Beagle biting

I have a 5-year-old female lemon beagle who recently bit my
10-month-old daughter on the face, which required 4 stitches. The
beagle is definitely an Alpha personality. The incident occurred at

Janet B...

Ok - drop the "alpha" stuff - few people have a real understanding of
what it means. Instead, say your dog is nasty.

the dog's mealtime when my daughter was crawling near her food bowl,
although there was no food in the bowl at the time. The beagle has

Janet B...

Then why is the food bowl down? Washing between feedings is a good
thing.

shown food aggression before, but only in the form of growling and only
if she was approached while eating. She has never bitten anyone before

Janet B...

What have you DONE to try to change that?

(or since), but has growled at the baby before and since on various
occasions, none of them involving food or a toy or any of the dog's
"property." I've heard mixed advice. Some say I should get rid of the

TOTE...

What is unfortunate is that you waited until a bite to decide to do
anything. For the benefit of others *a growling dog is a call for
immediate attention*. Growling is a bite that hasn't happened yet.

Janet B...

What have you DONE about these instances?

dog no question about it. She will definitely bite the baby again in
the future. It is in the breed's nature. It is not something that can
be "fixed" by training or avoidance of provocation. Some say she can

TOTE...

As a general rule - I can't agree with that. Adequate attention to
training and management will be effective for *most* normal dogs. But no
one can diagnose the problem sight unseen.

Janet B...

First of all, a beagle is not inherently aggressive. Almost
everything can be fixed, but often at too high a cost. While the baby
needs to learn how to interact with a dog, she shouldn't have to learn
total avoidance.

be conditioned not to behave this way with the proper training. Is
there any hope she can be trained not to bite again? My child is first
and foremost my priority, but I'd really like to keep the dog if I can
be sure she will not pose a threat to the child again. Please help.

TOTE...

When a dog growls the best response is to get help to understand WHY the
dog is growling, and how to make the dog no longer feel a need to growl.
When a dog bites it is usually because people have been ignoring the
growling and the dog escalates - trying something more effective than
growling.

If you want the dog to live you need to get in person help immediately.
Keep the dog and child completely separated for the time being. Don't put
the dog in the position of being able to bite your child again.

"Getting rid of" the dog without resolving the problem passes on the risks
to others. Not getting help deprives you of the opportunity to learn what
went wrong. And if we don't know what went wrong we can't avoid causing
the same problem in the future.

Janet B...

Again - what have you DONE thus far? You need IN PERSON help. NOW.
Only someone observing your household can really give a decent answer
on what the possibilities are.

Thanks, WMG

White Monkey...

Speaking as someone who has a Great Dane that growled twice at our baby many
months ago, I can only say I'm boggled you let things get anywhere near this
far. It's too bad. I would not be able to bring myself to keep a dog after
an actual bite to a baby, and would seriously have to consider putting her
down rather than risk inflicting this situation on someone else, but that is
an extreme solution and I would, depending of course on the severity of the
bite, probably have decided to rehome her though a breed-specific rescue
with clear information given as to why--but then, Great Danes are rare here
and the rescues can be very choosy about who they rehome to and can check up
on the dogs for life. This would sadly not be the case for your beagle.

I saw the first two growls as far too serious to just let go by, and I
called a trainer, came on here and went to my breed-specific groups for
advice (and in addition to getting quite a bit of great advice, weathered a
lot of conflicting advice, advice phrased abusively, and just plain abuse,
but sorting the problem out was worth it), and then worked out a training
plan that worked for my dog's personality and with my baby's behavior. I
would have had a behaviorist in immediately but they are not common here. I
have since consulted with one.

There has been no further incident since then, and that baby is now 1 1/2
years old, but I do stay extremely vigilant, and yesterday when I caught my
dog trying to get the baby to play in a way she uses with the cat, I decided
she might be thinking herself a bit too "equal" with him again, and asked
her to back off and go to her bed. Then I let out toddler take her blanket,
and we sat there and petted her for a few minutes. I don't let him bother
her when she's eating, although she has never once displayed any form of
food aggression (the cat shoves under her chin and steals food, even).

IF you insist that you're going to keep your dog in this situation, you need
to immediately prevent any interaction between this dog and your baby while
you seek out and employ a qualified canine behaviorist. NOW. Your situation
has clearly been allowed to continue until things are genuinely out of
control.