Amelia-Jayne Johnson was 2 years old when she was bitten by a dog outside her home. (Video first published in February 2019)

A two-year-old needs ongoing treatment after being bitten on the face by a dog accompanying a woman doing a paper round.

Amelia-Jayne Johnson was hospitalised for two days and needed surgery after the attack on January 30. She had a broken tooth and deep cuts around her left eye, nose, mouth and cheek.

The woman doing the paper round, 51-year-old Anntonia​ Marie Orchard, pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court to charges of allowing a known dangerous dog to be at large unmuzzled, failing to keep a dog under control, and being the owner of a dog that attacked a person.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Amelia-Jayne Johnson, 2, was attacked by a dog outside her Christchurch home.

Orchard was out with two dogs. One was a male catahoula leopard-Staffordshire bull terrier cross, aged six or seven years, named Soula.

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She is not the owner but had walked the dogs while doing her paper round for about two-and-a-half years.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Keri Morphus says the dog that attacked her 2-year-old daughter, Amelia-Jayne Johnson should be put down.

Orchard had been told Soula was not comfortable around children and was given a muzzle, but the dog kept taking it off so she stopped using it.

On the day of the attack, she was invited Amelia-Jayne's house by her mother, Keri Morphus. Orchard left both dogs unattended on the footpath at the end of the driveway and went inside.

Morpus and Amelia-Jayne went outside to see the dogs. When Orchard realised they had gone out to the dogs, she went outside too.

SUPPLIED Amelia-Jayne after the attack.

She said: "Don't let [the girl] touch the brown dog." The brown dog was Soula.

Morpus said Amelia-Jayne had already patted Soula and it was OK. Orchard called out again.

While the girl was patting the other dog, Soula approached. The girl fell backwards and Soula stood over her and bit her on the face before Orchard grabbed the dog by the collar.

SUPPLIED Amelia-Jayne Johnson, 2, in hospital after being attacked by a dog.

Morphus told Stuff in January Amelia-Jayne often went outside to play with the second dog, an old black labrador.

"It always licks her hand and lets her pat it; she's really attached to it," she said.

However, she had not seen Soula before.

"I was scared, I couldn't stop shaking, there was just so much blood gashing out. I tried to grab the dog off her, but it just wouldn't go.

"I just ran and got what I could to get the bleeding to stop, then got on the phone to the ambulance."

Amelia-Jayne's parents wanted the dog to be put down.

The prosecution is seeking to have Soula euthanised, but Orchard is not the owner. Judge Stephen O'Driscoll was told the registered owner may oppose the order and may raise the issue of "exceptional circumstances" to stop it happening.

Defence counsel Brittany Kenny said Orchard had already apologised and made amends to the victim.

A sentencing date has not yet been set. Another person faces similar charges over the attack, and has pleaded not guilty.