Milo bit someone

I am pretty upset right now.

He was doing so good...two small scuffles with Benji about a month ago, not a big deal. Since then he's been in a houseful of people every night no trouble...around kids and other dogs, doing great.

I got my driver's license today. Normally whenever I take Milo out, someone else drives us. I decided to take him to a pond/nature preserve that we go to regularly.

I didn't have a harness and was nervous about leaving him loose in my car, so I did something that was probably a terrible idea and collared and leashed him, then tied to the leash to the seatbelt in the passenger seat. I knew it was a bad idea but it was safer than leaving him loose.

We got to the preserve and hiked a little while, did some training. He was great...sat and payed attention with ducks two feet away, didn't budge when a another JRT came by (he's not good with other small dogs), was fine with all the people. Afterwards I gave him his cuz and let him explore a bit which of course ended in him jumping off a bridge into the pond/muck/mud and getting smelly and discusting and losing the cuz. oh well.

back in the car. I was going to pick my friend James up on the way home, so I put Milo in the backseat, again, tied to the seatbelt.

Milo and James have an intersting relationship...James "hates" dogs and at first wouldn't want Milo anywhere near him. Now he'll pet and play with Milo and actually said today "he's so cute". Milo likes James because James is so playful. James will always be like "get off me you dumb dog" and push him off the chair, and Milo will keep jumping up, and they'll play like that.

James and my other guy friends have a tendancy to play-fight and wrestle, which Milo doesn't like. Whenever they start, he'll bark and growl at them. I usually make them stop or remove Milo and all's well. James knows not to do this with me in front of Milo because Milo is quite protective. But granted, Milo HAS growled at James before...not violently, but more in a "dude, what the heck are you doing, stop, i don't like it." kind of thing.

Anyway, we pick up James. Milo had his head resting on the center console, between us. James was petting him and fooling around with him, telling him he was smelly (which he was from the muck) and saying "haha you're in the back seat" to which Milo would jump towards him and James would say "get off me you dumb dog" as usual...

James was trying to put batteries in something and kind of leaning over the center console. Milo started licking his arm. James pulled away and leaned in Milo's face (which isn't unusual) and said "stop licking me, you mutt".

Milo snarled pretty meanly and went for James face. James pulled back and Milo just kind of clipped him with his tooth, on his cheekbone near his eye. There was a shallow puncturey-scrap thing and a little bump, it will probably bruise.

I immediately yelled at Milo, and he backed down and cowered in the backseat. He didn't move until we got home, when he slinked into the car and was banished to the bedroom. He barked for dinner, which I fed him without paying any other attention to him. He sulked out afterwards to go outside. He's still mopey and being very submissive.

I had no idea what caused this, but now I'm thinking it could have been him sensing my nerves from driving. I won't be driving with him for a little while, and I'll keep a very close eye on him around people. Does it seem logically that he sensed me being nervous? He's VERY in tune to me, and gets upset whenever I'm upset, etc.

Any advice? Training that will help this? How would you handle it?

If your friend was staring Milo in the eyes, this could have made Milo uncomfortable. Since he was restrained in the back seat and couldn't very well run away, he reacted by snapping instead. Tell your friend not to put his face near Milo's face anymore.

This is my theory.

I really doubt that was it...Milo is looked in the eyes constantly by all kinds of people, restrained or unrestrained, being held or whatever. And while he couldn't run away, he was free to move around the backseat and could have moved away.

Has he seen the vet? Sometimes there is an underlying issue causing him pain and making him irritable.

My instinct tells me that your instinct is probably correct - that Milo picked up on your nervous tension and translated it in the only way he knew; to think that James was causing it.

It could be a combo. Most of the time he might be fine with people staring him in the eyes. But with you being all nervous, him being tied, and then being stared at it could all have been too much.

I would be cautious about people putting their face in his that are not 'his' people. JRTs (well all dogs) tend to get grumpier about 'manners' as they get older.

I wish I had a dime for every time I have told people: DO NOT PUT YOUR HEAD IN THE DOG'S FACE.

This is NEVER a good idea with any dog that does not reside in your household.

Several mistakes were made here.

Putting dog between you and James, dog restrained, dog stimulated by horseplay, and then putting the face near the dog's head.

The first 3 parts of this are exactly how dogs are stimulated and trained to bite.

It's not good to have an eye contact with the dog.They have this traits of aggressive behavior when you look them to the eye.I guess that's the cause.You'll never know an animal's mood.

I blame James for this all the way !

It was definately situational...I'm obviously not happy about it but I am glad to realize it wasn't unprovoked aggression and it can be prevented from ever happening in the future.

We'll be going to buy a harness today.

Your friend seems like a teaser to make Milo uncomfortable. Things learned there...

To me that wasn't a bite but a warning punch, I hope James learned the lesson along with everyone else. If he had bitten the damage would have been much worse and probably would require stitches.
I feel bad for Milo, especially how you describe him afterwards........

I don't really have anything to add. Whats done is done. And others have given good advice as to why he probably bit James.

But, from now on, PLEASE CRATE MILO WHILE DRIVING. It's the only safest way to drive if you are the only one in the car.

I wouldn't let anyone put their face in my dogs face. I've actually had to tell people not to do that to my oh so cute lil chihuahua . I have a problem with little kids doing that. Getting in their face and staring at them or talking to them. Big no no.

Glad it wasn't anything more than a warning bite!

ok, my question is, how do you stop people from putting their face down at your dog's head?

I work very hard to school my own dogs not to be threatened or uncomfortable with this, because humans have an inner compulsion to do it.

With humans, putting your cheek next to someone is an indication of affection and tenderness.

With dogs, putting your head/cheek next to theirs is an indication of your absolute dominance.

IMO it is one of the reasons so MANY people and children are bitten in the face. As primates, we are hard wired to demonstrate affection in this manner. It means something entirely different to a dog.

No matter how many times I tell people, they still do it. So I work my own dogs from a very young age so that they are as used to it as possible.

Depends a lot on the person, but for the most part I make my dog's head unavailable. I turn my dog to me, if it's a really young kid, I hold the dog's head in my lap while the kid pets him on the side of his rump. I let my dog turn his head enough to see what's going on. If it's a little bit of an older kid, I might not hold my dog's head so much, but I show the kid how and where he can pet my dog and I have him approach more from the side and pet the side of my dog.

If it's a kid who I think can understand more about dogs ~ I was just teaching this to some really dog savvy kids I know, I explain why they need to be careful of the dogs head, not matter how friendly the dog is and I showed them how to use their arm to protect their face. They might not get it on one shot, but they did understand and I can show them again next time I see them.

If a kid is going to pet my dog, that kid also needs to be willing and able to follow my rules. I've successfully taught many of the neighborhood kids how to behave safely around dogs simply by explaining things when they wanted to pet my dog.

My X DIL was a darn lucky gal once !!! She went with me to the stables to feed the horses and the owner's Chow was in the barn with them . Now this Chow had caused many stitiches to the owners and their adult son . Jeanette had never seen him . As he came over to us , she got on her knees , took his cheeks in her hands playfully shaking them and with her face in his faces said " Oh aren't you cute " . I quietly said , " Stand up slowly Jeanette and back up slowly " . All was fine , but he could have taken her face off !

Exactly. You have to tell them what is acceptable and what is not.
Some kids have issues with listening and fallowing rules. I tend to keep them away since they make Pebbles quite uneasy. They love to run right up to us at full speed... sometimes even in groups, and I have to tell them to not do that. Now with the kids in my family they are A LOT better at knowing how to act around her.

And I never ever leave a dog alone with a child. There always has to be supervision, but usually pebbles is in my lap.

I had to tell my kids early on that not all dogs were like our Goldens . They tolerated everything !

There was a case on judge judy where a rottie bit off a teen girls ear. She went down to give him a kiss. Some people do not understand how to act properly around dogs.