Andrew Warner Dog Training
  • Home
  • Training Info
    • Training Philosophy
    • Board & Train Packages
    • 1:1 Training Sessions
    • In-Home Boarding
  • Testimonials
  • FAQ
  • Blog
    • Ask the Trainer
    • Training Tips >
      • Adopting a New Dog Advice
      • Dog Training Fallacies
      • Family & Baby Advice
      • Leash Reactivity Help
      • Poor Recall Help
      • Separation Anxiety Help
    • Training Videos
    • Board & Train Stories
    • Helpful Infographics
  • Contact

When a Dog Bites a Kid

3/13/2017

0 Comments

 
One of my best clients recently posted a viral video where a dog, seemingly out of nowhere, bites a toddler who was crawling all over her. Be warned, it’s a disturbing video, but watch how it happens here:
On the Internet, everyone is an expert at everything, so the comments are even more vicious than the video itself. The responses all fall into a few of these categories:
​

1)      Destroy the dog

2)      It’s not the dog’s fault at all and the parents shouldn’t be allowed to have kids or a dog.

3)      It is so obvious that the dog was going to bite the child

4)      The dog was obviously punished for growling and that’s why he went straight to biting.

I will answer these claims quickly and then move on to the bigger issue:

1)      Probably not. While the video looks horrific, the more I watched it, the gentler the bite looked. If there was significant damage, this may be the right call. However, because the dog escalates so quickly, it’s probably not a good fit for an inexperienced home with kids.

2)      Dog lovers are so quick to pardon dogs of all wrong doing. There needs to be more accountability for dogs. The dog could have gotten up and walked away. It could have growled. It had any number of choices to make and made a bad, yet natural one. We need to advocate for our dogs always, but also to hold them accountable.

3)      One can easily see the dog was going to bite if one already knows the result. The dog stiffened and whale eyed a bit. However, reasonable people would not necessarily assume that would escalate to a horror movie-like bite.

4)      This is a theoretical concept that floats around the Internet, but is not necessarily grounded in facts. I doubt this dog experienced a great amount of punishment for growling in the past, but that is just speculation.

What’s more interesting to me is the societal epidemic we have of misunderstanding what dogs are: at the end of the day they are still animals that carry dangerous weapons in their mouths. We have a historical co-evolution with them, but over the last 50 years dogs have entered a bizarre transition from dog to child replacers and “members of the family” that has caused some growing pains like the situation we watched happen in this video - the dog corrected the baby the same way she would her own puppy or a sibling.
​

People present dogs one way:
​
​Then the same people get angry when new dog owners mistake their own dogs for cuddly, live-action teddy bears that their child can crawl all over.

If you choose to bring a dog into your home, it’s important you understand dogs to some extent – not just that you can read a dog’s body language and correct it before things go wrong, but sometimes, despite your best efforts, things can go wrong and dogs will react the way animals do.

As a society, the best change we can make is to start letting dogs be dogs again. That means less cute outfits and more exercise. Less having your toddler play with your dog and more training your dog with your toddler. That also means if you put your dog in a situation to make a mistake, you understand that even the best dog can make a mistake.
And yes, as I like to say, your dog probably needs more direction and less affection.

Dogs are and should always be members of our human pack. But that pack will only function smoothly when we let the dogs be dogs and humans be humans while still always working together.

 Right now, we have the big picture wrong and dogs are getting a bad deal in our society – being forced to play roles they weren’t born to play, not getting the direction they need, and not getting to enjoy the freedom every being craves.
​
We owe it to dogs, and our human babies, to be better.

*Please like, share, and comment if you find this helpful / informative.
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @drewwarner
Like me on Facebook: facebook.com/andrewwarnerdogtraining
​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Archive

    April 2022
    June 2021
    May 2020
    November 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014

    Categories

    All
    Aggression
    Ask The Trainer
    Board & Train Clients
    Dog Training Fallacies
    Family & Baby
    Fun Stuff
    Infographics
    Inspiration
    Leash Reactivity
    Life Coaching
    New Dog
    Newsletter
    Quick Bites
    Recall Technique
    Recovery Stories
    Separation Anxiety
    Tips
    Training
    Videos
    Walk

    Tweets by drewwarner
Andrew Warner Dog Training | COPYRIGHT © 2014 . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Andrew Warner is an IACP certified dog trainer based out of Indianapolis, IN.
Andrew Warner Dog Training
Email: andrew@awdt.net
Phone: 317-719-6584
Url: www.awdt.net
cash, check, credit card, invoice, paypal
Indianapolis, IN 46219

Site designed and maintained by TeeDub Web Designs.
  • Home
  • Training Info
    • Training Philosophy
    • Board & Train Packages
    • 1:1 Training Sessions
    • In-Home Boarding
  • Testimonials
  • FAQ
  • Blog
    • Ask the Trainer
    • Training Tips >
      • Adopting a New Dog Advice
      • Dog Training Fallacies
      • Family & Baby Advice
      • Leash Reactivity Help
      • Poor Recall Help
      • Separation Anxiety Help
    • Training Videos
    • Board & Train Stories
    • Helpful Infographics
  • Contact