My dog nipped a mindee again!!!! Aaaarrrrgh!

[QualityCare]

Good idea to fence off the garden, get a good quality kennel as well, dog could also use front room with door open and a safety gate across (children can't open it) so that dog is still a part of the family and can see and here you but is safe. He would only need to go out in the garden for a wee once or you could take him for a walk during the day with the children.

[Tazmin68]

I have the sinario that my dog is in hallway behind a gate and has use of kitchen but as all of this is at front of the house when she starts grumbling I let her through lounge into garden and she does what she needs to do and then ones straight through lounge again and goes straight to gate into hallway. She does not even look at the children anymore when she goes through.

As my garage is off the hallway she also has a crate in the garage with a double quilt in it. this is where she goes when I have strangers visit as she barks when in hallway. My kitchen is only 2x8 metres so quite small.

Parents sign a pet handling form as there is no door from lounge to hallway just a large stair gate and this works fine. After what happened I have decided that I will not have another dog as keeping her away is unfair and with kitchen and hallway at front of house and having to go through lounge to get into garden is a pain. She is now 4 so it ill be a long time before we go there I hope.

Deb

[Rachel6]

I have 3 dogs & have always had dogs as child upwards,as much as I love animals & mine are now my babies as kids are grown up,I never would or trust a dog 100% my dogs are in the kitchen behind a stair gate where they can see everyone arrive sometimes Mindies will stroke them or just say hello. Then later on in the day they might come in the lounge for 10 min if kids are doing something quite. More often than not they just take themselves up to my sons room for the day. I teach the kids they must respect all animals & we do not hurt or scare them & have even say this in front of parents. Good luck but I would just keep them apart x

[smurfette]

I have a dog, we have sectioned off part of the garden for her (she has about 40 foot lucky thing!) but actually she barks a lot down there as she wants to know what's happening! So now we have cleared some space beside the kitchen outside, we have decking, and though its a lot smaller than her garden she is happy as Larry! She has her kennel there (It's an igloo which is cooler in summer and warmer in winter) and there is a gate onto decking so she can see us if we are playing outside, and can put her front paws up on gate .. Mindees sometimes ignore her and sometimes pet her or throw her her ball if
She shoves it through the gate at them! I usually don't have her in at all during the day we may walk her though, and she comes in when they have gone home. It is partly to keep the dog hair and dirt down as I have a crawler, partly I don't need four extra legs under my feet! And partly worry about her nipping., she never has but you never know.. And she can scrape if she bats her front paws at you over the gate. I feel sorry for her cos she is happier in house but she started pooing on the floor at night time so she is out at night too and I think is quite used to it, would like another dog to keep her company!

[Helen79]

If you don't use your front room for minding then I'd keep your dog in there and fit a latch to the top of the door so mindees can't open it. Would be much easier than building a run in the garden.

[fionamadcat]

I have 2 dogs that are kept away from the kids at all times since 1 of them growled at a mindee. I am happier that way that nothing could happen, they stay in my utility room but I can open the door from there to let them into garden. My dd got nipped by someone else's dog a few weeks ago and the owners were very shocked and surprised it had happened. Very out of character for the dog apparently but they then admitted he had been quite grumpy as he has a sore back. Was pretty annoyed as they had left him tied up outside the community centre and dd just went to pat him. But just goes to show how easily these things can happen.

[Daftbat]

Hi,

I appreciate the views of everyone here and some sensible advice has been given. I am a dog owner - German Shepherd - and although he has been brought up completely surrounded by children and a busy household I still have to keep my eye on him AND the children.

This should never have been allowed to get to the second bite.

We have a duty of care to everyone and we have to be in full control of both the animals and the children in our care. The child in question needs to fully realise what she is doing - at 5 she is fully capable of understanding the consequences of her actions and the dog needs to be kept away from stressful situations too.

I use stairgates to keep children and the dog separate if necessary and watch out for any unwanted attention which a child is giving to the dog and move one or the other.

If you allow this to get to a fourth time either with this child or another one I think you will be creating a huge problem for yourself. Do a rigorous risk assessment immediately so that you can demonstrate to Ofsted and other parents exactly what you are doing to stop this problem. Giving notice to the child is not the answer unless there are other issues that can't be addressed any other way.

[ziggy]

If you don't use your front room for minding then I'd keep your dog in there and fit a latch to the top of the door so mindees can't open it. Would be much easier than building a run in the garden.

This is what i have done. Dog is in garden alot of the day but when indoors she goes in living room which i can lock.

My dog is really small (corgi/fox terrier type) but i just dont trust dogs or children.

[kellyskidz!]

I don't trust dogs around children either, harsh as it sounds, I would never allow any dog around my child or other I care for. You don't know what they're thinking, and as well trained and soft as they are the danger is constantly there, especially with bigger dogs who could do a lot of damage with one bite or nip
I actually like dogs but I think some dog owners can be guilty of forgetting that other people may not want dogs around them or their children and that some people are genuinely frightened of them
I was walking down my road not long ago with mindee in pushchair when a Rottweiler came up sniffing mindees face, dogs owner was walking behind the dog and looked annoyed when I said can you take your dog away from the baby's face please? I didn't know that dog, it should have been on a lead on the street anyway!
We've all had or seen the dog go running up to a child scaring them and the owner saying its ok it won't hurt you. That's all well and good but you don't know that 100% and they don't like it anyway! You hear stories of the gentlest softest dog ever suddenly turning and biting for no apparent reason, not worth the risk in my opinion.
If a dog had nipped/bitten a child it's your duty of care to either separate your dog from children or to give notice, which isn't very fair, but its better than the child being bitten more severely next time. If I was this child's parent I'd be fuming, no offence, that this had happened 3 times, you have to do something, no one wants to hear your dog has been put down or the child has been hurt again xx