Readers bark back at granny

There were some strong responses to a recent column, in which a grandmother refused to kennel or discipline her small-breed dog who tries to bite her toddler grandchild.

Reader No. 1: We have a child and a dog. Our daughter’s often exposed to other people’s dogs, and children are exposed to ours.

Parents AND dog owners have responsibility for everyone’s safety and comfort.

We taught our daughter early: Don’t pull ears or tails, don’t go after doggie toys, ask before you pet someone else’s dog, etc. But youngsters sometimes make mistakes. Our dog was also trained to NEVER behave aggressively toward a human regardless of pulled ears or stolen toys.

Our dog is a big sloppy baby, loves people and kids, doesn’t growl, has never bitten anyone.

Yet our daughter’s friend/playmate who visits her is terrified of our dog. So the dog’s kennelled when she’s at our house. He won’t bite her, but she’s afraid, so there’s no debate. If the grandma refuses to do anything about the dog, she’s risking her relationship with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. And if someone complains about her dog and previous biting incidents are documented, the animal can be seized and destroyed.

Reader No. 2: We tried to let our Siberian husky and grandson get to know each other. Our dog overwhelmed our grandson by poking his nose into our grandson’s face and body, and licking him without stopping despite being told to stop. When he nipped at our grandson’s fingers, our Siberian husky was banished outdoors and isn’t allowed to be indoors when they visit.

Yes, it bothers us when our dog cries and howls to be let indoors because he’s an indoor dog. But we won’t allow our grandson to be uncomfortable and scared of our dog.

To the grandmother who says that her grandchild needs to learn a lesson by being bitten by her dog, “Shame on you!”