Study suggests small kids, big dogs don't mix

[auburngrad82]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11700472/from/ET/

CHICAGO - Bringing a dog into the family should wait until the children are of school age, and even then parents might want to think twice about a Doberman pinscher or German shepherd, according to a study published Monday.

A review of dog bites treated at a trauma center in Austria over a 10-year period found that children aged 1 and younger ran the highest risk of being bitten though anyone up to age 10 runs a higher risk than in later years.

"Parents should postpone purchase of a dog until children are of school age," the study said. Children generally enter primary schools at age 5 or 6.

My comments: Maybe we can use this to educate people to always monitor their dog when around small children. Small kids and dogs should never be left alone together. Kids pull tails and ears and dogs only have so much patience.

[IndyOp]

1. Excellent! Too many people believe dogs are furry people...

The best thing my dog trainer ever said to our class was that people tend to regard dogs as furry people, while dogs regard humans as hairless dogs. No wonder we don't understand each other's expectations and behaviors.

On Edit: It is interesting that of your rescue's AmStaff/Lab litter the only one left is the one who appears most 'brindle.' I like your inclusion of the information that because their mom was older the foster mom hand fed the pups some of the time - that is a great start re: socialization. And BooBoo is still in your rescue - argh. Spring is here and I have a feeling that this Spring is going to find BooBoo in a new home!

:hi:

[ernstbass]

2. I never allow small children around my dogs

unless I am there to supervise. It is just a recipe for diaster!

[demnan]

3. When I was young we had a Beagle-Basset dog who

really was a biter. My parents didn't have good sense about all this and this dog bit a younger sister of some friends of mine when we were playing in my yard. I was about 7 or 8 and this child was about 4. We were lucky they were such good people (they were renters of my grandfather) and they didn't sue. I remember this and how stupid my parents were to let this happen.

People are so irresponsible about their pets and their kids and neighbor's kids. At the time, I as a 7 year old felt ashamed that my dog bit this child. My parents were too stupid to understand at that time.

[wildeyed]

4. One of my cousin's sons was recently bitten, and badly, by

a dog who was know to be child aggressive, but wasn't being monitored properly. The dog (ironically a BC, my breed) was owned by my cousin's landlord. My cousin's wife and sons were walking up to the front door to pay a visit and the dog got out, ran up to the youngest and bit his upper lip. Bit it all the way off. Poor baby was rushed into emergency plastic surgery. The dog was eventually euthanized. The whole situation was avoidable.

[shanti]

7. i feel for you!

did the dog drop the piece of lip so it could be sewn back on (see my story below). the dog in my circumstance did drop it and i found it between the couch cushions. it was sewn back on, but my son's lip never looked the same (of course). the lip is a bad bad place for a bite because the lip margins are hard to line up properly and fix.

[wildeyed]

11. They did manage to get the piece of lip

and bring it to the surgeon in a cup of ice. But I think the surgeon opted to stretch the existing lip instead of sewing the old bit back on. I guess there was enough left to do that.

[wildeyed]

5. I have dogs and young children.

I watch the dogs very carefully for signs of stress. If I see the dogs are getting stressed out by the actions of the children, I separate them for a while. Dogs bite out of aggression, but also fear or anxiety. My dogs know I will protect them from the more egregious behavior of the kids, but at the same time, they are not allowed to discipline the children, only I or my husband are allowed to do that.

It is important to monitor dogs around children, but it only works if the parents understand the rudiments of dog body language. Some people see a dog with ears up, tail high and wagging slowly, and think that is friendly. People comment to me that my dog Sam looks "mean" and worry about their kids around him because his ears are back. They go back naturally into that position, and it actually means the opposite of what they think. When his ears are back, he is relaxed an happy.

[shanti]

6. about small kids and dogs...

i wish i'd known that about 20 years ago. my 4 yr old son was alone with an unsocialized intact male plotthound (my ex bf's dog) while me and bf were in another room. my son was bitten on the upper lip (took a chunk out) after he pulled on the dog's leash. the dog was sleeping and didn't like being woke up.

i learned a terrible lesson that day...

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. Personally, I feel it's small dogs, small kids don't mix

I've run into more vicious little dogs than big dogs. I was a newborn in a pitbull/shepherd house. The dog was protective of me, even if I was a drooling, annoying creature. It depends more on the dog than the size of the dog and by the dogs I've been around, I would trust a kid around a rott, pit, shepherd, or dobie before I would around a lhasa apso or shitzu. Especially if that large "scary" dog is a female.

Not to mention, a German Shepherd is a herding dog. Herding dogs protect their flock. They generally define their flock as whatever is in the house. If the kid lives in the house, it's part of the flock and it's protected. Our shepherd didn't like strangers or outside animals, but those in the house were her flock and the cats inside the house were her puppiese, even if she wanted to eat stranger cats. She just took protectiveness to the extreme.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Cesar Milan, The Dog Whisperer did an excellent show on this recently.

he showed a family how to introduce a new baby to the dogs. It was fascinating and VERY informative.

It all comes down to letting the dogs know who is the pack leader.
If you are in control of your pets you do not have to worry. If you are not, then you should worry.
The problem is usually the relationship with the pets, not necessarily inherently in the pets.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. This surprises me. I always had dogs when my children

were small and never experienced any problems. I'll have to say, since I had been around dogs and cats all my life, it never occurred to me that there would be any problems. I've always picked pets primarily for personality and not breed, so I have had some pretty mellow pets. I taught my kids from the time they were just babies how to be nice to all of our pets and I always kept a pretty close watch over them to make sure that things didn't get out of control. The dogs understood the hierarchy and were quite tolerant and the cats just left if they didn't like what was going on.