My First Dog's Last Day - Part 4, Some Final Thoughts and a Picture of Casey

I started asking Grace what she remembered about the bite over a year ago.  So, as simple a concept as “let sleeping dogs lie” seems to be, you might be wondering why it took me a year and so many words (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) to conclude that the reason Casey ‘s bite wasn’t “out of the blue” is because he was disturbed while he was sleeping.  Well, all I can say is that it originally didn’t seem that simple.  Here is a list of things that may have clouded my thinking: 

1. We’d had the dog for 3 years before the bite, and had never seen or recognized any hint that something like this would happen.  It’s hard to resist the temptation that there must have been an underlying reason, like illness or pain.  That could very well be the case, but nevertheless it was physically waking the dog that was the trigger.
2.  Although the warnings to “let sleeping dogs lie” are out there, they don’t seem to be as prevalent as other warnings, such as not bothering a dog when it is eating or has a bone.  People also seem to worry more about dog training methods, what dogs should and shouldn’t be allowed to do, and whether the dog is “good with children” than how to make sure a child is “good with dogs.” 
3. Often the advice as given is not to TOUCH the sleeping dog, which Grace didn’t do!  Replacing the word “touch” with “disturb” would cover more situations and prevent more bites.
4. Most of the time when experts teach that dogs don’t “bite out of the blue,” they mean that they give warning signals through their body language.  When I tried to analyze this bite in that context, I kept running into the problem that Casey was asleep right before the bite, so he wasn’t yawning, lip licking, trying to increase distance or any of the other cues that often go unnoticed.  The “body language” here was the sleeping itself!

And here is a list of what I consider the “takeaways” from this story:

1. First and foremost, of course, let sleeping dogs lie!  Beyond not touching the dog, avoid touching, pushing or pulling the dog’s beddding - even if that bedding is made up of your bedspread or an article of your clothing!
2. Don’t become complacent.  No matter how long a dog lives with you, the dog is still a dog!  Casey was with us for 3 years before this happened.  On his next-to-last day, he would have been described as a dog that had lived with children ages 8 through 16 with no problems, no bite history, no aggression.  If you make rules and they seem to be working, stick with them!
3. When teaching your children how to be good with dogs, don’t just teach rules but teach situational awareness.  In this example, even if Grace knew to let a sleeping dog lie, she was faced with the conflict between two rules:  not waking the dog vs. making her bed before school.  While most people can memorize a list of rules, it’s recognizing all the situations where they should apply and reconciling two conflicting rules that can be a little more difficult, especially for children.  Help them learn how to make good choices, even if it means something like not making the bed at that moment!
4. Be willing to manage the environment.  That includes creating a safe space for your dog to hang out while you are too busy to provide active supervision.  Use barriers if necessary.
   
5. Teach your dog basic voice cues and hand signals and have all family members practice them so frequently that using them (and your dog’s compliance based on positive reinforcement) are second nature.

Finally, I purposely have not yet posted Casey’s picture or mentioned his breed.  He was NOT a “pit bull type of dog,” Rottweiler, Akita or Canary Dog, which are the dogs I’ve seen listed (exactly like that) on an insurance exclusion.  I have heard people say they support breed restrictions because they believe a certain breed tends to “bite out of the blue” more than others.  Although we know better now, Casey’s bite at the time seemed as “out of the blue” as a bite can be.

Casey

(Check out the 

carpet, in case you 

weren't sure this picture

was taken in the 1970's!)

Result of a Google search for
a Collie-Dachshund mix

Best guess based on responses when I recently posted my only picture of Casey on Facebook and did some Google image searches is that he may have been part long-haired Dachshund and something else, maybe collie.  The point is, any dog can bite (even seemingly “out of the blue”) and they all have sharp teeth.

I want to thank my sister for letting me tell this story, and I want to reiterate my purpose isn’t to cast blame on anyone for what happened to either Grace or Casey.  No one who gets a dog thinks something like this will happen, but it can happen with any dog, in any family.  Without a crystal ball or a time machine, the best way to prevent it is to take a few easy steps right at the beginning no matter what kind of dog you have or what its temperament seems to be.  Decide how to manage the environment, make rules that the whole family will follow, and do formal obedience training at least through the basic manners level.  Your family will be safer, and your dog has a better chance at having a long, healthy, happy life as a member of your family.