indication he might bite ME.

There are not always “warnings”, but there are always warning signs (brain tumours, etc., excluded.)

Warning signs can include a general intolerance of new things, fear of noise, stiff posture when being petted, extreme appeasement toward strangers – things like that. It is easy to spot potential problems as early as in puppy class. Obviously, we do not know which of the dogs we meet have displayed such warning signs. The owners could, however, and they should educate themselves.

“Warnings”, if you take the term to mean growls, stiffening, and air-snaps – those are not always there. What would you do if your puppy was growling while protecting a bone from someone in your family?

Most owners’ first instinct is to, at the very least, scold and take the bone away. Some people even become harsher, intimidating the pup or using physical punishment.

Puppies are systematically taught that growling is useless, and may even cause trouble. Naturally, a dog that has learned this will skip the growling in adulthood.

As the majority of owners are ignorant of the gentler signs of distress (lip licks, stress yawns, shaking off, averting gaze, turning or moving away, raised hackles, tense jaw), these are simply not seen. @Coloma‘s dog most likely displayed some of them, as did my dog, a decade ago, when she bit me in the process of guarding an empty bottle of chocolate milk from another dog. They’re easy to miss, unless you are actively looking.

I wouldn’t want a dog that I had to be constantly on the alert for “warning signs.” I wouldn’t want that kind of dog around my kids, either.

@Darth_Algar no, she didn’t prove your point. Her dog had a history of some agression, but it wasn’t constant and it wasn’t all the time. When he bit her, he gave no warning. If you’re arguing that she should have known she could get bit, well, it that case she should never pet her dog, never play with it, never go anywhere near it.

@Dutchess_III Exactly. Having a dog with stranger aggression is not the same as owner aggression. My dog never showed signs of aggression with me, just over protection issues and stranger/other dog aggression. This is why I took precautions to isolate him when company was over to avoid any potential weird encounters. I know he was disgruntled that day having to spend time in the garage over the holidays with people coming and going and he was out of sorts, but that is not an excuse for his biting me.

Dogs are fairly dangerous animals to keep. I doubt I will ever want to live without a dog, but – well, their teeth are sharp, they have about five times our jaw pressure, and they are extremely fast when they want to be.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable owning dogs who come into contact with other humans while not knowing I’ve been on the lookout for trouble. This does not mean I don’t trust my dogs. I do – as much as I trust a kid of about six or seven.

All owners love to believe their dogs are special, but I don’t think expecting dogs to be saints is fair. Why do they have to tolerate children hurting them, for example? I don’t let kids hurt me. Just today, I told my cousin I don’t appreciate her sitting on my stomach. This is what dogs try to do with lip licks and stress yawns, or moving away. They are – politely – asking for a break.

@Coloma I think your story is very interesting, especially as it reminds me of my co-worker’s dog. She told me a very similar story last week – her dog was isolated, then joined the family, and snapped at the toddler. I’m curious – did you know about calming signals, back when you had the dog? Would you have recognized tongue flicks and such as communication? Over here, they have only gotten attention during the last couple of years or so. Which is why, when my old girl bit me, I had no idea.

@longgone I knew that averting the eyes and looking away, bristling ( he was a bristler for sure, he looked like a Rhodesian Ridgeback but was a foxhound/plott hound X a Coonhound. ) and he also was a growler but never did the lip licking or tongue flicks to my knowledge. He was just chronically grumpy, a loner and very protective. I also went above and beyond doing puppy socialization work with him but as he aged he just got more and more moody and aggressive.

We always made sure he was well exercised but maybe being cooped up for a few days with company made him extra grouchy, who knows why he was the way he was as these hounds breeds are known to be energetic but easy going, maybe stubborn but not flat out mean. I picked him out as a puppy and his mother was very sweet and docile but he was the most active pup in the litter which I thought was good because he was outgoing, but maybe a bad sign.

What did you do with the dog after that, @Coloma?

@Dutchess_III We put him down, sadly, but we felt it the best choice. He could not be given away in good conscience and since he was hunting breed I did not want to give him to a hunter that might mistreat him. Hunting hounds are often treated very badly and he was a family pet not a hunter. I could have waited for 3 strikes, but 2 was enough.

Many people don’t realise how stressed their dogs are with daily human life and it’s only when they do educate themselves on the more subtle signs (like stress yawning, lip licking etc) that they see how tolerant dogs actually are on the whole. Next time you hug your dog, ask someone to watch for lip licking. A lip licking dog isn’t necessarily a dog that will bite but it is a dog that isn’t entirely comfortable with the situation and many dogs don’t really appreciate a restricting hug from a human but will tolerate it. If more people did recognise the signs of stress (even minor discomfort) they could listen to their dog more and make life much easier for them.

^ Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. Once you know what to look for, you’ll be overwhelmed by how much dogs “talk”.

Consequently, the socialisation well-meaning owners do is often a nightmarish experience for their puppy. Socialisation only works when the pup is gathering positive experiences – which is why it’s incredibly important to look out for signs of him becoming overwhelmed and stressed. When owners don’t know what to look for, that proves impossible.

I didn’t know what to look for with my first dog, but luckily, she turned out all right. However, I wish I had known. Now that I understand more of what she’s saying, I realize much of her life has been spent just being good. I thought she loved hugs – nope. I thought she didn’t mind kids crawling over her – wrong.

I do a much better job of protecting her, at this point. Her life got better, and I know now that, in a way, I guess I had been putting children at risk. It’s hard to imagine a dog I’ve known for all her life turning against a kid – but then, that’s exactly why virtually all bites are described as “out of the blue”.

What @longgone and @OpryLeigh have said. Just because most people are oblivious to their dog’s body language doesn’t mean the signs aren’t there.

My dog is so mellow sometimes I think he might slip into a coma. Either he doesn’t mind being poked at and tugged on or he doesn’t show any of the signs you’ve mentioned. He actually presents himself in a demanding way for physical attention. He loves kids and will lay on his back submitting to be wrestled with. He genuinely asks for it.

Okay.
This is in Social.
Have we had enough serious discourse that I can finally post the smart-assed answer I think every time I see this question in my queue?

“Depends on the person. If I was holding my doggie and it bit my ex-boss? _Hell no, I wouldn’t put it down! I’d give it a hug!“_

Sorry in advance.
:-)

There are a few people I could enjoy them getting bitten, haha!

Well I wouldn’t post repeat questions if the search feature worked for me~

At the last family reunion a bunch of kids started petting Dakota. We had to caution them not to sit on her, and to be careful of her hips because they’re going bad….but Dakota was just in heaven with all the kids around her. I really saw a good spark of her young self.

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@Dutchess_III Dakota is a lovely dog. The best dog I ever had was a little female shepherd named “Timbre.” She was like that too, just loved everyone, smart as a whip, learned tricks in like 2 repetitions and remembered them forever. She would sit on the couch with me and put one paw up on my shoulder and just sit there for hours like that.
It really is all about the breed and individual dogs temperament.

I truly believe that dogs are prone to being mentally off just like people and some are just pre-programmed to have issues. Also, some breeds have a higher desire to please and others do not. Sadly, all other things aside, I learned that my hound was not among those breeds, so on top of his aggressiveness he also, being a very independent breed, had a low desire to please. Neither punishment or reward really worked for him.

Fixin to take her and Dutchess to the vet to be boarded for the weekend. I don’t know why, but they both seem to just love it at the vet’s! If we don’t have them on a leash they’ll just walk on back to the exam room and sit there, watching him work! Which is why we have them on leashes.