discussion title:
mother in law's dog bit my little girl
message #:
6175.2 in response to 6175.1
Hugs to you Monica! How awful! I don't buy your MIL's theory that the bite was intended for her and not your daughter - dogs know where their mouths are - it's vital to their survival in an evolutionary sense. In the wild, a dog who doesn't have a good sense of where his mouth is and how hard he's biting isn't going to be very good at finding something to eat. That aside, IMO, a dog who is aggressive toward his owners is more dangerous that one who is only aggressive toward strangers - this dog is a time bomb waiting to go off!
I totally agree with you that this dog needs to be trained before a tragedy happens. Unfortunately, if your in laws don't believe that, you have to protect your child, and maybe the only way to do that is to limit your visits with them when the dog is around. You don't want to be rushing your daughter to the ER the next time! My nephew received a bad bite to his face when he was 2, from a dog that his grandparents trusted to never hurt anyone in the family - though they knew he was aggressive with strangers. My nephew now has a 6 inch scar on his forehead where the dog bit him - he's 24 and doesn't remember the bite, but for a lot of years he was really fearful of dogs. As a teen he got over that, but to this day, he won't go near a large dog.
It may be upsetting to your inlaws, but your first responsibility is to your daughter - and the only way I see you being able to protect her is to limit her exposure to this dog. What is your husband's opinion on this?
