Honest opinion - Does this look like a dog bite?

I don't know what to think.

Syd, both dogs, and I were in the living room. Syd was over by the coffee table, I turned my head for a second, and she started to wail. She ran to me and I asked her what happened. She said that she fell. The mark looked like she had whacked her head on the coffee table. This is a regular occurrence. I gave her a hug and she immediately recovered & went back to playing.

But a couple of hours later, this is what it looks like...



The dogs WERE near her when this happened. She's not acting remotely afraid of them, they aren't acting strangely either. She's too young to be lying to protect the dogs if one did bite her.

If one DID bite her, I'd bet my life on it being Harry. But, I don't want to be accusing him of something that he didn't do. But, I don't think that mark looks like she just fell.

I don't know what to think. I've been watching him like a hawk all night, and both he and Syd (and Grant) are all acting like nothing is out of the ordinary.

Well, we're 1-1 here. I think it does look like a dog snapped her, but SO doesn't think it looks like a bite.

Looks like the front teeth on a dog to me, but the (incisors?) only. Which is weird because given the shape of her head and all I'd expect to see some canine marks. If you look at the bottom marks, there are only two so it would seem that the dog's jaws were on an angle, right, well then you should see canine marks, no?

Add to that that the rest of the story doesn't make sense- like you said, how would she know to cover for the dog, why would she cover, why isn't she scared of the dog, etc. Maybe she did something to one of them and they gave a light defensive nip? Most dogs would recover from that just fine, and she might be trying to cover herself, not the dog.

Certainly it would be prudent to watch but I get the feeling it'll be OK. Certainly you can't make a judgment on a dog based on that.

Afraid I do.

Looks a little like a playful paw to me. Would have hit the cheek first since it protrudes the most then caught her lower cheek on it's way down. With sensitive baby skin it's entirely possible that could be a scratch and not bite.

OK this seems quite plausible to me. She could've fallen and then the dog could've pawed at her when she was on the ground, my dogs have done that to me before.

Would the toe/claw spacing work?

The other board I posted on is voting not bite. It's such a weird mark. I could see it being a paw, though. Both have been known to "punch" playfully.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that Harry usually makes a big dramatic show of correcting other animals, and a couple of intruders in the yard. If he DID bite her, I can't imagine that there wouldn't have been a production about it.

Grant just wouldn't bite. I would be more likely to win the lottery. He is the Gandhi of dogs, and works with children at the library. Unless he has a brain tumor or something.

It looks like it could have been a nip. . .or a paw. I don't know, though. It must suck not knowing if your dog bit your kid or not. . .I'm sorry.

Syd is a beautiful baby.

I agree with Xandra, it doesn't quite look like a dog bite to me either. There's just something unusual about the marks that are/are not there that make it look... off. Anything else she might have fallen on that might have made an unusual mark? She could have landed on a toy maybe?
The falling then getting pawed makes more sense than thinking it's a bite.

I'd say a paw more than a bite. It does look like the spacing works, and it's hit the cheek and then the chin. Unless you have a design that looks something like that on the table or something, I wouldn't say it was just a fall. Maybe a fall and then a paw, as was suggested earlier. If it was a bite, even a mild one, I'd honestly expect it to be much worse on a child that young.

If it was a bite, it looks like the dog's mouth was wide open. Like, he had to open his mouth, bump her face with top and bottom teeth, and then pull away without closing his mouth on her cheek. Most - no, all - nips I've ever gotten were more like pinches, where the dog uses his front teeth but does pinch the skin, which would leave a completely different mark. So, no, IMO, not a bite.

If she was bit, why would she say she fell?

Exactly. If it was teeth, it had to have been an accidental scrape. Say...as she fell, she fell into a dog's mouth as it was yawning? That's a stretch though.

SHe could have fallen on the dog and received a pinch. I don't know..sorry it happened to such a sweet cheek whatever caused it.

Kaia "punched" Aurelia in the eye 2 weeks ago, and it looked exactly like your daughter's cheek, only she got a black eye too. I mean exactly the same. If she fell on the coffee table it's plausible that maybe the dog knocked her down with its paw or jumped on her after she fell, and she thought she hit the table.

IMO, it could be from a fall, scraping against something. It just depends how she fell. I think with most dogs, even ones that inhibit their bite would leave a different looking mark and there'd probably be some bruising too. The marks don't really line up with dog teeth very well. Even a scratch, you'd think it would be worse or the dog could have brushed against her lightly, I suppose. Anyhow, glad it's not much of a wound. She's adorable, btw....absolutely adorable. Good that you'll be watching her like a hawk, just in case. Glad she's okay.

Why woulda child that young lie about something like that though? Probably just fell.

Well, she wouldn't lie. But like Romy said in her post, she may have lumped everything together (if the dog scratched or pushed her and she fell down) and told it like she just fell down, leaving out the part about the dog. At that age, I don't think she'd explain in great detail just how she fell down.

looks like a paw to me

What does it look like today? Sometimes giving the wound a little more time will tell you more.