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A few issues from a canine welfare point of view: insofar as you, the owners go, chalk it up to experience and ensure this situation is never repeated. End of story really. There is just not a lot you can do about it - you are not the parents. This situation was allowed to arise due to parents unwillingness to take control and therefore responsibility for their children's action(s). End of story from my point of view. Beating yourself up about it now (i.e. should you have done something sooner) is not going to benefit Hef. Familial relationships are well out of my league, so I'm just looking at the dog.
Please be aware that your reaction of grabbing Hef will have made a significant impact on him. Please do not take this as a criticism, for it is not. You had no choice. What I am saying is that Hef will have learned a lesson.. and the lesson is not exactly a great one and needs to be un-learned.
Spend some extra time with Hef working on self-confidence exercises- and in particular, I think it is important that Hef be exposed to some trustworthy children in the not too distant future. There's damage to be undone. You need some older children (early teens maybe) who you can enlist to help Hef just have a pleasant, VERY low-key, treat-filled experience. The critical thing would be the ability of the children to take instruction and follow them to the letter. But Hef needs to be re-exposed in a situation he feels confident in. It's a bit of a glib summary, but you get the drift. From a perspective of Hef's welfare and future well-being, it is something you need to think about - i.e. how has this incident affected Hef.
At the end of the day, blame is not going to get anyone anywhere. I prefer to focus on constructive remedies to ensure that Hef does not view children as a threat to his well-being.
Insofar as what is going to happen to their own dog... I'm not a terribly optimistic person when it comes to human/animal interactions. Will it get to the point where the dog just snaps - literally and figuratively? Impossible to say without knowing the dog, but - if and when it does happen - rest assured everyone will blame the dog.
FiveHorses,
You are a very wise person. I agree, the parents of the children are mostly at fault. If they allow their children to run around and do whatever they want, they are very lucky that their kids have not been injured more severely in other ways. But to allow the kids to chase a dog that doesn't know them.... let's just say I question their judgment as parents.
Animals snap when they feel threatened and afraid, especially if they have been abused in the past.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lastra
This just happened...My mother-in-law's cousin came to visit us ( we live in my husband parents' house ), and he came with his wife and three little kids. They do not believe in discipline, so their kids do whatever they want. The kids range from 1.5 to 4 years. Anyway, after the parents and kids begged for us to let our dogs out, we did it. We stayed there with them.
One of our dogs, Hef, is an adopted Lab/Pit Bull mix. He loves licking children, is very sweet etc. When we adopted him, he had a lot of scars all over his body. He was abused and beaten. The scars are now all healed. It took some time for us to get rid of his fears as well. He was afraid of large males, brooms etc. He never snapped on anyone while we had him. But also, he never got hit...until now.
Anyway, while Portia - our German Shepherd, was playing with the ball, the kid started running after Hef, and Hef was scared. We told him not to run after him because Hef was scared. Note that the parents are standing right next to us not saying anything. Anyway, he continued chasing Hef and in a split moment, he KICKED Hef!!!Hef was tolerating him before, but when he kicked him, ( 3 year old boy ), Hef snapped back. He "bit" him ( not really bit him, he pushed the kid's nose hard with his nose ), and the kid fell to the ground. We immediately grabbed Hef. The kid fell on the small rock, and lightly cut his head. His nose was bleeding for a few minutes, and stopped. Note that there are not bite wounds, scars etc. Just a cut on the back of his head.
Everything is well now. But, how can you be a "parent" to someone else's kids? Especially when parents allow that behavior. We told him no many times. Parents allowed. And after that, I heard the parents tell to their child "Don't go near that black dog, he is going to bite you". My blood was boiling. That happened because the kid kicked him!!!And Hef was trying to tolerate and escape him before that. Anyway, I am just so upset.
They recently got a 2 month old German Shepherd/Husky mix...The parents said that the boy is pulling on dogs ears, also pulling him around, etc. And they allow that!!!I am wondering what will happen when that dog grows up and gets sick of the kid pulling on his ears, pulling him around etc?
We think it is the kids fault in our case. What do you think? Also, we love kids, although our current living situation doesn't allow us to have some of our own right now, because we don't have a job. So, it is not that we hate kids. But, in this case, we think it was the kids fault...What would you do in this situation?
Thank you for all of your comments.
If one of the kids had been bitten severely it wouldn't matter what the child had done to provoke the dog. These kids were still permitted exposure to your dogs on your property and whether it is fair in your eyes or not you did have sufficient opportunity to end (or prevent) the encounter. A court would see that as your responsibility. An unruly child has a funny way of looking like an innocent, cherubic little victim next to a scarred pit-mix (which has a funny way of becoming a "pit-bull"). Keep that in mind next time the kids swing by the house. It sounds like they could stand to hear a firm "no" anyway.
Wow. HUGE RED FLAG. I'm not just worried about your dog, I'm worried about anyone those kids encounter in the future. Not to mention the parents - YIKES!
If one of the kids had been bitten severely it wouldn't matter what the child had done to provoke the dog. These kids were still permitted exposure to your dogs on your property and whether it is fair in your eyes or not you did have sufficient opportunity to end (or prevent) the encounter. A court would see that as your responsibility. An unruly child has a funny way of looking like an innocent, cherubic little victim next to a scarred pit-mix (which has a funny way of becoming a "pit-bull"). Keep that in mind next time the kids swing by the house. It sounds like they could stand to hear a firm "no" anyway.
That's true.
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I agree, the parents of the children are mostly at fault. If they allow their children to run around and do whatever they want, they are very lucky that their kids have not been injured more severely in other ways. But to allow the kids to chase a dog that doesn't know them.... let's just say I question their judgment as parents. 
