Dogs are not pack animals.

I’m sorry this has happened. I would also be concerned about taking the dog to parks etc where other children play. I know what I would do.

Personally I blame the dog owners. People know that dogs shit themselves around firework (unless theyre gun dogs) time yet do nothing about it.

My boys were bitten by a dog a couple of years ago. Did I expect the dog to be destroyed – no. Did I have a pop at the owner for not controlling the dog – yes. Dont get the dog killed – it hasnt done anything wrong – maybe get yourself some training in how to look after dogs though.

I lost count of the times I was bitten by dogs as a child. Many of these dogs belonged to relatives. None were sold off, put down or rehomed. It was understood that some of the dogs were prone to biting and efforts were made to keep them seperate from children and we were warned not to go near them. Even the dogs that were regarded as well tempered were treated with caution by us and owners.

Random dogs used to attack us in the park etc as well.

If you choose to mix a dog with a child you create the potential for the child to be bitten. The degree of risk is relative to many factors such as dogs temprament and childs behaviour.

As a parent you have to decide wether the alledged benefits of mixing dogs with your child outweigh the risk of the dog savaging your child.

If your childs wariness of dogs has increased as a result of this episode then that is one positive as a result of this incident. Fortunately a relatively minor injury has developed this wariness. The new found wariness will hopefully prevent a much worse injury in future.

My suspicion is that more children are injured/killed by “family pets” each year than are injured/killed by fireworks.

I’ve a 3 year old daughter – I’m more worried about her being savaged by the dogs in the park than I would be about taking her to lewes bonfire.

You state that A+E had other children attending that had been bitten by dogs. I worked in A+E for many years and we regularly have children in that are suffering from dog bites. The fault isn’t fireworks or the people that enjoy them. The fault lays with the dog owners. Why should those that enjoy fireworks be sanctioned?

I’ve only had dogs for a few years so do not consider myself anything other than an amateur dog owner. But…

Our kids (11, 5 and 2) all help with feeding the dogs and giving them treats. I suspect this reinforces the hierarchy as the dogs both do what even the 2 year old tells them. At 11 I am sure there would be things your son could do so the dog was in no doubt that he comes at the bottom – if this was a factor in your dog biting your son (rather than anyone else in the family) as has been suggested.

On the other hand, one of my dogs, a JRT, who is very well natured, is a nightmare at the vets. He had to be GA’d for a hanging toenail to be clipped off, and he once opened up a 3″ gash in the vein on my wrist with his claw just trying to get away from the vet. It’s not badness, he just can’t bear what happens at the vets. The point I’m getting at here is that, out of the whole family, he is totally devoted to me and I am definitely top dog in his eyes, so in what was for him a very stressful situation our relative positions in the ‘pack’ were totally irrelevant, the situation being the only factor in what happened.

How does your lad feel about it this morning? His fear may diminish as the shock subsides.

As above a difficult one for all concerned.

Personally, I’d never wholly trust the dog again and wouldn’t want to share the house with an animal I wasn’t sure of.

obviously up to you, but i wouldnt be getting rid of the dog for a single out of character incident.

you will however need to work on this, with your son also, maybe professional help will ease that process

tip: the hearing dog school near here has a firework soundtrack cd which is played during ‘play-time’ so the dogs associate those types of noises with good things rather than negatives.

My previous dog was a bit nervous of fireworks, so each year as soon as the kids started playing with them, i would make sure i was out walking the dog, as the explosions ramped up towards the end of october, she became less bothered.
she would still hide under my legs during a thunder storm tho.

Dogs are not pack animals? You sure about that?

my dog is petrified of fireworks , but he doesnt try to bite . he runs upstairs ( where he is normally banned ) in the kids bedroom and lay by their bed . if i try to move him , he just wee everywhere . after a while he just comes down and lay next to me .

Dogs are not pack animals? You sure about that?

yes, nows not the time so i wont discuss further here.
Have a read here for a start
http://www.jeandonaldson.com/jeans-blog-mainmenu-51/64-are-dogs-pack-animals

I am a dog lover and only you can really decide. It does unfortunately look like the dog has to go. It may be a completely out of character incident but we were not there and it is for you to decide if you can learn to trust the dog again. Fortunately our dogs are not at all bothered by fireworks however we have a new addition to the family on the way, my partners daughter is having a little boy. That will be traumatic having him introduced to the dogs, I only hope it goes well.

Good luck with whatever you decide. If I can just add that its important if you are rehoming him to be upfront and honest about the incident.

How well did your lad and the dog get on before this? Can he (and your wife) appreciate the extra-ordinary circumstances that led to the incident? How does your lad feel about your dog today?

Take your time over the important decision of what to do next.

That is a hard one. been thinking about this all morning, and I come down on the 2nd chance side of the fence.

To live with a dog (*any dog*) is to live with the possibility that it might bite someone when stressed. That is just what dogs do.

Once that’s understood, it’s easier to take steps to prevent anything like this occurring again. From what you’ve said in the OP, the dog had never had to deal with fireworks before and became stressed to the point of desperation – flight wan’t an option so the fight instinct kicked in. At least you’re better placed to prepare for next year now.

I wouldn’t be getting rid of the dog based on what you’ve told us.

It sounds like he deserves a second chance. If not with you, then with somebody else. Don’t go putting him down. At least give him a chance to be rehomed.

Whether dogs are pack animals or not has nothing to do with this IMO. The dog was stressed and reacted in what it thought was self defence. The OP doesn’t know the dogs history, how it was treated, how it has reacted to fireworks before. We have had our dog from a puppy so we know her better. It was a difficult and painful lesson.

It’s the same around here, November 5th starts at least a week before and goes on for about a month – pisses me right off. Pro displays only. The cost of fireworks is mental anyway. Some of the large 300 shot ones are nearly a hundred quid!

Dog deserves a second chance – although it may not be in your house 🙁

sorry to hear that, a very difficult decision, as the dog was wound up and not acting anywhere like normal

It must be very difficult to cope with excessive fireworks over many days, if they made it legal to only let them off on the 5th it would help

a bit strange but my dog goes out on the deck and sits watchingthe fireworks with interest !

Our old Collie was an absolute nutjob, had bitten all of my family other than me. We kept justifying it, such as she was eating or made her jump, but in reality she was just a very nervous, aggressive dog. She probably would have been fine if she’d been outside or in a kennel 24/7, with minimal human contact, but we couldn’t offer that and after speaking to the collie trust, came to the realisation that the only thing to do was to have her put down, as the collie trust couldn’t adopt her due to her aggressive nature. It was only afterwards we realised that we’d put it off for far too long, and it was a massive weight off our shoulders when she was put down. A terrible shame, but ultimately for the best. We now have the softest, most loving springer in existence, and we all love him to bits 😀 Not suggesting you have the dog put down, just sharing my experience with aggressive dogs.

Hope your son is ok, as for the dog, double tap to the head.

The ignorance of the STW anti-dog brigade never fails to amaze me as the comments seem to sink to new lows.

This incident is undoubtedly brought on by an extreme event and as such is highly probable to be something that won’t reoccur but I completely understand the fear it will.

A dog attacking without provocation or attacking livestock etc = termination.

This case is not clear cut and you should speak to professionals who have experience to determine the best outcome. And don’t forget the most important person – your son.

Without seeing the dog, I would say it should either be kept and some sort of re-integration done OR rehomed. The dog should not be put down due to selfish use of fireworks. If it was a dog breed known to be a bit iffy I would probably say it needs putting to sleep. Obviously if you get rid of the dog your son may always fear all dogs. But if you keep it he may end up living in fear.

Definitely get in touch with a Greyhound charity – someone may be able to foster the dog for a bit and assess it and give you the chance to go over what you want to do. You may realise you don’t miss the dog, your son might realise he does miss it and want to give it another chance. Maybe then it could go back to them every year during firework season.

And yes, there are calming things you can use for dogs. We used to have to use Feliway for our cat when one of our housemates went away as he was obsessed with her and used to get cystitis when she was away for a couple of days.

your dog is normally not at all aggressive and it took a large and prolonged amount of fireworks for this to happen, I wouldn’t be writing it off so quickly.

+1, I’ll consider taking the dog off you. I’d suggest anyone else who’s good with dogs on here should also consider this if they can. The fireworks did this, all dogs will bite if stressed enough. Like humans, all dogs have a breaking point. This episode does not mean it will bite in the future – you did the wrong thing by fussing it too much, as had already been mentioned this pisses dogs off even more. If you’d left it locked in a room it would have forgotten the whole incidence within a few days and would have been back to normal.

One of our Spaniels nipped me once when it was young. It was punished severely enough that it would do anything to avoid confrontational situations – for the next 14 years it was fine with guns, fireworks, cyclists, visitors and children. The dog was very very soft, it just needed the fear of god putting into it when the incident took place.

Lastly, there is always a pissing muzzle before you decide to put a dog down. Strewth you guys can be a bunch of fannies sometimes.

tip: the hearing dog school near here has a firework soundtrack cd which is played during ‘play-time’ so the dogs associate those types of noises with good things rather than negatives.

That’s a brilliant one. I’ll associate fireworks with lots of extra food when I get a new dog.

Might be worth you speaking to greyhound gap. They’ve got a forum etc. We’ve got three greys ourselves. In my experience over the last few years with ours and others, some greys are a little ‘unpredictable’

IMO you might be best getting the dog rehomed through a greyhound charity, perhaps with a family without kids.

Hope your son is ok.

I’ve got to say if someone at the Greyhound Trust rehomed an ex racing Greyhound with a family with young kids they need seriously talking to.

Greyhounds especially ex racers have a rep for being a bit nippy, if they don’t have a degree of aggression they don’t make good racers.

So I’m sorry to say imv it’s got to go and really with kids? Unless you rear a dog from a pup in the family as part of it, then I don’t think you can ever be that certain.

Having said all that I’m still very sorry to read of your trauma, it must be absolutely awful and I do hope the youngster isn’t put off dogs and you find a happy resolution maybe a new home for your dog and a puppy for you both to rear from scratch, maybe a new start with your existing dog with a fresh awareness.

if they made it legal to only let them off on the 5th it would help

If they stopped selling them to 14-yr olds, it’d help more.

As has been said, you shouldn’t have made a fuss of the dog whilst to fireworks were going off. Best to carry as normal. Personally I’d give the dog another chance.

A quick search found his useful guide, he advice looks good http://www.dogsandfireworks.com/downloads/dogs_and_fireworks.pdf

I agree with the posts above. Do your best to get it rehomed (only put it down as a last nuclear resort). Get a puppy that is a breed that is known to be soft and affable – from a good breeder. Take it to training classes. Learn some dog psychology. You’ll be happy, the dog will be great and your child will lose it’s fear of dogs. Find a good Poodle, Labrador or Golden Retriever. Or perhaps a non-threatening small dog (although I’ve always thought they were nippier)

Don’t have the dog put down. Just explain the situation to a charity and ask for their advice, hours of fireworks and how you dealt with the dog is a reasonable mitigating circumstance to give the dog another chance of life.

move back to the country

yes, nows not the time so i wont discuss further here.

If you say something like that expect it to be contested or don’t mention it.

Have a read here for a start

http://www.jeandonaldson.com/jeans-blog-mainmenu-51/64-are-dogs-pack-animals

I’m not sure someone’s opinion on a blogging website makes it so.

Well you can look up the research on feral dogs in india and romania etc if your bothered.

I’m not anti dog,
I’m pro children.

Hope you have had a day to think things through OP.

I’d be more bothered about the fact that your son might hate you forever because you want to keep a dog that just bit him in the face and neck! Get a grip man its just a dog. One injection and get a better dog.

Not a dog owner I take it…

I like dogs but if one bit either of my kids i’d take it the vet myself.

Vet?

For the injection.

Not anti dogs but would be uncomfortable keeping a dog after it bit a family member. The child comes top priority. Give the dog back to the charity and let them do as they see fit. And by all means introduce a new dog into the family but only if your son wants you to do so it would have to be his decision.h

For the injection.

Considering the lack of intelligence and tact your showing I’m surprised you can string a sentence together. Why the rush to put the dog down, surely he can keep the dog and the child apart and find the time to have it sent to the vet?

Bear in mind I as a child was once nipped and I was the one that got a hiding for teasing the dog! Never held that against my old man!

And by all means introduce a new dog into the family but only if your son wants you to do so it would have to be his decision.h

Or he could tell him to MTFU like my old man did on just about every occasion I was scared?

Or he could tell him to MTFU like my old man did on just about every occasion I was scared?

Intelligence and tact!! 🙄

Perhaps your right, it wasn’t tactful! But there’s always a muzzle or a locked room, that’s so utterly and blatantly obvious that you can’t morally justify putting the dog down until you’ve tried to rehome it.

If the child isn’t exposed to a dog, he will become scared of them. Whether the OP chooses to deal with that by getting another dog or having his child spend time around a friends puppy is up to him, but it would be better if he dealt with that fear and exposure is the best way. He’s not going to grow up resenting his father for it, children are not quite that fragile.

So dog was scared, its usually nice, probably just a one off. You keep dog, take dog and son for a walk, random car backfires, dog bites sons face, again. Or maybe its a bottle cork, or a Christmas cracker or whatever. It’s happened once – it’s potential to happen again is too bigger risk.
So for me it’s goodbye to the dog.