Family dog attacked my son, what to do?

[98GTPDriva]

I will say the ignorance in this thread is astonishing, especially from those who don't have kids.

OP - I was in an extremely similar situation just 11 months ago. At that time, I had a 75 lb. Pit mix along with my 19 month old son and 4 month old daughter. One day, my wife called me while I was at work hysterical stating that our dog snapped at our son while he was playing in the living room. She witnessed it all. Our son was playing with his toys and our dog was walking past him, turned, growled right in his face and proceeded to snap at him. He did not hurt our son at all. Our dog never showed any aggression with our kids before either. Now, we were faced with a decision of what to do. We felt we had four options considering he was older:

1. Do nothing and hope nothing happens again

2. See if some of the local Pit breeders/rescue groups would take him

3. Take him to a shelter

4. Put him to sleep

Option one scared us the most because we could not live with ourselves if something were to happen to either of our kids because we did not act the first time. Option two fell through. We thought option three was cruel for the both of us. We would always wonder if he was OK/being treated well, etc. and we would fear him dying of a broken heart (thinking that we would soon return to pick him up).

Ultimately, we chose option four. We enjoyed our last day with him. We took him on a nice walk, gave him a nice dinner and we spent all of our time with him that last evening. The next afternoon, I took him to the vet to put him asleep, which was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Our dog was everything to us, or so we thought until we had kids. Our kids are our life and everything we live for now. It was extremely tough and emotional for my wife and I, but we knew we were making the best decision for our family. Buster now lives with us in spirit (really it's the urn in our room).

Ignore the ignorant comments and make the decision that's best for you and your family. You know them and the situation the best out of any of us.

 

[Mook]

You put your dog to sleep instead of taking it to a no kill shelter?? Wtf.

 

[98GTPDriva]

You killed your dog instead of taking it to a no kill shelter?? Wtf.

What - so he could sit there for years in a small fenced in area and be neglected??? With the hundreds and thousands of dogs available in shelters, I doubt anyone was going to take in an 8-year Pit mix. Even if he was adopted by someone, we never wanted to wonder if he was being used for fighting or chained outside all the time or who knows what else.

And obviously you did not read my whole post where I explained why we did not choose option three.

 

[Mook]

Sorry man, I cant get behind ANY of that. All I can do is respect your decision.

 

[Gone_2022]

I know there are many people out there and shelters who devote their lives to saving dogs. Pits and pit mixes of course will have an already bad name however I believe there are some shelters and groups specifically for those dogs around are area. One of them was at the another level car show a few weekends back. Brought out a booth, a gtr, and like 4 pits that people could play with and pet maybe they could have done something.

Your decision is your decision man. No turning back now of course. Since it's already done best thing may be to just let it go here on the forum, only will bring up more pain for you and feeling as if you need to defend yourself. At least you have him/her a nice last day

 

[Ti28]

I know there are many people out there and shelters who devote their lives to saving dogs. Pits and pit mixes of course will have an already bad name however I believe there are some shelters and groups specifically for those dogs around are area. One of them was at the another level car show a few weekends back. Brought out a booth, a gtr, and like 4 pits that people could play with and pet maybe they could have done something.

Your decision is your decision man. No turning back now of course. Since it's already done best thing may be to just let it go here on the forum, only will bring up more pain for you and feeling as if you need to defend yourself. At least you have him/her a nice last day

Bombshell Bullies.

That's where I got my guy and currently taking to training.

 

[98GTPDriva]

I know there are many people out there and shelters who devote their lives to saving dogs. Pits and pit mixes of course will have an already bad name however I believe there are some shelters and groups specifically for those dogs around are area. One of them was at the another level car show a few weekends back. Brought out a booth, a gtr, and like 4 pits that people could play with and pet maybe they could have done something.

Your decision is your decision man. No turning back now of course. Since it's already done best thing may be to just let it go here on the forum, only will bring up more pain for you and feeling as if you need to defend yourself. At least you have him/her a nice last day

I don't live in the area (anymore) so we had few options for shelters. I live 500 miles away in SE KY... not much there for anything let alone some of the poorest counties in the US. Most don't treat dogs/cats well in this neck of the woods.

 

[Gone_2022]

Ah yea didnt know that. It's hard. Really depends on the area like you said. My wife watches pitbulls and parolees a lot, and it was a huge difference with them moving from California to New Orleans. Surprisingly California was not open to them and imposed tons of rules. New Orleans welcomed their help and rescue with open arms

 

[Eagle]

We had a dog that snapped at one of our kids while "protecting" one of our kids, within a few feet of my wife. Just like your situation, very little damage, no bleeding or broken skin, but there were resulting marks. I couldn't get my wife past it and we have the dog away. I didn't want it that way, but that's how it played out for us.

This dog was a female, ~90# lab mix. She was VERY protective over the family always, and I always thought she was just trying to tell the one kid to stop playing rough with the other kid... Which they were kind of doing... But whatever. I still own dogs today... Just have to teach them immediately that they have NO domain over anything and hold/establish alpha over all.

My last boxer and I had a few disagreements that he got aggressive at me over, but you can't let that stop you. Dog needs to understand HANDS DOWN who is in charge.

 

[Blood on Blood]

OP - do whatever is best for your family. Sleep on it and decide with logic / reason.

Whatever your decision, don't just set the dog loose where it can become injured / in pain or possibly harm someone. Slim is not the sharpest of individuals.

 

[budsang1]

OP - do whatever is best for your family. Sleep on it and decide with logic / reason.

Whatever your decision, don't just set the dog loose where it can become injured / in pain or possibly harm someone. Slim is not the sharpest of individuals.

I would never just let her go, that's just cruel. For what happened, I would never put her down. The options are to train the both of them and she stays, or she goes to a close friend or family member. Someone that I know would take good care of her and doesn't have little kids.

 

[Eagle]

.

 

[FESTER665]

Slim is not the sharpest of individuals.

Yeah, I hope and pray I never see a post starting with "So, I took Slim's advice...."

 

[DynaSlim]

You guys killing your dog's your family your man's best friend, should be ashamed of yourselves.

In my opinion everyone one of you should go commit suicide cause if it was legal to kill idiots I'd make a living off killing people like you.

 

[DynaSlim]

[MENTION=5236]Blood on Blood[/MENTION]. You shouldn't talk you fucking bitch

 

[Gone_2022]

You obviously did not read his posts. It sounded like a hard decision and given where he said he lives they are not as welcoming to other breeds and shelters like we are in chicago or in other parts. The money isn't out there so in that case the animal suffers in the shelter or gets killed.


Another thread slim ruined.... In for slim thread lock

 

[ktraver97ss]

Jesus, people that don't understand canine behavior shouldn't be allowed to have one. Of course doing nothing and hoping for the best is bad choice, but the fact putting an effort into training both the kid and dog was not on your list of options is very sad.

 

[Blood on Blood]

[MENTION=5236]Blood on Blood[/MENTION]. You shouldn't talk you fucking bitch

Hahahahahaha, come on now, play nice. We all know your advice is valuable to a monkey who is trying to screw a donkey.

 

[Mook]

Keep the stupid bullshit out of this thread. I dont want to lock this nor do I feel like cleaning it up.

 

[importcrew]

completely forgot about the soft bite. basically get your dog riled up(playful wise) and kinda get her to play bite on your hand and arm, every time they put pressure say ouch or some keyword, and stop all play and have her sit. rinse and repeat and eventually they think that putting tiny pressure from biting hurts you so they wont bite hard if there is a snip event again. plus it saves fingers when giving food lol

My wife's dog (albeit small Maltese/Shih tzu) only plays rough with biting with me. She'll bite me as hard as she can and I'll push her and be just as aggressive. When it comes to anybody else (ESPECIALLY CHILDREN), she soft bites (if she even bites). The only time I heard about her biting a child was when my wife told me that our nephew was poking her in the eye and grabbing/pulling her fur. The dog turned and soft bit the nephew (my wife was watching) and pretty much just put her mouth on his hand with hardly any pressure and stopped. That was enough to scare our nephew.

My wife's dog is also gentle with children. There was a time when a couple small cousins came over and the dog got all excited. She stood on her hind legs and was ready to be all over the kids but quickly realized they were kids and just kept standing on her hind legs instead of jumping all over the kids.

All it is, is train train train.