Has your dog ever bit another person's child?

We have a border collie and while he has never nipped our kids, he gets wound up around other little kids, particularly toddler and preschoolers and will get nippy. He has never bitten a child, we just see him get edgy and excited. When my nephews and nieces were little was when we first saw him get agitated by little screaming voices and the running around, and kept him separate from them until they got older. We still are very careful and do not have him out when we have other children over.

We love him and he's our dog so he listens to us and is very protective of "his" kids, but I do not trust him to not nip another little child. He's a dog, no matter how good, and he's a nippy breed so it's not worth the risk. 

We've had dogs around extremely small children and even when a child has done the worst - poked in places the animal wouldn't appreciate - we never had one nip. We had one dog that wasn't what I'd call "friendly" but oh man, she used to let our 2-yr old granddaughter crawl all over her and corner her and everything. She'd just stare at us with the "oh help me" look and we'd give the dog a break by taking the child away.

However, we did have a dog that tried to bite Santa in the tush. Santa was my husband dressed up in costume and the dog didn't recognize him! We thought it was funny at the time but later the dog tried the same move on one of our contractors - and luckily got the guy in his wallet so there was no damage. I was pretty shocked, though. That's when we took that dog to the vet. It turns out the dog had cancer and it was had gone to her brain. There was really nothing I could do.

A dog that nips at a young child is treating that child like a puppy. The dog is disciplining. However, I don't want a dog that thinks a human child is theirs to discipline. I want a dog who knows they are bottom of the pecking order - the very bottom. The dog would either be put down or given to a family that doesn't have any children.

We had a dog nip my son in the face.  Needless to say, the dog was gone the next day.  No way would I have a dog around that nipped kids.

Our beagle does but quite frankly, the kids have it coming. He always always always gives at least 2 warning growls and tries to move away. If/when the kids insist on pursueing he does nip at them. Never has he broken the skin just scares the bejezus out of them. I typically do try to stop the kids before it gets that far and I also tend to gate the dog in the kitchen to prevent it as well. Whenever we have other small children around we gate the dog period. My own kids should know better.

We had a dog that would nip at us and had nipped at DD#1.  He had a lot of issues with food aggression and toy aggression.  he ended up having something go really wrong with him and went into a major rage one night after what we think was a seizure.  He had to put him down.  Our new dog is so good with the kids, he lets them pull on them and doesn't nip at all. 

My dogs have never nipped anyone. Frankly, if I knew my dog were "funny" the last thing I would do would be to have a strange child petting it. If you can't trust your animal (which if you felt the need to hold it so closely you don't) then you shouldn't let strangers touch them, or keep your attention focused on what's going on. That's just my two cents. Animals can be unpredictable, animals natural instincts don't always match up with the behavior we define as acceptable or unacceptable. It is your responsibility to have control of them and the situations they are in. Thank god the little girl wasn't hurt worse. I know it was an accident, but you're lucky. Especially with how sue happy people are these days.

I keep an eye on my dogs with other kids just to make sure they don't get rough. Especially when my big guy was young, you could wrestle with this dog, throw him around, etc. I didn't want him to mow a random kid down lol, so made sure things never escalated to that level of rambunctiousness. My kids (and us) will play with him because we know he loves it, and it's fun, a child who isn't around him constantly may not know he's just playing, and I don't want him to frighten someone or knock a kid down and have the chance of them getting hurt. I have a cat I keep shut up when kids around, if you pick him up he goes spastic, and I don't want someone to pick him up and then deal with that writhing terror. He loooves being patted and leans up against your legs like he wants to be picked up, but it's an illusion. The horses I am extremely careful with. I trust all of them to not kick, not bite, etc. But, horses are huge. If a bug lands on them and they stomp their leg to get rid of it, a child could be knocked down or stepped on. If a kid panics and bolts when they get near the horse (it happens), I have one that will chase you. Not maliciously, but a "Yay! Let's play and run around!". If you're scared and run, and then the horse is chasing after you....it's probably not a good experience haha. There's always the chance something randomly scares them and they jump or bolt and you get knocked over. Their heads are massive, and they'll butt you with it so you scratch them, give them a treat, etc. It has the chance to be dangerous, so kids are not allowed near them without very, very close supervision.

Buddy nipped me when he was a puppy, but only when he I have his toy and we are playing.

He is pretty calm around kids and if they are bugging him to much, he will just go crawl under the bed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by melsb 


It really is easy to come on an online forum and speak, rather self-righteously, about what you would or wouldn't do in an situation like this. But the simple fact is, stuff happens, even to the best intended and best organized woman there is. The dog was put up away from the party and the children because she sometimes does act funny. Both of the dogs were. The other one behaves well, he's just an idiot. They were in the back yard and the party was in our front yard, specifically for that very reason. But someone, perhaps my children, perhaps one of the teenage boys that lives with us, heck maybe my husband let the dog out. It wasn't purposely, of course, they probably were going out our back door, to the back house to get something and Pepper got through. But thanks for your two-cents, God knows I never knew animals, or teenage boys for that matter, are unpredictable.

It's your dog, it's your responsibility. Like I said, accidents happen. But, that doesn't change the fact that it is your responsibility and that you are damn lucky that little girl wasn't seriously hurt. That's not being self righteous, that's just the truth. If you don't want to hear it, well, that's no reason to be snarky. Don't bring subjects up on in a public setting if you don't want others' opinions. And for the record, online or face to face is totally moot. My opinion would be the same regardless.