Dangers in your own backyard (updated with graphic photo pg 6)

[danielle82]

Oh My Gosh! That is so terrible and I'm so sorry for your Daughter, and for you. Don't feel any guilt, because that was not your fault. Your daughter IS very brave, and I thank you for posting this warning about the unforessen and unthinkable happening. Prayers for brave girl

 

[JennsPeeps]

My heart goes out to your family as you go through this extremely difficult time of physical and emotional healing, as well as a tough decision about what to do with Bo.

Please consider counseling for your daughter when she's ready. It's important that she be able to talk about what happened and work through any fears she may develop of dogs.

I was bitten (not badly like your daughter was, but still bitten) at about her age and it took me a long time to trust dobermans. I still have a healthy respect for them and pretty much won't go near one.

 

[jjdward]

I am so so sorry for this happening to your DD. I will pray for her. With that being said, I think I would have killed the dog as soon as I got back from the hospital. When I was growing up my daddy's rule was that our dog(s) were not to ever growl, snap, or even show their teeth to us, period. If they did, that was it. I'm pretty much the same way. The only difference is if it just happens once, I will severely "correct" the dog. If it happens again, goodbye dogie. Im just not going to have a dog that does that to me or my family. Now don't get me wrong, I am in no way saying that you are wrong or that you should do what I did, I guess i'm just giving my two cents worth. I really hope thing go well with her leg healing as well as her heart. This if just a bad situation all around. God bless yall!

 

[Judy]

I was waiting for the OP to post that she put the dog down, or at least removed it. I agree, I don't see an alternative, and I love dogs, and have had them for many years.

However. There are dogs, and then there are dogs.

I have a scar I've had for about 40 years from a dog who bit most everyone except his owner/human. He was owned by some "friends," a family of four. I had been to their house many times, and interacted with this dog to some extent, though he was usually hostile to all but his "human." The scar is on my leg, and occurred when I grabbed the dog by the collar as he went for my throat, and yanked him downward.

What was incredible was that he was allowed to live in the house (with a toddler) for several years, before and after this incident, before he was finally put down. They had already paid several medical bills for treatment of others' dog bites before he bit me. They had his teeth removed after he bit me, yet he still did enough damage afterwards that they had him put down in the end. And yes, he also bit the toddler, more than once.

If I had not already had some knowledge of dogs, I might not have had that instinctive reaction to redirect him away from my throat, and he might have gotten the jugular he was aiming for, and killed me. I never did get this across to the owners. They put him down because of the bills, not because they saw the problem.

And I certainly agree that the child needs to be helped to understand the dog psychology of what happened here.

 

[saddina]

Dawn she put a 2nd post on page 2:

" did not have a place to pen Bo up. I made several phone calls and my neice and her husband volunteered to come and get the dog and pen him at their place in an 8 ft. high covered pen. After 10 days, someone from the sheriff's office will come to inspect the dog. At that time, we intended to put the dog down. However.. to add a twist to this story, my neice and her husband have decided they want to keep Bo. My husband is furious that they would even consider keeping him, penned or not. I'm not sure what the outcome will be yet. They are in possession of the dog, so I guess it will be the decision of the Sheriff's dept. as to what will happen at this point."


I chymed in just after and we flipped to page 2.

 

[Judy]

*

 

[Judy]

Quote:
OK, I was probably typing. Takes me a while. Glad to hear it.

Maybe my story is worthwhile anyway. I just hate to see people try to keep dogs when it is not feasible, much as I love dogs.

Hmmm, that is strange. I see that her page 2 post was about two hours ago, but it did not come up for me til I read your post and refreshed everything. I had my browser open but did not actually come on line til after this post of hers, and I started with "recent posts."

My computer has been doing some strange things lately. Ugh, have to look at this.

 

[chickenlady81]

So sorry this happen to your poor daughter. I hope she makes a full recovery and the dog is put down. I dont think any dog should be trusted in a family home after something like this has happened. Hopefully your daughter will be able to trust dogs in general after something like this. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

 

[grumps]

Oh wow, I'm very sorry to hear about that. I hope your daughter makes a good strong recovery. I have 2 daughters myself, 8 & 10. And as others have stated, there's no room for an animal to be aggressive with them.

I think you should side with your husband and have the dog put down. It's not worth even the slightest chance that the dog may get another chance to hurt another child. Dogs look at everything with hierarchy. There is always a pecking order and now that dog knows it can be dominant over a human and will get overly aggressive where it feels it should be dominant (typically going to be over smaller children). Just apologize to your niece and put the dog down.

 

[saddina]

it's ok dawn, I break computers constantly, I ended up marrying a tech support guy.