[Steph King]

Richmond family's dog bites, injures 4-year-old boy - Story | WNYW

Sad story. I hate stories like this, but it happens. This is another reason why I say to never leave children alone with dogs. This was an adopted Rottie found on loose on the street and the trainer did not know it had these types of prey instincts before adopting it out to a family with small children. I think when dogs attack children it's the prey instinct kicking in. Some dogs have it, some dogs don't, but this sort of thing is devastating when it happens to a family

 

[Andrea52]

Sorry to read this too. Seems like the kids having the pup under the covers playing rough is what caused it to attack. You can never be too careful and it takes a tragedy sometimes to open peoples eyes and make them understand they absolutely have to teach their kids how to respect the power of the breed. The parenting failed, the kid was injured and the dog paid the price.

When I had 3 Rotts at once and my niece's kids would want to play with them I had supervise closely because along with predatory instincts they also have pack instincts and when 3 dogs outnumber 1 little girl, they might just attack, even if we think they are the sweetest dogs on earth. Better safe than sorry with an injured child, a lawsuit and cancelled homeowner's policy.

You hear stories all the time about dogs of various breeds attacking kids and even adults. Just a few weeks back there was a story where a woman was killed and eaten by her 2 Pitbulls she had taken for a walk in the woods. I would think owners of hunting class dogs would have to be extra careful because the hunting dogs are bred to attack small animals.

Last year there was also a black lab and large terrier in our area that grabbed an infant from it's crib and killed it when the mother turned her back for a couple of seconds. These tragedies can always be prevented. You have to know what you are getting when getting a dog especially if you have kids.

 

[Steph King]

I read that story about the woman with the pit bulls too. She wasn't living with the dogs, her father was taking care of them (perhaps not feeding them enough?) and she was visiting them. She was on her period too... and I have never been attacked when I had that going on by any dog, especially one of my dogs (they have impolitely shoved their noses there, but they have never done more).... the authorities tried to explain it that way.... the smell of blood?.....but it was a weird situation. For every pit bull that is violent there are 100 standing behind him that are nice dogs.... it's a shame. Not that I love pits... I have had my own bad experience with them when two attacked my horse... it's just a shame they fight them. I wish legal penalties for that were much stiffer. Jail them for 10 or 15 years without leniency. Anyone watching a dog fight who doesn't report it gets 5 years. Make the penalties so it's not worth it to fight them... something more than what they are doing now...

Accidents with dogs can include all breeds. I saw a show on TV, one of those crime shows where parents let their tiny little 3 y.o. run around naked in the yard and the 2 neighbor dogs and one of their own dogs attacked her, ripped her up. Detectives only saw pictures of the child (who died) after the doctors had tried to sew the kid up and all of the wounds had been clipped. They put the parents in jail for several years accusing them of some sort of evil ritual with the child.. (really?)... before the pictures came out of how the kid came to the hospital torn and ripped up by the dogs. Horrible case of injustice and human stupidity. The three dogs were small shepherd mutt mixes.... medium size dogs... (small to us)

 

[Andrea52]

Geez! that last story is disturbing to say the least.

I had one more thing on the original video, something my husband reminded me of when I told him about this story.

When we first got Rocky, our first Rottweiler, 10 years ago now when he first jumped on our bed he became very viscous and protective of that space. We were startled and looked up info to try to make sense of what was going on. Here is what we learned then, that he reminded me of, and what could have been the cause of the kid being attacked by the dog on the bed.

When a dog (not sure if it was Rottweiler related only or any dog) gets on the human bed he now sees himself as equal to, or superior to the human. It is then up to the human to make sure that dog gets back in line and knows where he stands in the pack. The dog is or should be below any human in the pack, regardless of the age of the human. We know how smart the Rottweilers are and they will take charge of any opportunity to regain pack leadership over the human, if we let them.

This was something I taught my niece's daughter when she was over for dinner one weekend. Bella wanted to dominate her and tried to get in her face while she was eating. At that point it was not me or my husband who needed to put Bella in her place because she already knows she is low on the totem pole in the house. It was our visitor who needed to be firm and tell Bella "No!" so Bella knew she was not the pack leader over this little girl. Anyway that is what I taught my niece to do and it worked. Bella went back to her spot where she is supposed to be while we are eating.

We have never had any kind of incident with our dogs attacking but then again we know better than to let our guard down and don't take any chances.

 

[Steph King]

I agree wholeheartedly with making sure humans are always the leader of the pack. It becomes easily ingrained in a puppy as it's raised with a family, to respect all the humans, but when adopting it's critical that this becomes taught with each and every family member. The same with introducing a new person into the household. We have never had an incident with our dogs attacking anyone. The badly beaten dog we had Snacks nipped a couple of people but didn't break skin in his lifetime, but he was so damaged, I had to keep him away from strange men. He was wonderful with children, he loved them. I have been bitten several times getting in between snapping dogs, but nothing very bad. Stuff happens, the dogs are always basically good dogs, but you have to have boundaries and respect.

Still, I believe nearly every accident with dogs and children could be erased or mitigated with adult supervision.... the dog in the above article is probably a basically good dog who got worked up and egged on by the child who thought he was having fun punching the dog under the covers, but was probably hurting it and then mimicking a hurt animal (with high pitched screaming and laughing) and it turned into a mess.