Uncle Matty: My daughter has a 7-year-old female Dachshund, "Hattie." She also has twin 2-year-old boys. Recently one of the boys was annoying Hattie and she bit him on the face. It required many stitches and will likely leave a scar. My daughter is convinced that this was an isolated incident and that it will not happen again. She says she will train the twins to be nice to Hattie. Train 2-year-olds? I doubt it. I am afraid this situation will result in another biting incident. Should I be concerned? Should the dog be put down?

What do you get when you divide the square root of the terrible twos times two plus an aggressive dog minus a rational parent? A reason to be concerned.

Last week a woman called me and said, "My daughter's dog bit my granddaughter. Should I be concerned?"

Two days later she called back. "You were right. Today he bit my grandson."

Hattie's story raises several issues. The first of which is that a parent's ultimate responsibility is the welfare and protection of their child. An aggressive dog cannot share a house with children.

The second issue is that of the Toy Dog Delusion: small dog, small bite. No big deal, right?

Stitches? Scarring? Not to mention the annual fatalities? It's a big deal. Look at the facts:

1) The great majority of dog-bite incidences involve children bitten by the family dog.

2) Dogs bite boys twice as often as they bite girls.

Why boys? They play rougher. Which brings us back to Hattie's household and its many issues:

Many children don't know how to treat animals either because their parents don't know how to treat animals or didn't teach them.

I've seen it firsthand — parents who sit back as their child pulls the dog's tail, tugs on his ears, sits on him, drops him, chases him, screams at him. Dogs see children as littermates, not as children, and have no inherent understanding of the frailty and value of human life. Children should not be allowed, or left unsupervised, to torture the family dog until she becomes material for a sequel to "Cujo." And parents should not be deluded into thinking their dog could never snap.

Some dogs have a high tolerance for pain and a seemingly unflappable demeanor. Others wince or snarl if you so much as look at a sensitive area like the paws or lower back. Most dogs, however, have a breaking point. And they usually give fair warning when you're nearing it. It can't be assumed that a child will recognize the signs — curled lip, bared teeth, low, rumbling growl. This is not everyday canine behavior. These are warnings that should be heeded.

Odds are, Hattie did not bite out of the blue. Most likely she offered reasons to be concerned long before the snap behind the stitches. In this household, Hattie came first by five years. It was her show, and she ran it according to her will, living the first half of her life virtually untrained and as an only "child." While I'm not a member of the "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" camp, training Hattie at this point is akin to enrolling a 40-year-old in elementary school. One must have realistic expectations. Think Rodney Dangerfield in "Back to School."

Put Hattie down? A terribly irresponsible act. The owner's first course of business should be to find Hattie a new home — one without children — and to keep her separated from the twins at all times until she does so.

But to answer the question in no uncertain terms: To maintain the status quo leaves this family with every reason to be concerned.

Woof!

Dog trainer Matthew "Uncle Matty" Margolis is co-author of 18 books about dogs, a behaviorist, a popular radio and television guest, and host of the PBS series "WOOF! It's a Dog's Life!" Read all of Uncle Matty's columns at the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com, and visit him at www.unclematty.com. Send your questions to dearuncle.gazette@unclematty.com or by mail to Uncle Matty at P.O. Box 3300, Diamond Springs, CA 95619.

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