Why Did the Bite Happen?
Three-year-old Casey, the family dog, bit 11-year-old Grace one morning when she pulled on her bedspread to get him off her bed so she could make it. The bite required stitches on one side of Grace's face, very close to her eye on that side. Casey was euthanized.
Although we can come to some general conclusions, why this bite happened is a
question that will never be fully answered. Forty years later, Grace does not remember if this is the first
time Casey was in her way when she went to make the bed, and we don’t even
remember if he was routinely allowed on the furniture. Maybe he was protecting his space. Maybe he was startled or frightened by the sudden
motion beneath him. Maybe he didn’t feel
well. Maybe one of his feet got caught
and twisted when Grace pulled the bedspread.
Maybe he was in the middle of a bad dream! Most simply, maybe it was just a reaction to
being startled awake.
If there were any advance clues that something like this
might happen, we sure didn’t see them. It may
very well be that Casey gave us some signals of discomfort in similar
situations from time to time, but we didn’t recognize or understand them.
However, there couldn’t have been any body language cues like yawning or
lip-licking immediately before the bite because the dog was asleep. On the other hand, the expression, “let sleeping dogs lie” dates back to at least the 14th century, if not even earlier to biblical times!  |
Grania is supposed to be on the
light green spread, which is
supposed to be on top of the print one. She will resist if I try to either move her with my hands or pull the green spread back under her, but she will move herself if I call her to another part of the bed. |
I have observed my current dogs do not seem to enjoy having fabric pulled under them. They are both allowed on the bed during the
day, on top of an old bedspread that protects the nicer one beneath it. My older female hound, Grania, loves to dig a
nest, and ends up lying mostly on the nice bedspread with the old one bunched
around her. Sometimes if I try to pull
the old bedspread back underneath her without moving her, she lifts her head
and gives me that “leave me alone” look.
Yet if I call her to another part of the bed without touching her -- so
she is out of the way when I fix the spread -- she happily complies, and I get
no “looks” or “complaints.”
Tristan, my
younger male, isn’t as much of a nest maker. One morning I did an
experiment. Several times in a row, I
tugged on the bedspread beneath Tristan and watched his reaction. I didn’t take it away from him; I just pulled
on it. The first time, he sat up and
turned his head away from me. The second
time, he was still sitting and he licked his lips. The third time, he laid down and yawned. The fourth time, he got up, moved further
away and laid back down, facing away from me.
These are all textbook signals that a dog uses to communicate – “Hey,
I’m uncomfortable! Don’t keep doing that
to me!”
 |
Tristan claiming his original spot
on the bed with one front leg, while
turning his head away from me after
I pulled on the spread. He wants me
to go away, or at least to stop
doing that!
|
Maybe dogs’ dislike of sudden movement beneath them isn’t so
surprising. After all, the expression
“having the rug pulled out from under” a human generally connotes a negative
experience. Perhaps Casey – being woken
up by it – didn’t have strong enough bite inhibition at that moment to stop
himself from reacting to something that felt threatening or scary.
What Should You (or Your 11-Year-Old Child) Do in this Situation?
How can you prevent a bite in a similar situation? The answer to that question starts long before the moment you or your child decide to make the bed.
What follows is intended as a menu, not a prescription. In other words, it’s a list of options. What works for one family may not be the same
as what works for another. The options fall into the three usual categories: Managing the Environment, Instructing the
Children, and Training the Dog. They
aren’t mutually exclusive, but can and should be used in combination with one
another.
Managing the Environment – This is the most straightforward
approach to many dog-related issues, yet one that people often reject because
they don’t like restricting the dog’s freedom or changing their own routines. Simply put, if you don’t want your dog to
“get” something (or someone), don’t give your dog access to that thing (or
person)! Close doors. Use crates or baby gates. Put things away.
Most pertinent to this situation, make a rule that during times of the day when
active adult supervision of dog-child interactions isn’t possible, they don’t
occur. In other words, the dog isn’t
allowed in a room with a child unless there is also an actively supervising adult
in the room.
 |
Give the family dog his own bed
in a quiet location, and teach him
to stay there during busy times of
the day when active supervision
isn't possible. Use barriers like
crates or baby gates if necessary,
and help him learn to be happiest
when he is out of the way!
|
Of course, Casey had never
given us any indication that we needed a rule like this. He had been with us since Grace was 8 years
old, and the bite didn’t happen until she was 11. But it’s not the point to wait for something
to happen. If we had made a family rule
when we first got Casey that he wasn’t allowed in the kids’ bedrooms in the
morning, his routine of being in his own comfy dog bed somewhere else in the
house would have been well-established 3 years later. It’s not implausible that he might have
wandered into her room anyway, but an established alternate routine may have
made the situation less likely. This rule may sound draconian, but if it had
been in place then Grace wouldn’t have been bit that morning and Casey might
have had a longer life. It’s not an
unreasonable precaution during busy parts of the day in an active household
with young children.
Instructing the Children – We thought we knew all the
basics. Don’t bother the dog while he is
eating. Don’t take away a bone. Don’t
pull the dog’s tail. We didn’t do those
things because our parents told us not to.
Just one more rule – don’t bother the dog when he is sleeping – could
have prevented this incident. It’s easy
now to find sources online for what else kids should be taught about sharing
space with dogs. (See, for example, The "Doggone Safe" website where the two dog bite safety tip graphics above are from.) And it might also be a
good idea to foster good decision-making skills. Let your kids know it’s OK to wait until
later to make the bed if there is a sleeping dog in the way!
Training the Dog – A dog can be taught all of these things,
any one of which could have been helpful that day:
·
Stay off the bed at all times,
·
Get off the bed (in response to a very simple
verbal cue like “off” or even a hand signal),
 |
Tristan waiting patiently for
permission to get up on the bed.
|
·
Wait for permission to get on the bed. Tristan sits and watches us make the bed
every day, and understands that he should not get up until the dog cover is on
it. (And he knows “Off!” for those times
when he jumps the gun.)
·
“Come” which could be used to call the dog off
the bed and out of the room if necessary.
To
be reliable in the moment, these cues and behaviors must be taught in advance,
practiced hundreds of times and reinforced daily. I don’t remember if Casey knew “off” or whether he was very good at coming when called. But I
do remember that we had not gone through formal obedience training. If it was available and we had, and if all of
us family members regularly practiced with him, then it might have been second
nature for Grace to call Casey off the bed rather than to pull on the
bedspread. But lacking that foundation,
none of us knew any better, and without formal training and tons of practice,
Casey would not have known what Grace wanted if she had started trying to give him
verbal commands at that moment.
Here is a one-page summary of bite prevention advice for this scenario.
Next - Part 4, Some Final Thoughts and A Picture of Casey
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