Yesterday my sister-in-law came to visit. She has a little girl (who will be 3 in July) and another one on the way. Even though she is a kind-natured person and a devout animal lover, I do fear for her safety and the safety of my niece.

In our house we have our two dogs, Tank (4-5 month old Rottweiler), and Amy (11 year old Akita). Usually one or the other of the two dogs will be allowed outside of their crates, and occasionally both at the same time. I am not perfect and true the nature of dogs may elude me at times, but I do try my best to be a responsible dog owner. My sister-in-law knocks on the door, and Amy (who's out of the crate) barks enthusiastically and looks back at us.

My husband gets up to answer the door, and I grab Amy by the collar to lead her to her crate (she doesn't know any commands that specify a place she should go, plus someone has to lock the crate). My sister-in-law comes in with my niece by her side. The little girl sees the big ball of white fluff (which in reality is the very old and rather temperamental brute that would be Amy), and runs straight for Amy.

As the little girl rushes by, my husband shouts "No!", reaches out to grab her and comes back empty handed. As I try to take in all the possible ways this situation could end badly, I try to stand between Amy and this little girl, while at the same time trying to force Amy into her crate. I tell the girl "no" and she disobeys. Before Amy is all the way in the crate, the little girl grabs Amy by the fur and pulls. Amy growls, but cannot turn to enforce the growl. I realize this and push the little girl out of the way.

My sister-in-law doesn't seem to notice the danger in her child charging at Amy. Rather she becomes angry that I had "assaulted" her child, and it was entirely unnecessary. She has a Great Dane at home that gets along just fine with her daughter. Thus her daughter supposedly knows how to get along with big dogs.

I try my best to explain that when Amy growls, it's not something to be taken lightly. In response, I am told that her Great Dane growls all the time and nothing bad ever happens. The dog is merely annoyed. After a conversation that comes to an impasse, I basically have to tell my sister-in-law that I don't want her child to be around Amy, or even the "cute, lovable" Tank.

Once my sister-in-laws leaves a few hours later, I talk with my husband about what has occurred. He makes a note to wait for me to return when putting up a dog, before opening the door.

I am so very relieved that my only niece wasn't injured. Hopefully I read Amy correctly and realized that she posed a threat to the little girl. I'm not very pleased with my sister-in-law's reaction and worry even more about the Great Dane she keeps at home. I do realize that opening the door too soon contributed to allowing this problem to occur.

Should I have handled the situation better? Albeit, my husband and I both realize that the dog should be secured before opening the door, but in trying to keep the little girl away from Amy, did I do the right thing?

 Quote: jennifer wiseman

...she becomes angry that I had "assaulted" her child, and it was entirely unnecessary. She has a Great Dane at home that gets along just fine with her daughter. Thus her daughter supposedly knows how to get along with big dogs.

Her almost-three-year-old.......

Your sister-in-law would do well to look at this:
http://www.leerburg.com/kidbites.htm

The first few unbreakable rules:
# NEVER disturb any dog who is sleeping, eating, or caring for puppies.

# NEVER pet a dog, even your own, without letting him see and sniff you first.

# Children must always ASK PERMISSION from the owner and their parents BEFORE petting any dog. I never allowed my children near strange dogs much less pet them.

# If the owner cannot control the dog and have it SIT nicely for the child to pet, WALK AWAY

One thing that i have learned by surrounding myself and working with dogs; you are going to encounter a lot of strange responses from people who do not "know" dogs (many of whom you would expect better sense from)!

It sounds to me as though you did the right thing, to push your niece out of harms way! A growling akita is nothing to take lightly! It frightens me how many parents have absolutely no sense when it comes to dogs. I have actually walked out of a downtown store once to find a young couple encouraging their 2 or something year old kid to go say hi to the "nice" doggie (dillinger being an 89 pound german shepherd all alone with no one to say it was safe)! Thank goodness my "D" is very well trained around little ones!

If your sister in law does not see any need for concern considering the dane's growling (annoyed or not, i would never allow it), i doubt there is any room for canine education there.

I do wonder, however, why not let the little girl around your "tank" while he is young so that perhaps you will not have to worry so much in the future?

 Quote: kacie hackett

I do wonder, however, why not let the little girl around your "tank" while he is young so that perhaps you will not have to worry so much in the future?

I do not see any benefits from having my pup around this little girl. At the risk of being rude, she's growing up to be rather unruly---to the point of being considered a brat. I've seen her around the Great Dane when I visit my sister-in-law. The little girl will grab the dog's tail, hair, ears --anything-- and pull. She also has a fascination with the dog's eyes and wants to touch them (poke them, rather). I'm worried that having my niece around my pup wouldn't "baby-proof" the dog as my sister-in-law says, but rather would make Tank fearful or aggressive of children.

Generally, I only allow Tank around older children (about 10 or older) that I know and trust to listen to me. He walks by strange children all the time on walks, with me in town, and when visiting relatives. I make it a point for him to ignore most children.

 Quote: jennifer wiseman

 Quote: kacie hackett

I do wonder, however, why not let the little girl around your "tank" while he is young so that perhaps you will not have to worry so much in the future?

I do not see any benefits from having my pup around this little girl. At the risk of being rude, she's growing up to be rather unruly---to the point of being considered a brat. I've seen her around the Great Dane when I visit my sister-in-law. The little girl will grab the dog's tail, hair, ears --anything-- and pull. She also has a fascination with the dog's eyes and wants to touch them (poke them, rather). I'm worried that having my niece around my pup wouldn't "baby-proof" the dog as my sister-in-law says, but rather would make Tank fearful or aggressive of children.

Generally, I only allow Tank around older children (about 10 or older) that I know and trust to listen to me. He walks by strange children all the time on walks, with me in town, and when visiting relatives. I make it a point for him to ignore most children.

I agree with you Jennifer, if children cannot behave around dogs and parents fail to teach the child to be respectful, then they do not need to be around dogs. Or any other pet for that matter.

 Quote:

I do not see any benefits from having my pup around this little girl. At the risk of being rude, she's growing up to be rather unruly---to the point of being considered a brat. I've seen her around the Great Dane when I visit my sister-in-law. The little girl will grab the dog's tail, hair, ears --anything-- and pull. She also has a fascination with the dog's eyes and wants to touch them (poke them, rather). I'm worried that having my niece around my pup wouldn't "baby-proof" the dog as my sister-in-law says, but rather would make Tank fearful or aggressive of children.

You've got it right, Jennifer. I wouldn't allow a child like that around my dogs either. And I feel sorry for that Great Dane.

Children can be taught from a young age to respect and be gentle with a dog. I care for a 2 y/o and a 1 y/o. The 2 y/o is gentle and polite with my dog, and the 1 y/o is learning quickly what "gentle" means. I have a patient dog, and their interactions are always closely supervised. If your SIL believes that children should be allowed to maul a dog, she is just setting her child up for problems.

Jennifer, I do not understand parents that would repremand you for saving their child from harm, possibly serious harm or disfigurement. If you were to act different and the results would have been different, then you would have been blamed for not doing what you did. I am not even going to address how I feel about the denial going on with their personal pet-God help the children that do not protect them.God bless you for doing the right thing!

Jennifer,

If the situation truly unfolded the way you described, then you did the right thing and do not need to feel bad about it. You know your dog better than your sister-in-law does, and you acted to protect the little girl in the best way possible given the situation. So don't feel bad. You did the right thing.

Your plan not to open the door in the future until the dog is in the crate sounds sensible to me.

How much time and effort you want to put in to educating your sister-in-law is up to you, but she appears to think that dogs have "one size fits all" personalities, and this isn't true. Just because her dogs are very tolerant of poor behavior, and have very long fuses, doesn't mean every dog does. Susan Clothier goes into this in her book "If a Dog's Prayers Were Answered ... Bones Would Rain from the Sky". It might be worth checking out of the library, to read for yourself to help you explain this to your sister-in-law. If you're really lucky, you might be able to get her to read it herself

Rich

Here is something that was in our local paper today. The owners of this dog said it never attacked anyone before.

I believe if you know your dog might be capable of biting and you are trying to prevent it, you should be applauded. You'll just know next time, like you said (or someone said) to crate the dog first and maybe your sister-in-law will think about teaching her daughter how to act around "other dogs" in the meantime.

This may not be relevant to your situation, but Akitas are known to bite kids and this is one example.
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1118954.html

I can believe it. Akitas are very temperamental and have a strong tendency to be the "top dog." I can see this in Amy. There's no doubt in my mind that she would bite a child if given the opportunity, especially one that moves around a lot and makes loud noises.

This wouldn't necessary be because Amy's mean...rather she feels that it is her right to establish her dominance on everything and enforce it. She tried this with my husband and me, and learned real quick that we decide when to listen to her (not the other way around), we give the food, have the best spots in the house, decide if she can fight or not, and can put her in an inescapable crate anytime we feel like it. Amy hasn't had my SIL or my niece do this to her, so she it's unlikely that she'll obey them if left alone with them.

Amy needs a fairly quiet and predictable environment, and children are anything but quiet and predictable---especially from a dog's point of view. My SIL has been warned about Amy for the past two years. I've even warned her about the kind of dog that Tank will someday be. He's a puppy right now and he hasn't reached maturity yet. However, she assumes that because Tank is sweet and lovable right now, that he will always be this way (regardless of the "teen months" and adulthood).

I look at Amy and see a version of Tank as a "worse-case scenario" when he grows up. True, I think it's unlikely that Tank will be nearly so stubborn and mean, but I do have to play it safe.

So, when people assume that my dogs are nice and don't listen to me, then I get incredibly worried. These are, for lack of a better way of explaining it, one-way dogs. What works for the owners won't necessarily work for strangers. I think everyone would be much safer if they assumed that was the case with every dog they meet.