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Thread: Question

  1. #1
    Puppy
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    Question

    So my 2 year old, 70-lb lab that I got from a shelter this past July attacked my 9-year old daughter tonight. My dog's name is Bubba. He was sitting on my wife's lap and she was petting him. Bubba was fully awake, and my daughter came up and laid her head on Bubba. Bubba snapped, bit her head, and then after my daughter jumped away, Bubba tried to go after her and had to be held back...he had a pretty ferocious look on his face. I was right there, and my daughter did absolutely nothing to provoke him. Bubba has growled at the kids before when they've come up to try to pet him. Perhaps his previous owner had some bad kids who mistreated him. Anyway, what would you all do?

  2. #2
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    I would protect my children and take the dog back to the shelter -- yesterday. They can either place him with a family without children, try to work with him with a behaviorist and then place him with a dog-savvy family without children, or get him evaluated and, sadly, potentially euthanize him as a dangerous dog. Sorry, but if a 70 lb dog is attacking children like that, he needs help and he needs to be in a place where he cannot hard people. Maybe he was mistreated, which is horrible, or maybe he has aggressive tendencies in his breeding. You'll never know. Sorry to hear this happened. What a bummer for the dog and for your family.

  3. #3
    Best Friend Retriever xracer4844's Avatar
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    Unfortunately agree with Labradorks. I assist in rehabilitating dogs like this. Having very young children in the home is not a good idea for the dog because rehabilitation takes a lot of time, and during that time, the dog will remain fairly unpredictable. This does not sound like a dog that can jump into family life and succeed.

  4. #4
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    two choices:
    - call a qualified vet behaviorist NOW and set up an assesssment (and then a plan to address) the issue. NOW. not next month. until the visit the dog should not be allowed on furniture or the bed and all and any interactions with your daughter must be VERY CLOSELY SUPERVISED. and ZERO interaction wtih any other child. ZERO.
    - call a rescue ASAP and see if someone can take the dog or return to shelter.

    do not try to fix this on your own. do not set the dog up for anoher bite (or your daugter). do not follow random online advice which could do more harm then good as sometimes people are incorrect or not clear enough in their advice. get a qualified professional or return the dog.

  5. #5
    House Broken
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    First, I hope your daughter is okay and not too traumatized from this.
    Aggressively biting my kids would be a deal breaker, and I would remove the dog from my home. The growling prior to this was Bubba trying to warn them, and it escalating to biting is not surprising unfortunately. Coming from a shelter, it's impossible to say if this is from a bad prior experience or if it's just in his nature. My first lab was very aggressive towards kids. I got him as a pup and am certain he wasn't abused or traumatized. I didn't start having kids until long after he grew old and passed away, but just the liability of owning a dog like that was very stressful. He had to be locked up in my bedroom any time friends or family with kids visited, and the whole time I would worry about someone accidentally letting him out while they were there.

  6. #6
    Senior Dog POPTOP's Avatar
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    So sorry this has happened. Hope your daughter is OK. I do agree with the above comments.

  7. #7
    Puppy breezygirl's Avatar
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    I agree with the comments. You should protect your kids first, take the dog back. It stinks but it is the best thing. Good luck

 



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