girl-in-a-scoob

People who own ANY dog should always keep an eye on them or keep them away from small children....

How many children need to be be maimed or killed as this one year old has been today.

NO DOG is fully child proof...

And why on earth do people have dangerous dogs with small children !



Claire


BBC NEWS | England | West Yorkshire | Family dog kills one-year-old boy

Snazy

Could not agree more about people controlling their dogs. Too many trophy dog owners out there.

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

It's not usually the Dogs that are dangerous - its usually the result of poor training by the owners.

The vast majority of Rottweilers are beautiful, docile, obedient dogs that are fantastic around children. From this case, it sounds as it the parents/relatives were at fault. Not the dog.

There is a minority of dogs that are dangerous because of their personalities, not their breed; and if your going to ban particular breeds then I suggest that you ban parenting without a license, because there are far more dangerous parents out there than there are dogs.

I would have absolutely no hesitation in having a Rottie as a family pet.

girl-in-a-scoob

A Rottweiler is a large dog breed originating in Germany as a guard dog.

Rottweilers are playful animals who may frequently demand attention from their owners. However, if they are not receiving the mental stimulation they desire, they will find creative and sometimes destructive ways to elicit it. Such behavioral problems as chewing, barking for attention and eating less can be a result of lack of human interaction. The Rottweiler is a good working dog that is also good for protection of children, as well as guard duties.


wouldnt be my choice of a family dog

Snazy

In fairness if ANY dog fails to get its demands for attention and is not brought up properly it can be dangerous.
Dogs are domesticated animals and all have natural instincts. If brought up the wrong way, they will sometimes revert to some of these.

Malamutes, nice with people, considered useless guard dogs, however VERY destructive when bored.

Big debate starting on TV about it.

girl-in-a-scoob

In my original post I stated that I thought 'anybody with a dog should keep an eye on it with children' and certainly not leave child and dog alone.... It doesnt matter on the breed NO DOG can be trusted with a child

Snazy

Yup I agree with ya there, I dont let my dog near people on the streets etc, and would not dream of letting him in the house with strangers or children around.
Rotties get a bad press sadly, and are the larger of the trophy dogs that irresponsible people insist on having. Properly loved and cared for, they are amazing dogs

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

As usually for wikipedia - utter rubbish.

The Rottweiler was bred as a hunting dog; a working dog, which means they need a lot of mental stimulation and exercise, the same as any working dog - they were not bred to be 'guard dog', and for the record, neither were Alsatians or Dobermans. That quote from wikipedia sounds like the typical emotive rubbish that people spout when they know nothing about dogs, and lets face it, wikipedia is full of emotive rubbish that people spout without actually knowing any facts.

- Note that I'm blaming wikipedia for being wrong. Not having a go at you for quoting what you believe is true.

All Dogs are pack animals, they long to be in a group, and have a strong pack mentality, which includes knowing where their placing in a group is. All dogs crave social interaction and if bored, can become destructive - the same as any human does when left without social interaction. They are loyal to their family (in the dogs mind, their pack), and their packs territory. None of this is unique to Rottweilers, and is common to every breed of dog be it a Chiwahwah or a Burmese Mountain Dog.

To qualify this - I've been around working dogs in a working and show environment (including Crufts! ) since I was born. I have NEVER had a dog, of any breed, including ones that are supposed to be "dangerous", attempt to bite me in almost 30 years.

richs2891

Have to agree with all you say here - especialy about the far more dangerous parents out there than parents.

But I do know what happens when rotties get bored - mine got bored the day I picked my Scoob up and decided to show its disgust by chewing the mud guards !

Very sad situation in regrads to the death of the child but I feel once again we are not going to know the full facts and I dont think we can make any real conclusions until then !

Richard

[Davey]

You have to remember that alot of children these days have no idea about respect albeit for a person, a persons property or an animal.. How many of you have had friends or relatives bring kids round your house and they have proceeded to tear the place to pieces? I've seen it with pets too, they prod at them, pull at them and generally wind them up.. And what do the parents do? Oh just sit there and comment on 'how cute it is'.. No so cute when the dogs had enough..

girl-in-a-scoob

Conclusion from common sense is that ANY dog should not be left alone with a child

girl-in-a-scoob

a one year old would obviously have respect for an animal that looks like one of its toys

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

I never did it.. my neice and nephew didn't and don't get away with harassing the dogs.. Age of the child is no excuse, the important thing is making sure the child is disciplined for it and protecting the dog from the harassment. It is NOT the dogs fault.

girl-in-a-scoob

disciplining a one year old.... How many kids do you have Prasius

girl-in-a-scoob

I never said it was the dogs fault..... THE ADULTS IN CHARGE

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

I don't have any - I do have a niece and nephew; both of which have always been told in no uncertain terms when they do something wrong. Which is why they're generally very well behaved kids. Unlike many of the devil spawn you see running around parented with liberal ideas like not disciplining a one year old and correcting their behaviour from the start.

girl-in-a-scoob

best of luck to you in disciplining a one year old not to play with a dog

Or is it iresponsible adults who have children and think that at one year old they are mature enough to be left with a dog that could harm them... maybe leave the medecine cabinet open too because they will have told the one year old not to touch the contents wouldnt they

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Agree, good common sense approach. How many time when children have been attacked have we heard 'the dog has never done this before' - only takes once. Folk who believe they can train a dog to be 100% reliable shouldn't be allowed to keep dogs.

David Lock

If I had a one year old I would be more relaxed if it went to a house with a Yorkshire Terrier than a Rottie, GSD or whatever. I would guess that Yorkies are more prone to nipping than Rotties but the consequences are unlikely to be fatal. dl

Geezer

What the dog lobby seem to forget is that dogs are animals, and if they feel threatened, they will attack. We are the same, but can sometimes hold back because of our reasoning. Dogs do not have that luxury.

My daughter was bitten quite badly on the face this year by a dog that had never shown any signs of doing it before.

She tripped and fell onto the dog's back, it turned round and bit her.

Now I know all the doggy people are gonna come out and say "it's not the dogs fault, she fell on him!", and we have had to accept some responsibility for the incident. However, small children are prone to do unexpected things and you cannot always allow for every situation.

Ultimately, the only answer is to keep dogs away from children. No, it isn't the dog's fault, they are only animals, but they can be dangerous nevertheless.

Keep dogs by all means, but kids and dogs ain;t a good mixture.

The amount of people I know who were bitten by dogs as children speaks for itself (myself included).

Geezer

Devildog

How nice to see a sensible discussion about this today.

First of all, my thoughts go to the 1 year old.

Secondly, I agree 100%, dogs should not be left alone with kids. Especially babies which will undoubtably have interesting smelling nappies, among other things which will attract the dogs attention

And lastly - when will parents learn to act responsibly?

skoobidude

I often see a couple walk a rottweiler past my house. It's huge and never on a lead but I guess it's soft enough and well trained for them to trust the thing

Nick

mrfixit

they suold all be on lleads and have muzzels on around kids

Snazy

Spot on!
As for teaching a kid not to hurt a dog, its more teach the parent not to let the child play alone with the dog.
As I say when people come round, the dog goes into the kennel if I dont think its suitable for them to mix.

I HATE people (adults being the worst) who suddenly want to become the dogs master, commanding SIT, PAW and all that rubbish.

Devildog

Hi mate

hope you had a good christmas

Yup, responsible dog owners + responsible parents = no problems.

Its hardly rocket science.

David Lock

And what advice would all you dog experts give to the experienced Kennel lady who had a Rottie in her care and which had seemed to be friendly towards her. But it went for her, tore her arm off, and she was lucky to survive? (in the papers about 2 weeks back). dl

Sonic'

So the Aunt was left in charge of the kids, yet the Aunt was only 16 years old herself

Kids should never be left alone with any dogs IMHO

Interesting point Devildog about the nappies of newborns

We got told to take a dirty nappy of our newborn into Scooby to let him have a sniff so he knew that a new member was in the house (or something similar)

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

listen to your colleagues before playing with a dog you dont know??

Snazy

Yup, if she was "experienced" surely she should have had her witts about her?
Saying that, tigers do it to their keepers of 10 years, so why should a dog not do it once in a while? Its an animal as has been said.

DD, how do mate, nice quiet one walking the dog 3 times a day ON A LEAD lol unlike most round ere seem to. As he has got bigger most people, passers by etc do the right thing, give him a wide berth, or ask before they approach, and let me shorten the lead. Some of course will never learn.

Back on topic, I like to think I have a nice gentle dog, but he hurts at times just playing. Quite a few bites and general "attacks" are the dog playing and not intending on hurting. You only have to watch their nature come out when you give them a toy or piece of meat. Bite, pin, shake, and destroy.... but even with the toy, its just playing (eating the meat of course is always gonna happen lol)

At 24 weeks, Tuvaaq my Alaskan Malamute pictured below is both powerful and dying to be the dominant one. But thats not gonna happen. As he gets bigger, there may be challenges, and "exchanges" for leadership, natural thing in pack order. But being firm from the offset lets him know who Alpha is, and will remain.
But pictured at approx 12 weeks, you can see he was quite willing to use canine force to get out of something he was not happy about.
When he reaches 45-50kgs such determination COULD prove fatal. But thats my responsibility to both monitor and manage.

The Zohan

Perhaps someone could resurrect the last dog kills child thread

Accordin g to the news i heard earlier
the 1 y/o was statying with grand parents, was actually being looked after along with 4-5 other children by a 16 y/o.
a 7 y/o child took the 1 y/o outside to show it the dog and thats when it happened.

IMHO - more poor parenting, why leave a 16 y/o in charge of a group of kids. I do not blame the 16 y/o more the idiot who thought it OK to leave them incharge of a group of kids.

As for the dog, listened so several 'experts' who always seem to come out of the woodwork at timres like these -breeds aside, if the god is introduced to kids at a young age, then the bond and get used to children and having them about, one reason not to buy from a puppy farm.
Also, how you act around dogs - especially kids is crucial, body language and the noises kids make can turn a dog, make it think the child is a threat.


TBH - the adults in this sad affair are the ones who should be looked at, looks like poor parenting has cost another poor child its life.