# 13 week old GSD puppy reported to Animal Control



## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

Kids were playing in the yard, one of them fell (5 years old). The puppy jumped on top of him and bit him in the face. 5 stitches. The hospital reported it to Animal Control. I get that the hospital is doing their job but this seems a little over the top to me. Thoughts?


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## Kazel (Nov 29, 2016)

In my area they have to report animal bites although I don’t think it’s to animal control. That’s more for a rabies monitor. It’s also why I’ll avoid going in for any animal bites in the future unless I have to. A lot of bs I don’t want to deal with if I know exactly what has happened and if there’s actually any sort of rabies risk or not.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

I cannot imagine having even a 13 week old puppy bite a child in the face requiring 5 stitches. A few weeks ago I stabbed myself with my fathers specially sharp knife, cutting up potatoes, ER, two stitches. It's still tender. The idea that a pup that young bit a child, creating a wound more than twice as nasty as my knife stabbing, that's significant, and I don't fault the hospital in contacting animal control.


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## Springbrz (Aug 13, 2013)

We live in a very bureaucratic world. All depends on who's kid and puppy. Child of the home? Neighbor/friend? Health insurance issues and the list goes on and one. I agree it seems over the top but the hospital is bound by laws and regulation to report any animal bite. One would hope Animal control would find a case like this to be a simple unfortunate accident. 
Years ago a friends daughter ( about 4-5 ish) was at the neighbors playing. Kids were told to stay away from the dog because the dog (golden) was acting ill. Neighbor mom took eyes of kids for a minute. My friends child put her face in the dogs face and got bit. One quick snap to the face. Hospital, stitches and a plastic surgeon consult. It was reported. Dog was not punished. The home owners were though. Health insurance company sued dog owners homeowners to recapture it's expense. It wasn't a happy experience and turned neighbors and friends against each other. Bureaucracy!


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## Springbrz (Aug 13, 2013)

selzer said:


> I cannot imagine having even a 13 week old puppy bite a child in the face requiring 5 stitches. A few weeks ago I stabbed myself with my fathers specially sharp knife, cutting up potatoes, ER, two stitches. It's still tender. The idea that a pup that young bit a child, creating a wound more than twice as nasty as my knife stabbing, that's significant, and I don't fault the hospital in contacting animal control.


Young children have thin skin. Doctors will put way more smaller stitches in a young child's face to avoid life long ugly scarring. Especially facial wounds. My daughter hit herself in the face with a board when she was 2.5. She had a 1/4 long gash in her eyebrow. I didn't think it needed stitches. We took her for a tetnus shot and have it cleaned out. They put in 5 stitches. It still scarred.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Once bite reports go to animal control, they kind of take on a life of their own. 

I've had to pull a 12-week old puppy off of death row after it was put there by AC for _scratching _(not biting) a kid that ran up to the owner on a walk. The owner didn't want the liability and surrendered it to the responding AC officer. The shelter vet and I had to go to bat with the AC director to get it released to rescue because putting down a 12-week-old puppy for being a puppy is just wrong.

We took on a 12-week-old pandemic BYB sable puppy last weekend that was surrendered by the people who bought him and decided he was "dangerous" and "aggressive" with kids. He bites -- HARD -- because he's a little, fearless hooligan who likes to play rough. Nobody taught him any bite inhibition between 8-12 weeks, so now he's chomping like a fiend, because it's fun. He was lucky his family surrendered him to rescue rather than taken to the pound -- biting and drawing blood from shelter staff would have probably been the end for him.


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

Springbrz said:


> Young children have thin skin.


Yep! The puppy caught him right under the eye, there's about a 3/4 gash.  
It just seems so weird that they'd report a puppy this young especially after the parents (who also own the puppy) explained what happened. They haven't heard from AC yet (happened today)...hopefully nothing will come of it.


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## Bearshandler (Aug 29, 2019)

There will probably be a conversation over the phone. I think they are bound by law/policy. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Magwart said:


> Once bite reports go to animal control, they kind of take on a life of their own.
> 
> I've had to pull a 12-week old puppy off of death row after it was put there by AC for _scratching _(not biting) a kid that ran up to the owner on a walk. The owner didn't want the liability and surrendered it to the responding AC officer. The shelter vet and I had to go to bat with the AC director to get it released to rescue because putting down a 12-week-old puppy for being a puppy is just wrong.
> 
> We took on a 12-week-old pandemic BYB sable puppy last weekend that was surrendered by the people who bought him and decided he was "dangerous" and "aggressive" with kids. He bites -- HARD -- because he's a little, fearless hooligan who likes to play rough. Nobody taught him any bite inhibition between 8-12 weeks, so now he's chomping like a fiend, because it's fun. He was lucky his family surrendered him to rescue rather than taken to the pound -- biting and drawing blood from shelter staff would have probably been the end for him.


The pandemic is an excuse, and not a good one. A puppy at 12 weeks old puppy-biting needs to be curbed, and if shelter staff are afraid of a 12 week old pup, then they are in the wrong job. There may be something wrong with a 13 week old pup that seriously bites a kid in the face. Maybe if the kid jumped or fell on the puppy...


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## Heartandsoul (Jan 5, 2012)

Way back when we got our first pup at 6wks old at about 7wks old, stupidly I left him and my 10 month old son in the kitchen for 20 seconds to grab something in the other room. I came back and he had a cut over his eye. There was no sound from either of them and he wasn’t crying. Other than the cut, they both were acting normal. Er visit, two stitches and later a call from AC. The Dr had to report it as a bite even though it looked like a jumped up scratch. Ac understood puppies and just home quarantined him for 10 days.

The law is the law but AC can use common sense. And I never ever left a pup or dog alone with a child again.


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Brian Killcommons wrote a book called "Childproofing Your Dog". Rule #1: Never ever leave the child alone with the dog!!


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

This is why our first breeder would not sell to anyone with young children. Ever. I had to wait until my youngest was school age and then only after visiting the kennel so the breeder could observe my children with her dogs. We also had to attend a dog show and K9 demonstration so she could see the children around other strange dogs. My children had all kinds of wild, active play with that first puppy and never had a single bite to the face. About all I saw was a little ankle nipping when they were running. When they complained, I said don’t run and get the puppy wound up until she’s trained. Somehow it all worked out.


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## Tikkie (Apr 10, 2020)

It doesn't matter if it's a puppy, on purpose, an accident or vicious. They are required by law to report any bite that is being treated. They don't really have a choice in the matter.


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## Sabre's Mom (Jul 27, 2018)

They are required to report it, but speaking from experience, you don't have to provide the dog's information. At least that worked for me. 
I was playing ball with a friend's dog in a park. Dog missed ball & got my leg. I required stitches, and the emergency room gave me a hard time about filling out a report. I finally took their report & wrote "Refused to Provide" across the section related to the dog. Since bite was accidental, I didn't want dog to have a bite history. And because it was in a public park, no homeowners insurance to go after either.


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## Shefali (Aug 12, 2020)

Springbrz said:


> We live in a very bureaucratic world. All depends on who's kid and puppy. Child of the home? Neighbor/friend? Health insurance issues and the list goes on and one. I agree it seems over the top but the hospital is bound by laws and regulation to report any animal bite. One would hope Animal control would find a case like this to be a simple unfortunate accident.
> Years ago a friends daughter ( about 4-5 ish) was at the neighbors playing. Kids were told to stay away from the dog because the dog (golden) was acting ill. Neighbor mom took eyes of kids for a minute. My friends child put her face in the dogs face and got bit. One quick snap to the face. Hospital, stitches and a plastic surgeon consult. It was reported. Dog was not punished. The home owners were though. Health insurance company sued dog owners homeowners to recapture it's expense. It wasn't a happy experience and turned neighbors and friends against each other. Bureaucracy!


That just seems really sad.


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## Shefali (Aug 12, 2020)

Magwart said:


> Once bite reports go to animal control, they kind of take on a life of their own.
> 
> I've had to pull a 12-week old puppy off of death row after it was put there by AC for _scratching _(not biting) a kid that ran up to the owner on a walk. The owner didn't want the liability and surrendered it to the responding AC officer. The shelter vet and I had to go to bat with the AC director to get it released to rescue because putting down a 12-week-old puppy for being a puppy is just wrong.
> 
> We took on a 12-week-old pandemic BYB sable puppy last weekend that was surrendered by the people who bought him and decided he was "dangerous" and "aggressive" with kids. He bites -- HARD -- because he's a little, fearless hooligan who likes to play rough. Nobody taught him any bite inhibition between 8-12 weeks, so now he's chomping like a fiend, because it's fun. He was lucky his family surrendered him to rescue rather than taken to the pound -- biting and drawing blood from shelter staff would have probably been the end for him.


that's insane. He's a PUPPY. Who doesn't understand this??? Plus some breeds are just more mouthy than others and need more instruction.


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## WNGD (Jan 15, 2005)

Reality is that if your dog bites a child, especially on the face, it's on the owners. Pup really shouldn't be out of your site (stuff happens), child shouldn't be out of your site (stuff happens) but never the two shall meet ....


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

WNGD said:


> Reality is that if your dog bites a child, especially on the face, it's on the owners. Pup really shouldn't be out of your site (stuff happens), child shouldn't be out of your site (stuff happens) but never the two shall meet ....


I'm going to clarify this a little. I think you mean that an unsupervised little child and an unsupervised puppy should never meet. Because there are folks like dogsbite.com who would take this as no little child should be exposed to a puppy, and that would be incredibly bad for both children (who can carry the fault into adulthood) and dogs. Children who are never exposed to dogs or puppies tend to be more afraid of them and therefore, much more likely to be bitten through the course of their lives. And puppies should be exposed to people of all sizes, ages, sexes, etc.


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

WNGD said:


> Reality is that if your dog bites a child,* especially on the face*, it's on the owners.





LuvShepherds said:


> My children had all kinds of wild, active play with that first puppy and *never had a single bite to the face*. About all I saw was a little ankle nipping when they were running.


As humans we tend to put more significance on a bite to the face but is there really a difference between a puppy who bites the kids ankles or the puppy who climbs on top of someone while they're laying on the floor, starts to lick their face and then bites their nose? I don't think there is...except to the person who gets bit. I think puppies who want to bite will aim for whatever they can reach. 

This appears to be a simple case of an over excited puppy, whose tooth caught a very sensitive part of the skin, not an attack...accidents happen. I have a picture of the bite. I was expecting a puncture, it looks like someone took a razor and sliced under the eye. 

In any case, AC let it go because of the age of the puppy. No bite record. Puppy and child live together btw.


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## ThomD (Nov 23, 2020)

Whiteshepherds said:


> Kids were playing in the yard, one of them fell (5 years old). The puppy jumped on top of him and bit him in the face. 5 stitches. The hospital reported it to Animal Control. I get that the hospital is doing their job but this seems a little over the top to me. Thoughts?


if no real damage to the child, then its not a big a deal as some people would make it, in previous times any dog might mistakenly bite someone they really did not mean to harm. And people just shrugged it off, like a horse kicking you (if you did something dumb). But today, in our world, everything is an issue, so the hospital feels an obligation to report whether required to by law, or not. I would be more concerned about the puppy not having gotten enough training/socialization so that it would not want to bite humans-- sounds like the "training program" for this dog is not quite where it should be. But again, I'm not an animal behaviorist. Bites to children, especially, should just never happen. Nips, sure, but requiring stitches, no.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

Ankle biting is herding and can be directed toward other behaviors.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

The post about the puppy biting in the nose made me remember Byner, who was so cute, I'd pick him up to snuggle him and he'd bite me right in the nose. Hard. No stitches, but I was glad to see his butt go to his new home, at about 13 weeks. I told them, "he bites."


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## Maxine222 (May 25, 2020)

Whiteshepherds said:


> Kids were playing in the yard, one of them fell (5 years old). The puppy jumped on top of him and bit him in the face. 5 stitches. The hospital reported it to Animal Control. I get that the hospital is doing their job but this seems a little over the top to me. Thoughts?


13 month old puppy? Sorry about child and puppy. I have 8 baby grandchildren. 6 yr old gsd Went to trainer left and right to make sure dog was solid and trained. Dog should NEVER HAVE BITTEN CHILD. If my beloved gsd ever did that I would send her back to breeder I purchased her from. With a broken 💔 of course. I have rescued 15 dogs in my lifetime, 3 were GSD S. 
Good luck wish you well. Children come first.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Maxine222 said:


> 13 month old puppy? Sorry about child and puppy. I have 8 baby grandchildren. 6 yr old gsd Went to trainer left and right to make sure dog was solid and trained. Dog should NEVER HAVE BITTEN CHILD. If my beloved gsd ever did that I would send her back to breeder I purchased her from. With a broken 💔 of course. I have rescued 15 dogs in my lifetime, 3 were GSD S.
> Good luck wish you well. Children come first.


I think the puppy in question was 13 weeks. puppy teeth are notoriously sharp and painful. Puppies do get hyper when kids are horseplaying around them. I think it seems a lot for a puppy to do that much damage, but not that a puppy got overly excited and got into the action.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Puppies make mistakes. It's what they are best at. I had plenty of holes when Valor was learning the ways of the world.

I got a huge cut on my face playing with a mastiff puppy. It was totally an accident and the dog was the furthest thing from aggressive.


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