 Barked: Wed Jan 9, '13 10:29pm PST |
 | |  | | I recall an incident of particular idiocy on my mothers part a couple years back when we had the household of five dogs(one female Bull Mastiff, two female Rottweilers, one male Rottweiler and Charlie). The Bull Mastiff didn't get along with the female Rottweilers, so we did rotation, which was alright. In fact, the Bull Mastiff was the BEST with kids I've ever seen. Total nanny dog. She was the dog following children around with a lolling tongue and windmill tail, HAPPY to follow them around and get attention from them. She LOVED babies and small children. When my youngest sister was a baby, if she cried, Kia would keep her eye on the person who would pick her up. She wouldn't let strangers near the baby, and ADORED my cousin who was five and frequently babysat by my mother.
Anyway... One day, she allowed my cousin Connor to go play in our massive backyard on the trampoline. And didn't supervise for a moment. He had a shirt or a flag or something in his hand and it wasn't Kia outside, it was the Rottweilers. Regan went to snatch at what she presumed was a tug toy, and jumped ON Connor to get it. He was knocked to the ground instantly, as Regan tried to get the toy from him. Smart little boy rolled over onto his stomach, covered his head and screamed for my mom, who came running. Of course, Maya took it as a threat from Regan and attacked, and the two got into a fight OVER TOP of this five year old little boy. Luckily, he only had a few scrapes from hitting the ground and was more scared than anything. But had he gotten more injured, had bylaw gotten involved, had SOMETHING happened with him in between the dogs or Regan accidentally grabbing him, we would have had two dead dogs, and a child with the potential to fear dogs.
Luckily, as I walked in the door, I heard the commotion, ran out and while my mom got him inside to check him over, I broke up the dog fight and all was fine instantly. She never let Connor out alone again with the dogs there.
Did they INTEND to hurt him? Not by any means. But it was one of those situations where the dogs took something the wrong way(tug play in this instance and broke into a fight amongst one another) and Connor could have easily been FAR more hurt than he was.
Moral of the story? ANY dogs(good with kids or not) can accidentally hurt a child. This is a HUGE part of why I won't ever leave children unsupervised with dogs again. Older children is one thing, if they know how to handle a dog and dependent on age and child. But small, young children, toddlers and babies? That's just too many risks to child and baby in my opinion.
It scares me, that so many parents are WILLING to leave their dog and child alone together. That suggests to me that they're not concerned about harm coming to either animal, nor child, and that just seems... Neglectful?Edited by author Wed Jan 9, '13 10:33pm PST
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I know it's a bad idea, and I get the multiple reasons why it is. However, if the dog is actively trying to stay as close as possible to a child then
No harm ever came to either but I would sure know better now!
