How To React If Your Dog Bites Someone?

[luckypenny]

I mean right at the very moment it's happened? I've been up half the night pulling out all my resources on aggression but I can't find anything that explains how to react appropriately at the moment your dog bites. I know the key is prevention but what if something happens unexpectedly?

We had not one close call, but two yesterday evening :sad:. I'm going to do my best to not turn this into a rant. Dh's friend came over last night with two of his friends that our dogs haven't met before. We've never had a problem introducing our dogs to strangers in our home as we follow steps to prevent any stress and work on conditioning our dogs to associate visitors with positive experiences only. However, the friend just walked into the house through our garage door without knocking or giving us any indication he was here. Before I even realized what was going on, I heard Penny give her "angry" bark and she was standing sideways in front of one of the men. The idiot kept trying to move forward after I told him to stay still . I called her to me and made her sit but the moron (I'm sorry, I'm still livid about the whole experience) kept advancing and before I could take Penny's collar, she went to block him again and snapped at him. I quickly grabbed her and guided her outside (thankfully, Ava and Jasmine were already outdoors), told her to sit and gave her a treat from my pocket. Next thing I know, I hear Lucky growling and barking. I turn around and see him semi-lunging at the other strange friend. Lucky wouldn't come to me when I called, he was sooooo stressed. I told the guy to close himself in the room right behind him. As soon as Lucky calmed, I took him outside and ran all the dogs through a few commands and rewarded them because I wanted to end the whole thing on a positive note.

Needless to say, I went back in the house, tried to remain calm, and asked them to get out...which they did.

Ideally, the garage doors should have been locked. Ideally, these jerks should have known better than to enter a home without waiting for someone to let them in . Ideally, they should have listened to me when I told them to stand still .

I've been obsessing all day as to whether or not I reacted appropriately. Was there something else I could/should have done? I keep thinking, "what if?"

[susieqt]

As far as I see it, your dogs did absolutely nothing wrong; they were taken by surprise by these guys and as far as the dogs were concerned, they were just protecting their property.
Like you said, when you have people over there are no problems. My dogs would have done the same thing! Do not stress out about it, it was just the circumstances!

[Mat&Murph]

Originally Posted by susieqt

As far as I see it, your dogs did absolutely nothing wrong; they were taken by surprise by these guys and as far as the dogs were concerned, they were just protecting their property.
Like you said, when you have people over there are no problems. My dogs would have done the same thing! Do not stress out about it, it was just the circumstances!

Totally agree!! Stop Stressing about it!!

[hazelrunpack]

You forgot to do the most important thing--calling 911 and getting the cops there to remove them from the premises



Alright, yes...hazel does tend to overreact in this sort of situation... But dammit! If Lucky or Penny had bit one of them...holy cats!!! These people obviously have no clue, but they endangered themselves and the dogs, as well! The dogs at least had an excuse for their actions...the people didn't.

See, now you can stop stressing because hazel is doing it for you!

I think you handled it well ('cept for not getting the police involved )

Just make sure the door is locked next time.

[LavenderRott]

I would be absolutely furious and giving DH hell over this! And yes, I may well have called 911!

Your dogs were absolutely 100% right over this! They did exactly what they should have done - including the snapping. It certainly isn't their fault that these intruders are too stupid to stop in the presence of a growling dog.

[aslan]

LP, after seeing the care you take to introduce your puppers to strangers first hand. STOP stressing. Lucky and Penny did absolutely nothing wrong. There is no need to ask for advice here as they did exactly what they should do. A person walking into your home uninvited is called break and enter, or trespassing. The dogs were protecting their home and their family. The moron friend knowing you have 3 large dogs of your own is totally at fault. Give the puppers a big hug from auntie aslan and tell them they did a good job.

[Melinda]

YOU did nothing wrong and the pupper did nothing wrong...if anything you went out of your way to insure nothing happened and yes you even ended the "event" on a possitive note for the dogs...I think you did splendid...now the morons on the other hand....I gleefully would have clapped had they had the seat ripped out of their pants...some people just aren't dog "savy" and to those you have to patiently explain the dangers of walking into someones home unnannounced and uninvited....tell them the home owner can go from nice to bitch in 1-10 seconds....great going and quit stressing over it, you did nothing wrong

[Rottielover]

LP this has happened actually with Harley, he was stressed, and trying to sleep, I told my friend to leave him alone, and what does the idiot do, lean over him while he was sleeping. Harley snapped at his head. But the way I saw it, if harley really wanted to he could have bitten without that warning. I left at that. I told my friend to stay the hell away from him, and that finally showed him the reason why.
They way I see it, snapping is a form of warning, same as growling, if you keep correcting it, the dog will learn that warnings are bad, and they will just bite.
That is my opinion only

[lostmary]

You have done nothing wrong. In fact, I think you deserve applause You have done wonderful things with your babies and it's wonderful the way you have taught them to behave. If anything, we need to learn from you.

Mary

[ancientgirl]

LP, I agree with the others. Neither Penny, Lucky or you did anything wrong. What gets me really angry is, had the dogs bitten any of them then it would have been seen as the dogs fault and they would have been seen as aggressive, when they were only doing what was in their nature, which is to protect their home.

I hope DH has a good talk with his friends. They endangered themselves and your dogs. What boneheads!

[luckypenny]

Oh, I know the dogs didn't do anthing wrong, they just do what most dogs do in a situation like this. I just keep wondering if there was something else I was supposed to do , other than call 911 (I'll keep the cordless phone in my treat bag belt from now on Hazel ). Actually, while I was outside running them through some exercises, it helped me calm down as much as them which prevented a few human bites when I went back inside .

Rottielover, you're absolutely right about not correcting growling or other warning behaviors. If it's at an inappropriate instance (let's say guarding something I don't want them to have for example), I only take it as a cue for me to work harder on prevention. Other than an occasional "uh uh" or "hey," I don't use corrections on the dogs. When we first got Penny, she didn't give any warnings so we were careful to allow her to learn how.

Dh's friend follows (with his dogs) an extreme punishment/negative approach to training and I guess he thought that ours would see him as leader or whatever. I have no idea what was going through his head at the time and I haven't calmed enough to trust myself to talk to him yet. Dh did get blasted although he wasn't present at the time and completely agrees that they were in the wrong. I still had to yell at him for having such ignorant friends though .

LavenderRott, I still can't wrap my head around why some people "are too stupid to stop in the presence of a growling dog" . I mean, I would think it's simply human nature to freeze, not move forward .

I think I'm upset about the whole situation because it was so unexpected, I wasn't able to control the men's actions, and I didn't feel I was fully prepared to deal with it. And, although perfectly natural for Lucky and Penny to have reacted the way they did, it wasn't such a comfortable feeling for me to witness it .

[luckypenny]

Originally Posted by ancientgirl

What gets me really angry is, had the dogs bitten any of them then it would have been seen as the dogs fault and they would have been seen as aggressive, when they were only doing what was in their nature, which is to protect their home.

Funny you should say that, that's exactly what has me fuming. At the time, I wasn't even thinking about the guys' safety, only the dogs'.

[ancientgirl]

Yes, which begs the question, how many dogs killed for biting were victims of this very same scenario.

[CearaQC]

Those guys entered YOUR property. It's not like you had the dogs loose on the street. The dogs did what came natural.

[aslan]

If the bites had occured outside of the home that is one thing, The dogs biting a complete stranger inside your home is totally different. They wouldn't be deemed dangerous or aggressive, especially with that big @ss sign in your front window stating there are dogs. By law you are allowed to protect yourself from assault by whatever means reasonably neccessary. And i do believe three men, two strange to you just walking into your house upset you and the dogs felt that. If nothing else my friend you now know that if someone broke into your home the dogs would be there fully to protect you. LOL, mine would let them in and show them where the good stuff is.

[Mat&Murph]

LOL aslan....My guys will not let anyone in the house unless either myself or hubby lets them in the door. But we have to come in first.

[rainbow]

You should be very proud of Lucky and Penny.

And, give them big hugs and some treats from me.

[glasslass]

As I see it, DH needs to set his friends straight. They have no business walking into your house like that, especially since DH wasn't even home at the time. What if you had been just coming out of the shower? If their intentions had been criminal, your puppers would be lauded as heros. They reacted appropriately IMO! DH's friends on the other hands are idiots!. Your concern for your pups says a lot about you too!

[jessi76]

I have to agree with glasslss on this... they have NO business walking into your home. Had this been MY home, they would have left wounded... probably by me.

[kandy]

I don't think you did anything wrong - other than not kicking these morons butts into next week! Loved the "had to yell at DH anyway for having such ignorant friends" too funny!!!!!

There are some of my friends that have been on a 'come right in' basis - but very few. And of course my dogs have known these people very, very well. If a stranger were to walk in my house, Malone would be barking his head off while running the other way and Hazel would be leading him to the treat cupboard. LOL

[glasslass]

Originally Posted by kandy

If a stranger were to walk in my house, Malone would be barking his head off while running the other way and Hazel would be leading him to the treat cupboard. LOL

Den-Den would head into the closet or out the doggy door while Corky shoved his toys at them and demanded they throw them for him.