I am in a total state of shock. Our Coton bitch Honey who we have had from a puppy,(she is 4 and a half) has just bitten my 5 year old son on the nose. Luckily it is cut at the flesh at the botton and bleeding inside so will not leave a mark but my husband and I can't believe it.
Honey has never shown any agression and has never been tormented by the children in any way but she doesn't love them like our Papillon boy and prefers grown ups. She was sleeping on the sofa, we were all there putting up the Christmas tree, but not actually looking, but there was no audible growl or warning. Thomas says he went over to stroke her and she immediately turned and bit him, he was shocked and frightened as he loves her and has never had any problems before. I can hardly believe it either. I will of course take her to the vet - Monday will probably be the earliest I can do that - to make sure she is not ill in any way. But my gut instinct is that she will have to be rehomed without children as this will not work for her or for us. Please if anyone can offer advice please do, I am so upset as I love this dog and would never have thought she would do this.

If she was asleep and he went and stroked her he may have startled her causing her to bite.  As you didnt see exactly what happened I wouldnt make any rash decisions about re-homing her.  I would take her to the vets on Monday to get her checked out and then keep an eye on the situation.

The saying "Let sleeping dogs lie" wasn't coined without a very good reason ...

That is just what we were thinking. Would it be normal for a sleeping dog to do that, ie bite straight away due to being startled? My husband and I are thinking that maybe it is our mistake to allow the dogs to sleep on the sofa as they will easily be disturbed by others who are using it, maybe we should make sure that Honey sleeps only in her own bed.

>Would it be normal for a sleeping dog to do that, ie bite straight away due to being startled?

I suppose it would depend what she was dreaming about immediately before. Years ago one of mine, asleep in her normal place on the sofa, reacted instinctively like that when a friend's toddler fell onto her. Luckily she 'pulled her punch' and her teeth only left a raised mark on the little girl's cheek, and didn't break the skin, which was a blessing. Equally fortunate was the fact that my friend is also a dog person and didn't for one instant blame my dog.

Thankyou for replying Jeangenie, I feel a bit more rational now! I was extremely upset to see blood dripping from Thomas's nose and he was beside himself, he was so upset. But I am sure you are right that she must have been in a deep sleep and been disturbed - just an instinctive reaction rather than an agressive one. I think that if I had been watching and seen Thomas go to her when she was actually asleep, I would have told him off as I always say not to disturb her when she is sleeping, but I was looking away doing the tree. Will have to go over the rules with Thomas then but probably also stop Honey from sleeping on the sofa too. Feel a lot better now thankyou again.

I always say not to disturb her when she is sleeping
I think that has to be one of the unbendable rules in a dog house.  If that's not understood by your son by now.....  The other dog house rule that's unbendable is that children and dogs should never be unsupervised.  It's hard I know, but that's the way it is.

I once left my afghan asleep under the dining room table and my 2 year old and her God Mother in the room while I went into the kitchen to put the kettle on.  My 2 year old went over to the dog who didn't bite her but caught his bottom canines in her nostrils as he leapt up.  He knocked her over, she cut her forehead on the dining room chair!  I never took my eyes off my daughter for a minute and thought that her dog owning God Mother would do the same - my mistake!

Many years ago, when my daughter was about 11 years old, she and the papillon we had then were sleeping/dozing together on the sofa.  My daughter turned over and the dog "went for her".  We put it down to him being asleep at the time and possibly she had accidentally caught the long hair of his ears.  Anyway, I did nothing but told her to be very aware in future, and not to touch the dog when he was sleeping.  He lived with us to the age of 17 years with no further incidents.

Honeymoonbeam that is reassuring that there were no more problems for you and hopefully it will be the same for us.
I am pretty careful with not leaving the children alone with the dogs, but even in the same room sometimes you look away.
Thinking carefully I do now think the problem here was Thomas 'forgetting' the rule, he said he got carried away because he loves Honey so much. Also he said she lies dozing most of the time and he did not notice she was really asleep. Hopefully he has learnt the lesson too and won't let his emotions get the better of him again. And we will be stricter too, I think we are so used to Honey now and have never had anything like this happen before we were very shocked.

When I was a child I was bitten on the hip by my grandparents working border collie because I stroked him when he was eating. Once I had been sorted out I was given a stern telling off and told never to touch him again when he was eating.

I understand that flora2 because we had a dog when I was a child which had issues with food and bit. We also were told never to go near her when she was eating. Unfortunately she eventually was pts because she bit someone else's child. I have always made sure that our children do know these rules but this mistake has happened which is quite upsetting. 

Mistakes happen, so don't beat yourself up about it - the important thing is to learn from it. :-)

I can understand that. I wasn't meaning to have a go, just saying these things happen :-)

I had my children when I was young and didn't know then what I know now and often left them unattended with our boxer.

I now have two spoilt terriers and know if I ever have grandchildren I will have to be extra vigilant as my dogs mean the world to me.

I think you are dong all you can and I think your son may have learned a lesson as I did when I was a child. 

A great book to cover some of the thoughts brought up by this thread is Kendal Shepherd's "Canine commandments" (Kendal S is a veterinary behaviourist).

Link here to Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canine-Commandments-Kendal-Shepherd/dp/1874092559

http://www.endangereddogs.com/EDDRChildrenandDogs.htm

http://www.dogtrainandbehaveweek.com/children.php

http://www.thebluedog.org/

Hth :)

> Mistakes happen, so don't beat yourself up about it - the important thing is to learn from it. :-)

I agree completely with JG, Honeybee. Please don't blame yourself or your son or the dog for this, we all make mistakes. Your son now knows not to touch the dog when she is sleeping, you know to keep an eye on her and provided it doesn't happen again, you can just learn from it. Give your son a big hug and tell him the dog didn't mean it but she got a fright. Thank goodness it was just a little nick.

> But my gut instinct is that she will have to be rehomed without children as this will not work for her or for us.

I haven't read any replies, so I am sorry if I am saying what others have. I really see no need to re-home your much loved family pet.

She was sleeping, she could have been having a nightmare (I'm sure dogs do, the only time I've heard my dog growl in a nasty way is while he's been sleeping) and was disturbed. My kids are under STRICT instructions to NEVER touch the dog while he is asleep, even though I can clean his ears/cut his nails when he's sleeping I would hate for any accident to happen with the kids.
Add to being disturbed from sleep, you were putting up Christmas decorations, I bet you are all excited (if the adults in the house aren't your children will be) and the dogs pick up on this, which can also lead them to be a bit on-edge or maybe a bit more 'reactionary' than normal  (everythings changing, people are getting excited & rushing about, lots of comings & goings etc. and excited/unsettled dogs don't act the same as calm dogs)

However, I think getting her checked by the vet is very sensible, just to make sure she is feeling OK.

I would explain to your boy that she got frightened and didn't mean to hurt him, bless him, I bet he's more upset about her actualy 'being nasty' to him than any physical pain he felt :(

> I am so upset as I love this dog and would never have thought she would do this.

ANY dog, nomatter what breed, nomatter how friendly they are, can bite, it doesn't make them nasty or evil  and it doesn't have to mean they have behavioural problems. Under certain circumstances any dog may feel it has no other choice than to bite, which is why ALL dogs should be watched around children. I'm not tyring to have a go at you atall, accidents happen, I',m just trying to get accross that it's not just powerfull dog that have always been savage that can bite, the cute little (and big) friendly ones are still dogs too.

The last dog (lab cross) I had bit my toddler. I was stupid enough to allow the toddler to potter aorund the kitchen when the dog was eating (rescue dog, I had no idea how protective or not he was about his food), toddler patted dog, dog bit. It never drew any blood (may have done if the dogs canine teeth were not worn down into stumps) but it still shocked me. I knew it wsa my fault, worked really hard on building up trust around food and also in keeping my toddler AWAY from the dog when he was eating. We had that dog for another 9 years and he never ever bit or attempted to bite the kids again, he was great that one-off incident just served to remind me that dogs are dogs 100% of the time and it's up to us owners to make sure they are not put in any situation that force them into instinctual behaviour.

I hope you are all feeling a little calmer now, that must have been such a shock for you all.

thankyou mastifflover and dakkobear for your help and support. What would I do without this forum! I am very grateful for the help and advice. I think when we first got Honey I was quite strict but feel we know her so well now we are very relaxed. Thomas adores her and obviously didn't stop to think, being an impulsive 5 year old. Also you are right mastifflover it serves as a reminder that any dog can bite. Honey is small fluffy and cute but is still a dog with normal dog behaviour and this has reminded us that we need to be more careful. As I said I would never have thought she would bite which I realise is a mistake! Fortunately Thomas understands what happened and is not frightened of her, and his nose looks okay today so hopefully an important lesson learnt by all.

> Fortunately Thomas understands what happened and is not frightened of her,

That's wonderfull, the kids get so attatched to the animals and I'm so pleased he can understand that Honey still loves him and has not turned into a savage beast :)

> and his nose looks okay today so hopefully an important lesson learnt by all.

Noses tend to bleed alot, so expect the damage caused was no where near as bad as it looked when the blood was flowing! I'm glad he's feeling better :)

> As I said I would never have thought she would bite which I realise is a mistake!

Yes, it happens.  I have a mongrel that I would consider completely reliable but circumstances can take us (and them) by surprise.  My then 11yo daughter leant over to give him a kiss goodnight (done 100's of times) and woke him up from a very deep sleep - he snapped at her and grazed her nose.  Another time he and she had fallen asleep side by side and she rolled over and again woke him up - he growled at her.  Interestingly it coincided with the time we had a young puppy in the house and we were learning that he was unwilling to share bed space with the interloper and resented being woken up by a clumsy puppy.  Nowadays the feeling seems to have gone away to some extent but we are all still very careful to wake him up gently if we do have to disturb him.  Let sleeping dogs lie is very true of my boy :)

However, before you write it off to experience do just check that your girl has no sore patches or problem areas.  Most dogs will yelp if touched in a tender spot and she might have reacted strongly if your son leant on her (or a sore bit) by mistake. Glad to hear Thomas is OK about it now - it's the shock that hurts the most.  My daughter was very upset when it happened to her and she was so worried the dog wouldn't love her any more...

My dog will snap too if disturbed whilst sleeping, we don't have any children though and have got used to not disturbing him or if we have to we do it very carefully, a bit like my husband actually. Te He

My OH has a 9 year old, when she first started staying here I gave her the rules about the dogs .... no touching when sleeping or eating and no going in their room.  I feel that their room is where they go when they want some peace and quiet, the cat also goes there so it gives him some respite too. I still find myself having to remind her of the rules though.  My 6 month old has got a baby walker for xmas so we are putting a ledge up in the dog room doorway so they can get away from her and she wont get her walker through !!

When we were kids we had an Afghan who was soft as anything but if you trod on him when he was asleep then you would get bitten.  My brother once threw his toast at him when he jumped up and bit him .... marmite all over his lovely cream hair lol !!!

Absulutely agree with everyone else. Don't panic. I am fairly certain the reason for the bite was because the dog was fast asleep and was startled. Don't look too deep into this but warn your son when the dog is asleep to leave it be and I'm sure all will be well:)

Maybe because she was sleeping she just forgot where she was when she was startled out of her slumber!  After all they do still have some wild instincts in them.  If she has never done this or ever growled, give her another chance.  How did she react after if she went straight submissive then she knew she was wrong and probably VERY VERY sorry.  After all even we get grumpy days.