Im so scared for my daughter.

Question
" Please help me. This is the first time I've owned a pet. I have a male
Chihuahua along with an 8 year old daughter. He is very well behaved (people has
always said how unusual it was how kind he is) He is now almost a year old and we've had him since he was 6 weeks old. My friends
say that we love our dog to much because we spend so much time with him and love
and play with him so much. My daughter sleeps with me often as she misses her
daddy and our Chihuahua sleeps with us as well. Two days ago when I was
downstairs she was on the bed with him and she said he jumped up and bit her
face for NO reason and it left a terrible mark. Last night we were sleeping and
we woke up to him attacking her face again and this time the mark on her face
was worse! I spanked him, yelled at him, told him NO and he slept in another room. (He seems very nervous when I go
towards him now) My little girls face looks terrible and I've been in tears all
day. She still after this doesn't want to get rid of the dog as we truly love
him and he has helped us so much with not having a daddy around anymore. The
only thing that has changed is I've gone back to work as of 3 weeks ago and the
dog is left alone at home now. He had been fine until the last two days. What
could cause this and is there anything we can do. Please help me. I'm scared he
is going to hurt her even worse and can't understand why he is all of a sudden
doing this. I truly appreciate any help you can provide. Thank you so much."  

Answer
Zoe, you should never, ever, EVER leave a child alone with a dog, no matter how big the dog is. Both of these incidents could have been prevented had you been supervising. There's no telling what sparked the attacks, since no one was there to see them. Your daughter could have rolled over on him, or accidentally hit him as she turned over, or he could be exhibiting dominance/guarding aggression.

I would stop allowing the dog on the bed, first of all. If he is sneaky and gets up there during the night after you fall asleep, put him in a crate so he cannot.