2 of my fur babies are gone

[tigger_gal]

I had my babies 7 and 8 years. Piper was my girl that could tell me momma all the time, and bear my boy black lab, with the kindest face ever. out of no where bear snapped and bit Savannah's upper lip. I though it could be a freak thing and kept a close eye on him, he got to where he growled at both of my kids when they walked by him. Then 3 days later Savannah was jumping spinning and she fell in the floor and Pipers k9 teeth grazed her for head and bled like mad. I made the decision to take them to the no kill shelter, and it broke my heart. I cried filling out the paper, and when they came to get them out on my car. Bear lissed me and hugged me by, he had no idea he would never see me again but happy to go for his short walk on the leash. I got kisses for Piper and said momma loves you too,,, and said momma momma momma and she proudly said it back, as the crew watched in amazement. I know I did the right thing, because the next bite could have been very badly.

People never say my dog won't bite. I never ever in a million years thought and said it many times. you never know when one day your dog is going to do the complete unexpected.

[bubbe1]

fur babies

Tigger,
I'm so sorry to hear about your dogs.

Hugs,
Laurie

[ICNDonna]

I'm so sorry. Sometimes being a responsible parent and pet owner can be extremely difficult.


Donna

[tigger_gal]

Thanks. Yes Donna it is. Big dogs are really hard to have with little kids even the little ones but don't do as much damage. =( I am sure some one adopted them.

[MaryS]

I am sorry that you had to give up your dogs . I had 4 dogs (large dogs, 1 german shepherd and 3 black labs) when raising my kids.I taught them from young age not to horse play around dogs because they could accidently hurt the dogs.They were also taught how to handle the dogs gently. Dogs can become fear biters or behave aggressively if they had a bad experience that caused them pain or stess ie a child or person intentionally or UNINTENTIALLY falling on them or stepping on a foot or scaring/teasing them. It is a natural instinct to become distrustful of someone/somethng that hurt them.My male lab loved all dogs until one day when he was attacked by a pitbull while we were out walking him. This dog charged right into us and wrapped his teeth around our dogs Neck. To this day my dog is afraid of dogs outside our home. He now behaves aggressively when he sees a dog because in his mind all dogs are mean dogs. ONE bad experience caused my dog to go from a dog friendly dog to dog aggressive. But this is only to dogs outside our home . He loved our other dogs just not other dogs. So see one experience can alter a dogs personality in a heart beat. But these things can be corrected with behavior modification training. We hired a dog trainer and she helped us resolve our labs major issues. He is a rescue dog who was abused in the past by previous owners. Your dogs were fearful of the kids and there must have been a reason for it . I dont think a dog would suddenly become fearful or aggressive without a good reason. With behavior modification you can teach the dogs that the kids are good persons not bad. For instance one trainer i Know would have you re introduce the kids to the dogs by having them gently give the dog a dog treat andgentle pat. Keep repeating this method and the dog associates good things happening to them when they see the kids. Our lab feared things that moved..cars , bikes etc. our trainer had us teach the dog that good things happen when he sees a moving object. She had us have him sit an use the command leave it and then treat him with a good snack . So now when he sees a car or bike he automatically turns to me, sits and waits for a cookie. With piper it seems like bad timing of events. The child fell on the dog and got scratched by the dogs teeth? this seemed like a freak accident and the dog was not at fault. Your child could have easily fallen down an hit the floor instead of the dog an got a bump on her head. Unfortunately the dog was at wrong place at the wrong time an got blamed for something she had no control over. I am not placing blame on anyone just trying to make u see it from another point of view. I help a rescue in town and sadly the dogs that end up in shelters dont understand why they went from a home to a cage with cement floor. You can explain to them why they are being left there. It is sad from all angles. My dog was abandoned 3 times and abused. I decided to try to fix him an restore his faith in humans with professional help. My mindset is that there isnt anything that CANT be fixed. Again I am not judging but trying to make you see things from another angle.You fixed the problem in your home but what if your child goes to a friends house and is playing around a dog an falls on that dog and accidently hurts the dog causing the dog to snap out of pain. The only way you can prevent this is to teach your kids to be gentle and careful around dogs so this doesnt happen again.

[MaryS]

Also , another thing is that i was with the kids and dogs at all times. OUR home was the hang out home for all the kids in town so i was very careful to be with the kids and dogs at all times. If i had to use the rest room, or toss in a load of wash i would gate the dogs in the kitchen or master bedroom when I couldnt be right there with them. When you have a lot of kids around there is gonna be noise and lots of commotion which can frighten some dogs so I would separate them when i had things to do and couldnt keep a watchful eye on them.

[MaryS]

sorry i made a typo error. I meant that you cant explain to a dog why you have to give it up....i wrote the word you can.....again please dont think i am judging you...it is just that when i go to shelters...and see all the dogs in cages it makes me sad..the dogs are confused an very frightened. I am told by shelter staff that sometimes even no kill shelters might have to put a dog down if they dont take to shelter life. They become so stressed out , stop eating and retreat into themselves...depression sets in.. I hope that your shelter makes a huge effort to find a new home for these dogs...sadly some of our shelters are not so good ..

[MaryS]

Also, I absolutely agree with you that any dog can bite. I loved all my dogs but would never ever think them incapable of biting. You just have to use common sense when you mix kids and dogs together. I always told my kids never bother a dog when it is eating nor rapidly approach a sleeping dog and startle it awake. I can take anything out of my dogs mouth..food..toys...bones but that doesnt mean that anyone else can do this to my dogs . So one has to be careful and use common sense when it comes to their dogs.

[Katrina]

hard situation...

[mary124]

I am so sorry. Recently my boss had the same thing- don't recall what kind of big dogs she had but one of them caused her Mom to have 80 stitches in her leg. Before this attack he never did bite or anything, but with this she felt she had to put him down.