Hi

We had this, we had a jack russell, he was fine with us, then when my Son came, the attacks got worse and worse, totally unprovoked.

We had to put our dog down. he was from dogs home too so we didnt know his background.

Seems yours is only a puppy, can you look up dog training? this may help the puppy realise who is boss straight from the start, including your Son. If our dog was a puppy and not 4yr old, then I would have done that straight away.

Good luck.

Shes a jack russell cross chihuaha. I specifically waited until my son was 4yrs old before getting a dog, and being a puppy I thought she would be fine. Shes so affectionate and adores kids. She knows im boss although she will attack/play bite me when she gets annoyed about something...i think thats because shes teething.
I know a professional breeder so im going to ask him and look online for how to get her to understand jay is also the boss and not her - some training we can do together at home.
Hoping its a one off incident, just worried me because shes only 4 months old, she might get worse once shes an adult dog.

Morgan

Yeah.

Jack Russels you see sometimes want to be the dominant one in the household, just because what they're used to.

I have heard of people being strict with them though and that works with them as they then know who is boss.

I think working with her at home would be great as then she would know your Son is boss too. She is probably slightly jealous of him too.

I really wish our dog had of been that young, I know they're a lot easier then to make them realise who is boss.

I think if you are starting now then you're doing the most possible, then I mean she is so young, this is what she will know.

I do know you have to be consistent with them though, like toddlers! Like if you let a toddler hit you all the time then they would keep doing it and see no wrong. Now you discipline the child and he/she knows its wrong. Same with dogs, they are like toddlers lol.

I think you're doing the right thing though in nipping it in the bud at the first instance adn hope she becomes a lovely dog, which im sure she will.

laura xx

My neighbor had the same thing happen to her son. The .Jack .Russell walked right up to the baby, who was innocently sitting in his seat and snarled at him.
She grabbed the dog, put him in the car, and got rid of him. You just can't take chances. Sure, it's just a little dog, but imo, they tend to be a lot snappier than a big dog. Big dogs just do more damage. You could get sued if your dog bites someone elses kid.

i wouldn't give her the chance to find out.

i just had to give my dog up because he tried to bite the baby. there's a tiny part of me that wishes i could take him back and give him another chance but i know i can't and that if i did and he got the baby for real i wouldn't be able to live with myself.

it's not worth it.

Heres what im thinking. She was sleeping when it happened, im not sure exactly what jay even did. He could have poked her eye and hurt her, or just got in her face and made her wake up startled and scared.
Ive kept telling him not to tease her and punishing him when he does, but he still does it...but less often recently. Shes probably jealous of the attention I give him, and hes definately jealous of the attention I give her. They've got to get more used to eachother. We've only had her a couple of months. Shes only almost 5 months old, so shes still learning herself too.
She didnt touch jays skin when she tried to, so she may have been giving a warning snap, not really intended to strike him. - Unsure about that.
So for now im letting it go, but keeping an extra careful eye on them both.
Im hoping with some training to respect jay more as higher up in the family than she is, this will never happen again. Shes honestly great with kids, raised with 4 young ones including a new baby, loves the fuss all jays pre school friends make of her every week day, and licks jay to death most of the time - she doesnt fear him, they play great together.

Morgan

how do you know forsure it will never happen again

I said hoping.

i'd be inclined to agree that you should at least try training the dog while it's a puppy before competely giving up on it. that said, i think you should get some real professional advice or help when it comes to the training to make sure that it is done correctly. a younger dog has more of a chance to be trained than an older dog. i would just be really cautious about the puppy being around your boy. the thing is, when the dog is bigger, your son will be a little older as well and he should be trained in how to behave around the dog so that he doesn't provoke the dog. i don't know, personally, i wouldn't get a dog with a small child in the house but it's not really fair to the dog not to give it at least a second chance because there is little chance that it can seriously harm your son when it's still a baby itself.

I agree, I think the puppy made need some good training and pointers. To me, it seems that .jay may have startled the puppy and that is why she nipped at him. That's a normal reaction to any sleeping animal when something startles them. I would just watch them like a hawk and maybe you could take the puppy to some dog obedience classes, and have .jay attend as well.

Puppies change from puppyhood to the equivalent of adolescence at about 41/2 to 5 months so now is the time that you really need to assert yourself and all other family members including your son as being above her in rank if you know what I mean.

you're now dealing with a doggy 'teenager' and you need to nip any rebellious behaviour in the bud quick in case it escalates.

Take your dog to training classes, get in a trainer or at least look up online how to make you and your kids pack leaders and your dog the follower....there's plenty of info out there.

good luck

xx