Should the dog be put down?

[tigwig]

My 5 year old niece was bit in the face by an alsation dog last night. Luckily it is not a bad injury and it appears that the dog just gave a snap at her. She has a small hole in her cheek where the tooth went through and it narrowly missed her eye. The dog belongs to her mum's ex mum in law and she did say the dog could be put down if it was what the family wanted. I personally think it should in case it happens again, the dog is old and the attack was unprovoked. Because A&E were involved does that mean social services will be contacted or the police?

[burnhal]

This is a very difficult one. Many dogs snap at children to warn them off- kids tend to wind animals up and the dog responds with a snap or a grumble. My own dogs in the past have nipped when tormented and thereafter had no problems. Not knowing the lead up to the incident and not knowing the dogs nature its difficult to say. Against that is the nagging thought of what might have happened and what might happen in the future. Having never owned a GSD I will let someone with more authority- perhaps Lankeela- to comment

[jules77]

as burnhal says it depends on the events beforehand, the dog is old, and the child could have pestered her, or even startled the dog while it was asleep.

I had a BC when I first got married, and although she had been fine with my son for 12 months, when he was walking around he ran up to her and hit her on the head with one of his toys when she was sleeping. Now I know I should have stopped him, but it all happened so quickly....her reaction was to snap and he had to have three stitches to three small puncture wounds in his cheek. We didnt have her put to sleep and my mother had her, she was never left unsupervised with him, but didnt go up and attack him for no reason.....

There is no reason why the dog would do it again, but I would obviously keep the dog in another room when children visit.

[lindapinda]

If ,the dog is old,there could be some underlying medical condition that caused it to act like this. However,as burnhal said,this is a difficult case to assess.A vet's opinion might be the best step really.

[wildwood]

I get a bit up set in cases like this when people here start assuming that the child must have tormented the dog beforehand. There are many children who probably have a loving dog at home or next door and will go straight up to any dog to give it a cuddle.
The circumstances of the biting certainly have a bearing on the situation but to naturally defend the dog is not fair on children.
If this child was a stranger to the dog it may very well have been a domination thing which even the most docile dog will try on occasionally.
It is really up to the child's parents to determine if the dog should be put to sleep or not. They would have a much better insight of the situation than any of us.

[Silvercat]

The same thing happened to us when my daughter was around 3years old. Our much loved 5 year old Alsation bitch suddenly turned on her, luckily not much damage done as my husband was in the room at the time. He said he turned around and saw daughters head in the dogs jaws !! Becky only suffered a cut on one ear fortunately.

Looking back to the weeks before the incident, there were little signs that the dog was perhaps becoming worried about the pecking order in the house as our daughter got older. When she was a baby the dog was great with her.
I think the dog's intention was only to give a warning , to let my daughter know who was in charge , but we decided to have her put down anyway. The trouble with big dogs is they do not know their own strength, what to them is a little warning results in injuries to the owners.
We did not take the decision lightly as we loved that dog so much. If the dog had belonged to my parents or in-laws I would not have insisted on her being destroyed as it would have been far easier to make sure it did not happen again.

[Solarjunkie]

If the dog had meant business, he could have caused serious damage. A snap is a warning - not the sign of a dog out of control.
Something similar happened with my dog and my small son. After soul searching, we decided to watch the dog like a hawk, and only ever let the child be with him under supervision. We relaxed a few months later and the dog lived a long happy life, never again inflicting even the smallest injury to another person.
Just make sure the child has a lot of supervised contact with friendly dogs so she does not develop a dog phobia.

[Illyria54]

This is very difficult, as it's an old dog and if it has NEVER shown signs of aggression before then I think the child may have startled her in some way and in this case then the dog should be allowed to live, but in no circumstances should the dog and the child be left together, even if there is an adult in the same room, dogs often see children as a threat and this is usually because a child is on the same eye level and all responsible dog owners understand that dogs do not like to be stared at, of course a lot of children do not understand this so become very vulnerable when around dogs.

[Snappy]

Dogs dont attack without a reason. There is always a reason and always signs, which are often missed by people. Children dont get warned as much as an adult would, they're small, screechy and make sudden movements, all of which can startle a dog. As you've said it was old, the first thing i would suggest is a vet check. Sudden aggression is often the outcome of the dog being in pain somewhere, there may be an underlying health problem.

[DONNA1458]

If your choice is that the dog can not stay in the family the choice would not to get it distroyed but to put it up for adoption at a dogs home and if they feel the need to replace the dog get a small dog from a puppy and bring the dog up around children from the start and please don't let the little girl become afraid of dogs after this just make her aware of the do's and don't and let her know it wasn't her fault.