I was at the rescue shelter yesterday like I always am on Sundays, and I was walking a German shepherd named Silas who I'd only walked one other time before, and we were walking by this woman and her two kids who were talking to one of the Lead Volunteers (the ones who work with adopters). The kids (a boy who looked to be 10yrs old and a girl who looked to be 4yrs old) asked to pet Silas and I said "I don't know if he's good with kids". The Lead Volunteer said its okay let them pet him so I did. The boy didn't pet Silas because he was a little intimidated by him, Silas being a 90lb dog and all. The girl petted Silas and he seemed happy to receive the attention. *To my knowledge* this was his first interaction with small kids.
The girl then walked over to her mother. Then walked back over to Silas. Silas responded by putting his entire mouth around the girl's right side, which left a small puncture wound the size of a tooth, but no other marks. Basically he grabbed her and let go. Nobody yelled at Silas because we were all too shocked by it. Silas has belonged to the rescue for about three months now I think, some of that time was spent in a foster home. He came back from that foster home for destroying two couches (separation anxiety). Silas did not show any sign of being uncomfortable. He has always been a very confident dog. He will never be adopted to a family with small kids EVER.
Silas has never shown any aggression to adults. He is good with other dogs, but does have a high prey drive. Silas has actually been adopted, but he is staying at the shelter until his people can pick him up on the 21st. Of course they will be informed of this incident. I do not know if these people are planning on kids in the future. They might decide not to take him, or he might get returned in the future.
I am just wondering if anybody has any insight into WHY Silas might have done this? The child was being non-threatening, her arms were down, she was not running or screaming. They only thing I can think of is that, since her height was about eye level with him, that maybe she was staring him in the eyes and he "corrected" her. The other thing that was suggested was that he was being "protective" of me, but WHY would he feel that he needed to protect me or anybody from a 4yr old? Are kids not "real" humans to dogs but instead weird little creatures?
I thank you for any insight you can give me into this incident.
Oh, here's two pics of him for reference:
And if anybody has any suggestions on how to safely kid test a dog, I am all ears. Most of the intake sheets for the dogs say "Good with kids: ?" on them. It would be nice if I could suggest to the Leads safe ways to kid test dogs so that bite incidents do not occur. Thank you for your suggestions and thank you for reading.
The girl then walked over to her mother. Then walked back over to Silas. Silas responded by putting his entire mouth around the girl's right side, which left a small puncture wound the size of a tooth, but no other marks. Basically he grabbed her and let go. Nobody yelled at Silas because we were all too shocked by it. Silas has belonged to the rescue for about three months now I think, some of that time was spent in a foster home. He came back from that foster home for destroying two couches (separation anxiety). Silas did not show any sign of being uncomfortable. He has always been a very confident dog. He will never be adopted to a family with small kids EVER.
Silas has never shown any aggression to adults. He is good with other dogs, but does have a high prey drive. Silas has actually been adopted, but he is staying at the shelter until his people can pick him up on the 21st. Of course they will be informed of this incident. I do not know if these people are planning on kids in the future. They might decide not to take him, or he might get returned in the future.
I am just wondering if anybody has any insight into WHY Silas might have done this? The child was being non-threatening, her arms were down, she was not running or screaming. They only thing I can think of is that, since her height was about eye level with him, that maybe she was staring him in the eyes and he "corrected" her. The other thing that was suggested was that he was being "protective" of me, but WHY would he feel that he needed to protect me or anybody from a 4yr old? Are kids not "real" humans to dogs but instead weird little creatures? I thank you for any insight you can give me into this incident.
Oh, here's two pics of him for reference:
And if anybody has any suggestions on how to safely kid test a dog, I am all ears. Most of the intake sheets for the dogs say "Good with kids: ?" on them. It would be nice if I could suggest to the Leads safe ways to kid test dogs so that bite incidents do not occur. Thank you for your suggestions and thank you for reading.
