She bite his hand

[nikemama]

Jenna is my almost 2 year old boxer. We have two and love them both dearly. This morning Jacob our 4 year old son was eating a breakfast and I went outside to put our 6 year old on the bus. Jenna thought that this would be the perfect time to attack the baby for his breakfast and she bite him on the hand and took the sausage he was eating. I hear this war cry coming from the house and run back into the house. She went to her crate and was hiding and he was in tears. DH comes running out of the bedroom in his Undies, He is screaming she is out of here. After that I am thinking she needs a house with no kids too. I realize that the sausage was tempting but Cooper isn't pulling stunts like that. She has been showing signs of aggrestion toward Jacob. The other two kids can do just about anything to her but Jacob can touch her and she will growl. I love the dog but I put my skin kids needs a head of any animal.

 

[StormKatz]

First off is your girl altered?

Second since she is only showing aggression towards your one child are you sure he's not maybe being a little ruff with her? Often times young children don't understand when they are being too ruff &/or actually being mean to an animal.

So many parents say "Oh no he/she would never do that, or No, he's so good to fluffy, & loves her so much" only to find out that the child actually is being not so nice to the pet, & is maybe just doing it when there is no one else around.

Something about the whole situation just doesn't mesh, It would make more sense if your youngest came into the picture after the dog, but based on their ages that's obviously not the case. Dogs are not vendictive (sorry not sure how to spell that one this early..LOL) creatures. They don't just wake up one morning & decide not to like someone for no reason.

The first thing I would do if Jenna is intact is have her altered, then you need to be sure that your little one isn't maybe being too ruff at times, then I make an appointment with my vet to rule out any possible health issues/illness in Jenna. (Often times when a pet suddenly starts showing aggression &/or behavior problems there is an underlying illness, infection etc).

If there is still a problem after all of these things are done, I would consult a trainer &/or behaviorist to see if they can offer a solution. I seriously doubt that it's an issue specifically with children, especially since she does well with your six year old, & she was raised around children. Plus the breed as a whole is usually naturally good with children.. It's part of what Boxer's are known for.

I totally understand your concern for your sons safety, but often times situations like this can be easily fixed, with no future problems. Sadly though because it is so scarey people often jump the gun & immediatly give up a beloved family pet, without trying to find the source of the problem.

Good Luck!!! Hope this helps.

 

[rog1006]

Wait a second. This "attack" happened when you were outside and your husband was in the bedroom, right? How do you know what even happened? Many dogs, including my own, would absolutely bite the sausage out of a 4 yr old's hand if given the chance! This is why there are hundreds of posts about never ever leaving your children (toddlers and babies especially) unattended with your dogs. The fact that she ran and hid in her crate after the incident is telling. Your husband screaming and yelling after the incident, everyone freaking out...what a scary scene for all. What type of training have you done with her? What other incidents have happened between your 4 yr old and Jenna? If you know that she's nervous around him, have you thought of working with a trainer with the two of them?

 

[mtoo]

I am in total agreement with StormKatz and rog1006. I am also the mother of a four year old son and I know that I would never trust him alone with my dogs. He has to be under constant supervision around the dogs (my 2 year old daughter as well), not because he is intentionally cruel, but he is too rough and he will tease them. His actions are more unpredictable and he is louder and quicker and more aggressive than either of my daughters. Well, he's just a typical little boy, . I happen to love him just the way he is but I would never expect my dogs to have to put up with or understand that type of behavior.

As far as grabbing the sausage and biting you son's hand in the process, I certainly wouldn't call it an attack. At least not from what you describe. Our foster, Louise, will grab food out of my children's hands if she can and when she does she grabs hard and quick so it doesn't get away from her.

Also, I have watched my son act like he's going to give them a piece of food then quickly pull it back causing the dog to lunge for the food (yes, my son was corrected for this!). Perhaps something like this occured between your two.

I guess if one of our dogs started growling at just one of my children my first thought is that it would be because that child was doing something that I wasn't aware of that the dog found threatening or irritating.

I would never put a dog before my children either but too many times dogs are expected to put up with far more than we would expect a human to.

 

[ILoveMyCasey]

How do you know if your child was teasing him with what was in his hand?? That might be a thought.

 

[nikemama]

Things have calmed down with the dog. I will never know for sure but we are going to keep her and work to make a happy home for all involved. I am making her an appointment to get altered. I hadn't because I didn't want to risk her. She is kept in the house and we walk her when outside so she isn't around anyone to worry about pups. Our male dog is altered. I am going to get her in for that ASAP and also have her chipped. I guess it isn't really anything different then brothers and sisters fighting except one has four legs. She really is a good girl it was just a bad morning. Also they weren't alone alone as my 12 year old son was also present at the time he was in the room watching TV. It was all over and done with by the time he unglued from the cartoons sleepy eyed getting ready for school, if that counts.

 

[Shakira's Ma]

Jenna thought that this would be the perfect time to attack the baby for his breakfast and she bite him on the hand and took the sausage he was eating. I hear this war cry coming from the house and run back into the house. She went to her crate and was hiding and he was in tears. DH comes running out of the bedroom in his Undies, He is screaming she is out of here. .

By you saying that this was a perfect time to "attack" the baby for his food, the word attack bothers me. I run a daycare in my home and I know that Shakira is very gentle when taking a treat or stealing a sausage link from a child, but, we have had other dogs in the past that was not so easy, are you sure that Jenna meant to bite him? Was there blood? I think the husband screaming that she is out of here and you immediately suggesting she needs a new home makes me wonder if you guys haven't already decided in your mind that she has to go. I know that you say that all is well and that you are going to keep her, but please make sure that everyone in the household is okay with this decision, because quite frankly, this could have been accidental, not to say that she shouldn't steal the sausage but boxers will be boxers, just like children will be children and they don't always walk a perfect line.

 

[nikemama]

The stealing of the sausage left a nice set of teeth impressions. DH yelling was the result of being sleep and being awaken by the youngest son's war cry. If you married a man who is never a hot head than good for you. She can be very pushy and not mean so much. She could take it so she did. Jacob(4) was not teasing her he was watching TV and eating on one couch and his brother(12) was on the other couch also watching TV. I was on the other side of our front door waiting for the bus to come up the street to for third son (6). Have you ever watched a boy watch TV and eat. He is eating and not looking at his food. Eyes glazed over stuffing food. THAT IS WHAT THE KID WAS DOING!!! Jenna comes up sees the food and, attacks is a harsh word so we will say, GRABS AND RUNS>>>Problem is when She GRABED she got HAND TOO!!!

The problem is that people food smells and taste so much better then what is in her bowl. She eats good mind you she would just rather have what he was having. The kid we are talking about is the one with both dogs next to my name. I think that Jenna sees herself as above him in the whole Pack thing and saw him as weaker and took what she wanted from him. She has an appointment to be fixed on the 20th as she is currently in heat and may have also been part of the problem as well.

Most of the time I crate the dogs when we are eating because they LOVE people food. I did not do it this time because they had been in the crate sleeping and would be going back in the crate in a couple hours. I try not to crate between getting up and going to work because I like them to have as much time out as possible. Last person to bed puts the dogs up most time they go on their own 11:30 or so I get up and take them out no later then 7:00. I get the kids ready for school and fix DH lunch get ready myself and feed them &the rest of our pets Get to work by 9:00. Oldest son gets home about 3:00 and is under strick orders to take the dogs out first thing and they hang out Till the rest of the family gets home.

 

[Shakira's Ma]

Sounds like you have it all worked out well. I run a daycare and have for many years, so I know what you mean about tv and eating. I do believe that because she is in heat would contribute to this situation, at any rate she does need to know the pack rank and she does need to learn not to steal food. How old is she? I know that my Shakira still will steal food when you aren't looking and she will be two in November, so I know how hard it is to get that behaviour changed. Good Luck and hopefully things will stay calmed down. As far as the "hot head man", I have one the only difference is he knows that I will not tolerate it and if he wants to yell he can leave. Sorry but that is how it is with me. Life is toooooo short to put up with someone's mouth all the time. Don't take this wrong I am talking from my own stand point, my hot head is no longer a hot head because I dealt with him on that.

 

[CarlaS]

You may want to work on training Jenna to have a soft mouth. We did lots of bite inhibition training with Porter and lots of training with how he would use his mouth around people. As a result he takes things from people very softly. We can let the smallest of children give him treats and he will very gently take the treat. He would, however, steal sausage from either of my children if he got the chance