Ive just been bitten in the face

Bosworth

Bosworth

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 February 2006
Messages
5,268
Location
devon
www.ballhillequestrian.co.uk
A friend has left his dog with me for a couple of weeks while he tries to straighten his life out. The dog is lovely, a 2 year old neutered lurcher dog. He gets on well with my own lurchers. As daft as a brush and very loving. He has stayed here lots of times but this is the first time his owner has left him. He has been fine. totally relaxed, helped me do the horses as normal, played with the liveries and came in tired this evening. He had his tea and was just lying on the carpet in front of the fire. I walked across the carpet and he rolled on his back and gave me his tummy to tickle. I sat down next to him on the floor, and was just stroking his tum. suddenly he bit me in the face. One canine tooth has gone up my nostril and punctured the cartiledge inside my nose and and other canine has punctured my forehead and left me with an enormous lump with a hole in the middle. The wounds have now stopped bleeding and I am up to date on my tetanus so will probably just go to drs tomorrow for antibiotics. But anyone any suggestions about how to deal with this sort of behaviour. He did not growl, or show any indication of pain or anger - just a sudden fast bite. He has to my knowledge never bitten anyone before. He was asking for the attention. i will no doubt have a beautiful swollen face tomorrow with multicoloured bruising and am hoping the headache will have gone by then. NHS direct were pretty useless, when they eventually phoned back over an hour later.
 
I presume you didn't get to close to his manly parts? Or if he's been playing, could he have stretched, got a sore muscle or something? If you where leaning over him, smiling and then your hair falls down, that could be interpreted as if your hair was trying to "stand up"...

It's late and that was all my tired brain could come and think of, anyway I mostly wanted to reply so I could wish you a {{{Speedy recovery}}}.
 
Hope you are not to bruised & sore today?

I think those are the worse kind of bites where they give you absolutley no warning that it is coming & just snap like that.
You are very lucky that it missed your eye.
I would suggest no petting from now on till he goes back to his owner!
Hope you feel better soon.
 
Was it an aggressive bite? I know it did some damage to you but just trying to work out in what way he bit you. Was it more of a playful nip? My dog, sometimes if you stroke her ears she will mouth your hand if you pull them a bit to hard and I remember when she was a pup she got me in the face with her tooth and cut me just below my eye but it wasn't a 'bite' as such. Normally it is her claws that get me and I end up looking like I have been trying to slit my wrists! lol.
 
Crumbs how scary! I got bitten in the face once by a friend's dog (nowhere near as badly as you) and I was in shock after it, I couldn't stop shaking. I hope you are doing ok and not too badly marked.
 
you will need a new tetanus jab jsut to boost you against it! plus anti biotics! but at least you know that you need to get it sorted!

That sounds pretty poop! I hope you feel better today, and are not too badly swollen etc!

I am not sure about behaviour as if it was out of character then its whether anything caused him to do it or not....... which is difficult in the situation above that you described...........
id just say dont bend down to stroke his tummy anymore unfortuantly, better to protect your face and let his belly go a little unrubbed, than lose an eye!!!!

**Hugs**
 
Sorry to hear that - I've been 'caught' with mouths during playtimes, headbutted and smacked in the face, and that was painful enough, hope you don't have any lasting injuries.

TBH when my large male smacked me up the face a few months ago I cuffed him right back. Probably not the PC thing to do (it was a reflex thing, I was in pain!), but he hasn't done it since.
 
I used to work in Kennels, we had a Dalmatian come in quite regularly, she was nervous but friendly enough when she knew you.

I had been squatted down giving her a fuss, and as I went to stand I leant forwards, and she snapped at me, pierced my cheek and ripped my lip open.
It was because as I had leant forwards I had leant over her without thinking, she obviously felt threatened and lashed out.
She didn't give me any warning at all, and she was bloomin' quick!

I insisted on staying at work as we were busy, and got resoundingly told off when I made it to A&E
blush.gif
grin.gif
However they didn't give me a Tetnus!
crazy.gif


Perhaps he felt threatened by something you did without realising?
 
sometimes when a dog shows you his belly, it is not always a sign that he wants attention. It can be used as a means of communication to show appeasement and for you stop whatever you are doing as it is making the dog uncomfortable. It is when this request is ignored that the dog feels the need to speak louder so to say and uses a nip or a bite. Not all dogs escalate to this and there are dogs that really do enjoy a belly rub.

I just guess that your actions were a bit much for this guy. He has a quite a lot happen if he has had a change of home etc.

Hope you are ok though
 
OUCH. Sounds really out of character and as you know the dog it seems inappropriate for him to bite you but who knows what might have triggered him. I do know I'd have kicked his backside! Is he a dominant type? Does his owner get on the floor and tickle his tummy? Maybe you were doing something he wasn't expecting?

Hope you have a really good bruise to show off at least
wink.gif
 
To be honest he sounds too bloody unpredictable and to be on the safe side i would send hiom back to his owner. Explain what happened and just say you think it's for the best. Look out for your own safety, it's bad enough you got a bad bite, but don't take a second chance.
 
I am loads better today - have got antibiotics which apparantly are for dog bites. The swelling on my head has gone down and been replaced by bruising with the puncture wound in the middle. My nose is still very sore, but the doctor thought it had gone into the cartlidge so not surprised it is sore. Don't like sneezing as that hurts and bleeds but it is far better than yesterday.

The dog has been fine with me both yesterday and today, I did smack his backside yesterday when he growled at me as I moved his empty feed bowl and have been feeding him last of the dogs and ignoring him when he comes to me for affection. I will go to him and stroke him but it is all on my terms. I have been making him sit and wait when I put his feed down anything to keep him lower in the pecking order. When I call him over he is so delighted it is quite sad. He is definitely not a naughty dog, he desperately wants to please, I think he was just out of sorts, confused about where he was and what was happening. He will be under close watch for the next couple of weeks and I won't trust him for a while yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top