Bit by my own dog?

[Inga]

I have been hearing more and more stories about people that have been bit by their own dogs. Some people have been bit by dogs they owned in the past or dogs that they have worked with either in training or foster etc...
I am just curious how many people have been bit by their own dogs? What were the circumstances leading up to it? How old was the dog? Did the dog have any health issues? How long did you own the dog before this happened? How did you handle it when it did happen? How many times did it happen? What was the dogs general temperament under normal circumstances?

How many of you would keep a dog that bites you? Oh, and How bad was the bite? Has the dog ever bit anyone else?

 

[Criosphynx]

Critter bit me once while clipping nails....this was before I knew how to get her over it... She also bit Kev during the same circumstance...she bit kev the first week we had her when he tried to put her in a sit by touching her butt..

So ya Critter 3 Humans 0


They were both *provoked* attacks so I blamed us and moved on. I can't imagine what another person might have done....

Emma was choking once and bit me HARD when I was removing what she was choking on...that doesn't really count tho.

BTW...Hi Inga...nice to see you!

 

[Laurelin]

I have been bitten by two of my dogs, one dog more than once. I have a nice scar from the last time as well.

I was bit by Nikki once as a kid. I was kind of an idiot and decided she needed to be punished for something. I can't remember what now, but I was about ten so I 'spanked' her on the butt. She turned around and got me back. I quickly learned that you don't spank dogs. I just had a small mark on my arm, didn't even break the skin. Valuable lesson learned there and I know she was only giving a warning snap.

I've been bitten by Trey a couple times. He's a resource guarder and as he's gotten blind and deaf you do have to really watch him. The times I got bit by him, I accidentally startled him. The last time was pretty bad and left a scar on my hand. I will probably always have a nice Trey's mouth shaped scar on the back of my hand. We also found out Trey has hypothyroidism which can increase resource guarding behaviors and temperament problems.

I would keep a dog that bit me if I felt the bite was warranted. Also, it's important to point out none of those bites were serious. I have never had to go to a doctor's for one.

 

[Toller_08]

I've been growled at by Dance a couple times (both times she was in season, and "off" temperament wise in many ways), but I've never been bitten by my own dogs. I did come close with an iffy temperamented Rottweiler (she was a rescue and incredibly poorly bred) we had, but she never had a real chance to bite.

 

[FluffyZooCrew]

I've been bitten by Triumph, my shih tzu mix that's a little over a year old. I've been bitten by him too many times, and it irks me to no avail.

He bites whenever I go to pick him up, if he knows I am putting him in his kennel. He bites me if he has something in his mouth that he shouldn't, and I go to get it from him. He bites if he's sitting in someone's lap, mainly my mom's, and I go to pick him up. He also bites when I am trying to groom him and whenever I try to clip his nails.

That dog, I swear.

He's got tiny teeth, so he barely leaves a mark. We're still working on his training, mainly "drop it" and "leave it" when he has things he shouldn't. We're also working on "kennel", so he knows to go into it on command. Every single dog I own, except him, knows the word "(dogs name) kennel". When I say it, they know to go into their kennel.

Other than that, none of my other dogs have bitten me.

ETA: Audubon, my 50lb english pointer/dalmation mix, has tried a few times before, mainly when brushing her or clipping her nails. She's a bit tempermental, but has really never bitten down hard. Mainly she just growls and does a nipping motion, and she gets corrected immediately.

 

[bubbatd]

I've only been bitten once by my own dog in 63 years and it was Ollie ! Was my fault as I was doing his nibble - nibble on a sparerib and daughter's Seger wanted to join in . Ollie went to snap at Seger and got me instead . Totally my fault ! My Goldens always shared .... Ollie and Seger weren't brought up that way .

 

[SizzleDog]

Only by the corgi... she was a puppy and didn't want to have her nails done.

Let's just say... she never tried it again, and her nails were niiice and short that day.

 

[Squishy22]

I've been bit by only one of my dogs. A chihuahua I used to have. He was very protective over his food when I got him at 6 months old. He grabbed a piece of steak, tried to swallow it whole, and I had to pull it out of his throat while he was biting me.

Other than that, none of my dogs have ever growled or attempted to bite me.

 

[Angelique]

I've never been bitten by my own dogs and only once by a client's dog. I was nipped a long time ago by a friend's dog, before I started working with dogs.

Working with dogs is like a dance. If you have a good "feel" for it and do it correctly you can either remove the dog's need to bite or address the biting behavior without getting nipped...unless you specialize in more risky, high aggression cases which require serious intervention to save the dogs life.

Folks who do this go the extra mile to turn a dog around do take certain risks to save the dog's life and keep society safe, IMO.

I've only encountered a few dogs like this and was very careful in my approach which ended in great results, to the owner's credit more than mine.

Part of it is simple math and the laws of statistics. Take on enough of the the harder aggression cases, and your odds of being bitten during the rehab process will go up.

 

[Fran101]

"my" 6 year old bichon has bit me on numorous occasions.. hes my moms dog and the lil thing hates me. Im the one that is given the lovely job of bathing him and giving him his meds, taking him to the vet, ect.. while my mom gets to kiss and cuddle him soo every time he sees me he thinks its BAD NEWS. I was reaching under the desk to take him to go get a bath, and he bit me on the hand, i needed stitches.
now i dont even look at that dog. he doesnt like me, i dont like him lol it works fine. i dont HATE HIm and i dont think the bites were his fault.. he was honestly scared of me.my mom has finally taken on full responsibility of him and he doesnt give her any trouble.. so it all worked out for the better

 

[mrose_s]

Not on purpose.

a couple of times when I'm brushing him and catch a knot he's turned around to bite the brush and hit me, never left a mark though.
Sophie went to snap at me a few months ago, I went to lay down on her and accidentally hurt her feet, she thought I was Harry and turned around to get up me, relised it was me and just lay back down.

 

[corgipower]

Ares bit me when he was a puppy. He had a rawhide, I wanted to take it away. That was my introduction to resource guarding. He has since gone on to win numerous obedience competitions and earn a CDX title and he enjoys sleeping on the bed with me.

Ares has come close to biting the vet, but that's when the vet is sticking needles in him and hits a sore spot.

Tyr would have bitten me as a puppy if he could have reached. I picked him up and held him at arms length, eye level for a moment - ya know, playful stuff. He opened his mouth as wide as he could, roared and lunged, fully intent on biting me. My response was to laugh at him.

Nyx bites me periodically. She has a hair trigger for her fight drive, and every once in a while I oops and cross that line. She goes into fight drive and I become the target. Getting less frequent as we figure out what each other is about.

Morgan bit me once. But she was in heat, so I don't really count it.

 

[Patiencez]

Oh My

My Lhasa bites me quite often. she is getting better though.
she bites when she is mad at me. Like get out of the kitchen when we are eating. or I pick her up when she doesn't want up.
Little dogs are just real bad about nipping. But she was a rescue an had a horrible life.She is lerning to trust me some now.
I can bath her. wash her face an eyes. But now clip her nails I don't think so.
She is 3 yrs old an I have had her not quite a yr. She is just now lerning how to play with toys. But she is real snarlie with the big dogs. But she has little teeth an they don't hurt but it scares the heck out of you lol

 

[bubbatd]

Do people here feel that small dogs are more likely to bite than big dogs ???

 

[Zoom]

None of my dogs have bitten me. Sawyer nipped at me once when I was brushing him and he didn't want to be brushed, but that the first and only time.

Now boarding dogs...yeah. Mostly Lhasas and Shih Tzus...had one shepherd mix that liked to nail my hand when I was breaking up other dogs I tend to go slowly and not push my luck though. I'd rather take a little extra time than end up bleeding.

 

[elegy]

i've been bitten a number of times by my dogs. mushroom nailed me once when he was sedated for a veterinary procedure and i was taking advantage of it to trim his nails and cut one too short. he whipped around and bit me but good on the arm. it's not fair to count it as he was under the influence, but i was tremendously upset by it at the time.

luce nailed me once on the calf when she redirected her dog-aggression onto the closest target. if you can't bite the one you want, bite the one you're with. it just was a big sign that i needed to redouble my efforts on desensitizing her to that trigger.

i've been bitten sticking my hands in the middle of dog fights. bottom line: don't do that.

and luce bit me last week with mushroom's mouth. he was holding my arm in his mouth (don't ask. sometimes he channels golden retriever.) and she jumped on his head, making him chomp down on my arm. it hurt. mushroom was terribly upset. luce gave me the finger, rolled her eyes, and left the room. jerk.

 

[Criosphynx]

Do people here feel that small dogs are more likely to bite than big dogs ???

two dalmation bites to the face says no....

 

[Romy]

Two dogs in my possession have bitten my, both were fosters.

One was Tengu, a GSD and I totally don't fault her for it. I was trimming raw beef cheeks in the kitchen and she snuck in and tried to sneak what she thought was a giant bloody hunk out of meat out of my hand...when it actuality it was my hand. That HURT! lol. She never laid a tooth on anyone and other than that time she thought she was eating food, had great bite inhibition. I would have kept her in a heartbeat if her separation anxiety hadn't make it such a bad fit.

The other was Seamus, a staghound who at 10 months old had either severe HD or was hit by a car and had his hips broken. At any rate he could barely walk and was in extreme pain. If I touched that area of his body without him realizing it was a human touching him, he would whirl around and snap. I don't fault him either as he had medical problems, and once the problems were resolved he never snapped again.

 

[corgipower]

Do people here feel that small dogs are more likely to bite than big dogs ???

Not inherently more likely. But it's not uncommon for owners of small dogs to feel that training is less important because of their size which results in a small dog not having boundaries.

Also, IME, owners of big dogs that show aggression are more likely to seek help than owners of small dogs who underestimate how much damage a small dog can do.

 

[elegy]

Do people here feel that small dogs are more likely to bite than big dogs ???

possibly. but that's mostly because small dogs seem to suffer more frequently from owners who think aggression is funny.