Then start moaning when the 12 month old puppy bites their toddler which results in social services being called by the Doctor at the childrens hospital. A family turned up at our open day, saying their puppy had bitten their 2 year old daughter & social services are threatening to remove both of their children unless they get rid of the "vicious" dog. We put the family in the meeting room (got mirror wall where we can see what's going on in next room) what we saw was the father encouraging the puppy to mouth his hand & using it as a tuggy toy, (we now understand why the toddler's hand was a mess) the manager of The Rescue Home sort of let rip with the father, telling him he was lucky the puppy hadn't killed his daughter, also said few very carefully chosen words to him too. The Rescue Home manager refused to let the family take their puppy home with them, telling the father he was not responsible enough to look after his children let alone a puppy, the mother was let say angry because she had paid £100 for the puppy & wanted her money back or her puppy, needless to say they left empty handed. The puppy is what the media calls "status" breed, a out of control Staffy X Rottweiler called "Killer" who we have renamed Milo & is booked into vets to be neutered tomorrow.
I have never really come across this. None of my Griffon puppies ever "mouthed" but maybe that was because of their breed ? But Little One never mouthed and even though Pereg was a diabolical puppy - I mean she was the pup from hell, but she never mouthed or bit. Drove me nuts but she never even slightly mouthed let alone bit. So I have never come across a mouthing/biting pup. Maybe I was just lucky?
A family with a young child adopting an un-neutered Staffie/Rottie. There's a train wreck waiting to happen right there. I can't imagine, I suppose there are dunderheads who see puppy mouthing as cute. But what they don't understand is that in nature not even littermates or Mama Dog will put up with such behavior. Any dog, any breed has to learn early on that teeth are for food and toys only. Callie was mouthy when we adopted him as an adult. I feel it's just because in general he wasn't socialized as a pup. Probably one of those poor dogs that was tied out as house protection without much contact with people. Fortunate that given his size he has a rather docile personality with us. All it took was redirecting with toys and a stern " STOP" and after a few months he got the idea that teeth weren't something to be used on family.
Well done for sticking to your guns, and standing up to the owners. All these incidents get to be recorded as dog bites, regardless of the circumstances, as soon as the authorities are involved. So many are actually play bites, or over rough play - both of which should be under the control of the owner, - but they all count when the shocking dog bite figures are announced each year.
I did once have a very mouthy GSD puppy, but she soon realized that sort of behavior was not acceptable, every time she mouthed anyone they let out a sharp yelp & a very firm but gentle NO was given. The family had their puppy from when it was 8 weeks old & the puppy had in effectively been taught that mouthing & playing tuggy with someone's hand was ok, we now just got to retrain Milo that mouthing is not acceptable. One thing for sure we will not be rehoming Milo to anyone with children, due to his size & power, he be going to someone that has had big powerful dogs before preferably someone with a good knowledge of Rottweilers, (Rottweiler size with Staffy markings)
Three of my Chihuahua's are mouthy. However, it's gentle. Not an actual bite. Mollie thinks my forearm is her personal chew toy. They only do it to me. No one else and they are extremely gentle with children and any baby animals. As for other adults...they bark like crazy and then want to be petted. Maybe it's a breed thing. Many people say Chihuahua's are small, vicious ankle biters. This is not the case with any that I've ever had.
Of course a mouthy Chi and a mouthy Rottie...woooof quite a difference...the bigger your pup the more important to stop nippiness
I have no real problem if it is a rough play the husband taught to play with him, but it should have been taught that, that play was reserved, for play with the husband, and that small children under no condition should be left with the dog without a adult present. Mouse does a weird mouthing thing, but does not bite down. He opens his mouth and will wrap it around your arm and push, as a way to get me or wifes attention.
Quick update I arrived at The Rescue Home today & found out that Milo (Killer) is not the dog that mauled the toddler's hand, the family have another puppy that's was taken by the police this morning, after both parents were arrested & now the children are in emergency foster care. Yesterday The Rescue Home manager phoned their case worker, to say in his option the children could end up being killed by the dog, because of the way its plays & we had kept the dog, that's when we found out they had other 10 month old puppy which is either an Old English bull dog or English bull terrier called Spike (case worker don't know breeds of dogs) & it was this puppy that bitten the toddler, but which ever puppy bitten the girl her parents should never ever be allowed to own any more dogs.
My old boss was such a lovely woman but she did this with her Rottweiler. When she was a pup she was aloud to jump up and chew peoples hands and scratch which is painless when their so small. However, when she grew up and you have a big dog biting and clawing customers its not good, so they had to get rid of it x
I`m a bit confused by all this, did they get the pup from the rescue centre in the first place, is that why they went back to the centre for advice,(other wise the rescue has not right to take their dog ) how did social services get involved ?? they must have already been on the radar of SS for them to give ultimatums,,, can they really tell someone to "get rid of a dog" ?? The manager of the rescue centre was not very professional in my opinion, telling someone they are not responsible enough to look after children, that`s very unprofessional, surely all you are going to do thee is get someones back up in defense, not a good way to educate dog owners...rough playing with dogs does not automatically make them dangerous, and to top it all off, they take the wrong dogs??? all very suspect to me. How can he possibly know that!!!
@Jackie both pups were bought from gumtree. Social services got involved after 5 year old son was continually being bitten. (guessing school phoned social services) On Wednesday their 2 year old toddler was badly bitten on her hand, the hospital phoned social services. The family came to The Rescue Home to get an this dog is not vicious dog letter, but after seeing the way the dog "played" with the adult/children was nothing short of dangerous & if the couple were allowed to take dog home, then the dog could kill one of the children. Its better being safe then sorry. If the family bring the wrong dog there's nothing we can do, but obverse the dog/family together.
I still dont see how your rescue can physically tale someone else`s property off them, now them handing it over is one thing , but you said the rescue would not let them have the dog back, that is stealing in the eyes of the law. Regardless of all else,you cant just take someones dog, you say the bloke was not happy, even the RSPCA cant take a dog off anyone who does not want to give it up. I am also surprised that SS would give information out on a ongoing case to a member of the public ?
You (rescue) cannot just take it upon yourself to take someones dog off them, becuase YOU think it might one day kill a child !!!
The family came with a letter from the social services, which said they have grieve concerns about the children being bitten, it goes on to say they are considering removing the children unless the dog can be deemed safe if not then the couple have been told they must get rid of dog or risk losing their children (not the exact words am simplifying letter) as the Manager at The Rescue Home is often use by the courts when dog issues arrive, is very good at accessing if an dog could accidentally kill a child. Whether you agree or not we have the 12 month old Staffy X Rottweiler & the RSPCA now have the 10 month old English bull terrier (pup was handed over to them by the police) Personally I rather prevent an dog from being PTS, the pup we have been taught to bite hands & play tuggy with the hand. If this pup did the same to someone's else's child on the park, there would be a public outcry to have the pup PTS. What we are being is responsible by keeping the pup preventing any child from being accidentally being killed by him.
Yes, Chihuahua's are small and certainly don't bite as bad as a larger dog. But then I remember an intruder sneaking into the yard a long time ago and trying to jimmy the front door when Nessie was out front with 3 big dogs. It was Nessie who went after the guy and bit him from his ankle up to his thigh. Guy had a bunch of stitches. The police arrested him at the emergency room for attempted robbery. I learned then not to underestimate a little dog. Nessie is a sweet dog. Not one of the mouthy ones. She has never even growled.
Further updates The couple had already been to court way back in December, over the dogs "attacking" people & other dogs when out, (they were just let lose to roam free) the judge from what I can gather warned them that next time the dogs bites anyone they will be PTS. A ward of court was issued on the children after the 2 year old toddler ended up in hospital on Wednesday after being badly bitten by one of the pups. (Father took toddler out of hospital before social services got there) The only reason the couple came to us is they thought we would give them a letter saying "its normal puppy behavior" They were told by the social Services in January to get rid of the dogs or risk losing their children (letter they bought with them is dated January 14th) unless a expert says the dogs are safe, they had already been to all of the other expert's all saying same thing that the dogs could end up accidentally killing one of the children, there were 5 names addresses given, ours last on list. We don't know much more accept the Children were already on the at risk register before they even had the pups. Has for the 2 pups it all rest in the hands of the court, they will be assess over the next few days, hopefully we can discourage Milo from biting, why he is being assessed.
