Aggressive Chiuahua mix

Question
Well I  have a bit of a problem. My small chiuahua bit my little brother because my little brother was poking him. Now my mom wants to get rid of him. I do not know what to do please help! I took this poor dog from the streets a year ago and I don't want to give up on him. My mom wants to put him down or throw him out of the house.

Answer
Ana, in my opinion, and you can take it for what it's worth, the dog was provoked into biting your little brother. Now, having said that, it's >>never<< appropriate for a pet dog to bite someone, so yes, something needs to be done so that it doesn't happen again. However, I believe your mother is over-reacting to a situation that could have been prevented had someone either told your brother to stop poking the dog, or simply removed the dog from the situation altogether. Depending on how old your little brother is, he might not be able to really understand how poking the cute little puppy is a bad thing to do. If that's the case, then someone else should have stepped in and taken the dog away from your little brother whenever your little brother started annoying the dog.

If your little brother is too young to understand the difference between petting the dog and doing things that may cause the dog to bite him (such as poking, pulling ears, tail, or legs, hitting, kicking, throwing, etc.), then he needs to be taught those things. He should >>NEVER<< be left alone with the dog, and when he IS around the dog, as soon as he starts doing things that could provoke the dog, a responsible person should stop him and explain to him that, if he wants to play with the puppy, he has to be nice, and >>show him<< how to pet the dog appropriately. If he continues to do inappropriate things to the dog, either the dog or your little brother should be taken away.


I would strongly suggest that you look in the phone book to see if there are any dog trainers that can come to your house and help you teach your dog not to bite whenever he feels threatened. If you do not feel that you can do this, and/or always keep an eye on the dog and your little brother when they are together, then finding the dog another home is probably the best course of action.