When Will People Learn To Keep Dogs Under Control Near Babies + Children?

[Bathsheba]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/baby-boy-killed-by-pet-dog-in-sunderland-10333759.html

Tragic.

[anotheoldgit]

I agree with Svejk, why always this knee-jerk reaction of putting the dog down, entirely different if it was a uncontrolled dangerous breed, likely to attack someone else.

[hc4361]

AOG, if you were a dog charity would YOU risk rehoming this dog?

[Bathsheba]

hc....my thoughts exactly.

[jennyjoan]

as judge judy always said and she has a loada dogs - you never ever keep children and dogs together. i do know the little dog went into him but I guess you can never be too viligant. Bless them all.

[hc4361]

It seems the dog is a Patterdale terrier which is not an ideal family pet - although it is small it is very strong and was bred to hunt.

[whirlyhurly]

Oh, I was lead to believe that the dog was a "bull terrier" ?

[hc4361]

I don't know where you've got that from - it's been described in the media as a very small terrier.

[whirlyhurly]

Either way, Hc some terrier types, as a former pet of mine (yorkie/cross) are known to nip.

[Canary42]

Dogs are natural hunters - as I've said before, dogs should be muzzled at all times (except for feeding of course), or otherwise penned (not a very kind option).

[hc4361]

It would be very cruel to keep a dog muzzled.

[TWR]

Time & Time again you hear this happening, the owners of these dogs don't seem to have any common, even if the parent can not foresee what could happen, the owner of the dog should.

[TWR]

Why HC

[Prudie]

There are about 9 million dogs in the UK and deaths from bites about 1 or 2 a year. Most could have been prevented. Always a tragedy but the vast majority of pet dogs bring nothing but joy. Keeping dogs muzzled and locked up is cruel and possibly encourages aggressive behaviour. We need to keep some perspective.

[hc4361]

Muzzles stop the dogs natural behaviour. They are fine for short periods when there is a danger of the dog biting such as at the vets but that's about it.

[jourdain2]

Thanks for some common sense, Prudie. We have a mongrel terrier, who is generally OK but has a go at some other dogs and snapped at my grandson (after said child had goaded him with a stick - I couldn't get out of the house in time to stop him). Grandson has been firmly disciplined and I now muzzle the dog 'just in case' until I can trust the child to behave properly with dogs. I keep a vigilant eye on both.

Generally, dogs and kids are fine together - my old labrador protected my daughters and they would go to sleep on her in her basket when they were toddlers. We must not lose this sort of relationship with knee-jerk reactions. This case sounds like negligence.

[jourdain2]

^^^ Should have made it clear that the muzzle is only for short periods of time when grandson is present - dog is fine with granddaughters.

[TWR]

For the short time the family visit with a Dog or vice versa, to be safe the dog should be muzzled, when out the so called terror dogs should certainly be Muzzled, too late when it happens.

[chaptazbru2]

Brilliant post Prudie. My dog and other dogs I have had are some of the very many that bring absolute joy.

[andy-hughes]

The problem is with owners who claim to 'know' their dog, as in 'He won't hurt you ...' which sadly is am statement you can never make.

More accurate would be to say 'I don't think he will hurt you, he hasn't bitten anyone before, but if the mood takes him, then he will, and I have no way of knowing when or if that will happen, or advance warning if or when it does ...'.

Of course, any dog only gets to kill one child - so there is never any precident in the dog's behaviour - at least you would hope so!

Dog owners are anthropomorphic, and love to see their pets as 'part of the family'.

As far as I am concerned, a dog who has not bit anyone is not a dog who would 'never' bite anyone, it is a dog that has not bitten anyone YET - and that is an important and lifesaving distinction which needs to be observed rather more often than it is.

A dog is 'part of the family' insofar as it is a pack animal, and if it feels its place in the pack hierarchy challenged, by a new arrival being a typical instance, then it may well decide to 'deal' with the interloper, because that is what pack animals do.

Got a child? Don't get a dog. Having a child? Rehome the dog.

[andy-hughes]

AOG - //I agree with Svejk, why always this knee-jerk reaction of putting the dog down, entirely different if it was a uncontrolled dangerous breed, likely to attack someone else.//

Aside from the fact that the family might feel that their love and affection for this dog is just a teensy bit compromised by the fact that it bit their child to death -

there is no such thing as 'a uncontrolled dangerous breed, likely to attack someone else...'.

ALL dogs, whatever shape, size, breed or history, have the potential to attack - that is what dogs do. People who are lucky enough to have dogs that don't bite people are lucky, but that does not mean that they should blind themselves to the possibility that it may happen one day.

The notion that 'my dog would never hurt anyone ...' is deluded facile nonsense. If a dog bites once, he will bite again - hence the destruction of the dogs in these tragic cases.