Annoyed

Some people here attempting to blame the dtr. The issue is the dog and its irresponsible owners.
If it bit a child it should be reported to the police. No one in their right mind puts a child at risk.

did she know the dog would be there yes she did but was assured that due to the size of the holiday home it would be possible to keep the dog separate.

The fact that she needed assurance before the holiday implies that the dog was a known potential problem so it beggars belief that she would be accused of over-reacting.

I have a very gentle rescue dog but a couple of weeks ago we took her to my son’s new house. She became anxious in the strange environment and pawed me leaving a big deep scratch. I have skin that is like tissue paper as have many seniors of advanced years. I am now having twice weekly surgery visits to keep the wound uninflected and to heal. The dog has been trained not to paw people , a habit she arrived with but when stressed no dog can be relied not to react. The PIL dog was out of its comfort zone and they should have taken action to keep the dog away. Don’t blame the dog.

Fuck em.
Who cares what they think or say.
But why didn't the husband step up to protect his family.

Good advice, very sensitively put, wellbeck

I’m a dog lover BUT jumping up and biting/nipping are behaviours which should have stopped in puppyhood.

Perhaps this dog should have left at home with a very good dog sitter.

Sorry, for me the other grandparents attitude and behaviour are completely acceptable!

The issue here is entirely the owners, NOT the dog!

It's a bit rich to accuse her of over-reacting!
It's her duty as well as her instinct to keep her children safe, and in the circumstances, she couldn't continue to stay in the holiday home.
Especially has she'd emphasized she wanted the dog kept seperate from the children & no-one took any notice.

We have an elderly cocker spaniel who is old and grumpy. We have taken her and my daughter’s mini sausages on holiday together with the rest of our family including our 11 year old GS.

We NEVER left any of the dogs unattended and the minute any of started to misbehave they were shunted tout de suite into one of the owners bedrooms!

ALL dogs can bite hard, big or small, young or old, and it’s 100% the owners responsibility to keep their dogs under control at all times.

If we have guests to our home who don’t like dogs, for whatever reason, we give our dog/s a good long walk, off their leafs if possible, then contain them in a room, with water, toy and chews, when our guests arrive and only let out for wee breaks or when the guests leave.

These PiL are totally irresponsible, I’d be livid!

Leads!! Off their leads

My girls dog could be rather over excitable.
So, she was kept away, in the kitchen, with a stair gate, if anyone new came to visit. (Where she'd lick the floor until it was swimming in saliva!)
Babies, she was fascinated by, I've no idea why.
She was never given the chance to get near them, just in case.

Surely, if this dog has actually bitten a child, then this action should be reported to the police, and they would take the necessary action.

Shocking. I think the explanation that GParents said the dog would be kept separate is why they were prepared to go, but well - end of.

Yes SiL should say, "dog in kennels next time or there won't be one".

If they have to take the dog, book two separate places not far from each other so the dog can be left separate as appropriate.

If the dog bites children it should be reported before an awful accident happens - and it will. I agree with Franbern

No domestic animal should be allowed to bite people.

If the owner chooses not to have the animal put down, then it is his responsiblity to keep it away from people, especially children.

Dogs and cats, too, if not brought up in a household with small children can very well be scared of them and therefore bite, but this in no way excuses the owner not controlling the animal or preventing it from doing harm.

These days, it seems a lot of people cannot be bothered to train their dogs properly and expect the rest of us to be happy to be jumped up at, have our crotch sniffed or whatever else a dog naturally does, that does not meet with our expectations of a well-trained pet's behaviour.

I was so glad to read that OP's SIL agreed with his wife, rather than with his parents!

I have a 10 month old pup ,have him around 2 months and he is untrained and difficult to stop him chasing the grandchildren to play with, they tend to laugh and scream and wave their hands around when he jumps up making it more difficult to control him, I have purchased a crate and as he starts to get too excited into the crate he goes, its situated in a bedroom and there he stays till they go home, other than that he is taken upstairs and stays with my son.
I would not take him on holiday with my grandchildren till he is older and properly trained, my older dog is trained and is great with the grandchildren

I would have the dog put down. Biting is not allowed ever!

I'm not a dog person, and am always very alert when small children are aound dogs. I don't like it when owners ask the children if they'd like to pet them, even well-behaved older dogs can be startled by small people doing something unexpected - and it sounds as though this dog was totally unprovoked.
It's really dreadful that your daughter in law and grandchildren were treated like this Shimmer. If I were them I don't think I'd even be visiting again unless the dog was kept in another room.

I think that all of the adults were at fault. The in-laws because they said that they would keep the dog away from the children, and the parents because when they found the dog wasn't being kept away, should have insisted, and if the in-laws then failed to do so, they should have left. There is no way that as an adult I would have allowed someone's dog to jump up me more than once without kicking off, why on earth didn't your daughter, make more of a fuss, or leave before her child was actually bitten? I can understand your daughter not speaking up about touchy subjects in order to keep the peace if necessary, but to not speak up when it was a matter of safety, was not acceptable in my opinion, and her husband should have backed her up too.

Lathyrus3

I’m no dog lovers ver. In fact Im quite frightened of them and don’t want to be close to them.

But I think it’s a bit unfair on the dog to say it is dangerous and should be put down.

It’s an older dog that’s unused to small children. It was probably very stressed and reacted to what it saw as a threat. It’s a dog. That’s what any dog will do. That’s why I’m nervous of them. It should never have been put in that situation.

That doesn’t excuse the the PIL who I think are bad dog owners.

And the parents should have given the situation more thought too. I speak as someone whose child was bitten on a visit to a relative whose elderly dog was frightened by a small inquisitive human. As adults we were both at fault for not thinking it through.

I think this is one of the best replies becausevitvtskez into account that the dog may be feeling upset/threatened by small children and unknown adults and that the fault lies squarely with the adults in this situation. My 2 digs lived around my own kids and sometimes 3 or 4 visiting kids/playmates. The children were taught to respect thr dogs space and the dogs were sent to their crates if things were getting noisy/excitable. Sometimes the dogs would take themselves off to their crates and the kids knew to leave them well alone. If there were any adults %children visiting who were worried about dogs then the dogs were sent to their crates or another room and a child gate across the doorway to keep them away. The dog owners need to be more responsible and the parents needed to have "rules" in place before the holiday. As a dog owner there is nothing worse than an unruly untrained dog (especially those with zero recall!!!) they are a menace to humans and other dogs. It's not the dogs fault that its owner have not trained it and it should not have to be "put down" because the owners are lazy. Your silly needs to speak to his parents about getting the dog trained or putting things in place whereby the dog is kept away from those that don't want it jumping up/biting etc and that there will be no family group anything until an agreement is made.

....because it takes into account.....your sil needs....... 🫣

I really dislike people say " Oh he won't bite you "..The the dog does ...

He's just "mouthing" you was my nans explanation.
"But nan, it hurts!! I don't want to be mouthed!"

It's possible that the dog being old and in an unfamiliar place, it was stressed. Not that I'm condoning the behaviour. Im a dog owner. If my dog behaved like that, especially hurting someone, it would be me going home early.

Have the children been trained how to behave around dogs?
The owners should make sure their dog is always protected against children and know how to behave calmly around animals.
'Bite' is always used when often, and with some breeds especially herding or working dogs, they are simply doing their job with the tools they have ie, nipping ankles of what looks to them excitable children.
That's not the same as biting / aggression.
But the dog's owners should have made sure their dog was safe.