He's anxious by nature and tends to get overstimulated easily. I usually keep him away from kids for that reason, but in the chaos of the day, I let my guard down
"In the chaos of the day, I let my guard down"? They didn't just show up. You threw a party! You invited them over and you had no plans to contain your dog!
How do you make this right with your cousin? You call them up and take real responsibility. None of this "oh, it was chaotic" bullshit. Instead, you say "I screwed up. I should have confined my dog, and that was my mistake. It will never, ever happen again. In the future, I will always keep my dog in another room during parties", you offer to pay for any medical expenses, and you keep your word. LW should also make a plan to keep the dog muzzled in environments where they may be unpredictably ambushed by small children, and ideally should invest in dog training - and human training, because they absolutely missed about half a dozen warning signs. The dog has already shown it will bite a toddler, and hard enough to mark, and while that's on LW for putting it in that situation in the first place a little extra caution in the future will pay dividends. If nothing else, the sight of a muzzle on a dog will cause most parents to pull their kids away.
(Not that the parents are 100% in the clear here, because you should not be allowing your toddler close enough to somebody else's dog to get bit, especially in an overstimulating environment like a party, but LW is in no position to tell them that.)
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"In the chaos of the day, I let my guard down"? They didn't just show up. You threw a party! You invited them over and you had no plans to contain your dog!
How do you make this right with your cousin? You call them up and take real responsibility. None of this "oh, it was chaotic" bullshit. Instead, you say "I screwed up. I should have confined my dog, and that was my mistake. It will never, ever happen again. In the future, I will always keep my dog in another room during parties", you offer to pay for any medical expenses, and you keep your word. LW should also make a plan to keep the dog muzzled in environments where they may be unpredictably ambushed by small children, and ideally should invest in dog training - and human training, because they absolutely missed about half a dozen warning signs. The dog has already shown it will bite a toddler, and hard enough to mark, and while that's on LW for putting it in that situation in the first place a little extra caution in the future will pay dividends. If nothing else, the sight of a muzzle on a dog will cause most parents to pull their kids away.
(Not that the parents are 100% in the clear here, because you should not be allowing your toddler close enough to somebody else's dog to get bit, especially in an overstimulating environment like a party, but LW is in no position to tell them that.)