My excitiable neutered dog (neutered because of household rampages and destruction) has bitten the arm of a 5 year old visitor. I did not see it so do not know whether it was aggressive or not, my 7 year old was in the room and jumping up and down and screaming. The dog was over-excited by this. Clearly managing the situation when visitors arrive will be essential, but I am unsure how to go about training as this has never happened before. But clearly I cannot keep a dog who will bite children. I am not sure whether this behaviour fits the fear aggression. Where do i start?!!
Sounds to me more like your dog was excited by the noises and movements your 7yr old was making, or the dog may possibly have thought it needed to protect your child from the 5yr old girl. You say you didn't see the bite happen?....Does this mean the children were left unsupervised around your dog??? Has your dog ever bitten or shown aggression to anyone else?
No, they were not left alone, it was just that everyone was coming in through the front door and the little ones had darted into the living room. We were right there, but noone was looking at the time.
No he has never bitten before. He does take your hand if you go to touch his ears (which he hates), but never in an aggressive way. I think you are right, the noise and the excitement caused it, but I have no idea how to deal with this other than managing the children. The victim of the bite was a friend's child, and despite protestations from them I have handed over some cash by way of compensation for pain/suffering and trips to the doctor for dressings to be changed etc. They are dog owners and feel bad for us as they know we feel bad for them! But as I say I cannot allow it to happen again.
Hopefully this might just be a one of unfortunate occurrence then How bad was the bite?....I would hazard a guess that if it wasn't a severe bite, then your dog didn't mean it viciously, but just got a bit carried away. I would start by keeping your dog on leash when visitors enter your home so you can keep a close eye on him and check his reaction to guests, or you could put him into another room until all the commotion of the guests arriving has died down, then let him join you and ask your visitors not to make a fuss of him until he is calm and they call him over to be petted. If you are unsure at all, please keep him on a leash until you are 100% that he won't bite again. Best of luck
it was a one inch gash and some bruising. No stitches required, just steri strips and antibiotics, and thank goodness only a single bite to the arm. I'll certainly do what you say keeping him on the lead. We are trying to train him to sit on a mat when the doorbell rings but the stimulus of the doorbell drives him mad. I know how to interrupt, sit him down and then praise but he is a bit of a slow learner. Once he gets it, he's great ...
