Infants and toddlers must never be left alone with a dog.

@bonbon664 (3466)
Canada
July 24, 2007 3:39pm CST
I don't want to get into breed problems. I want to talk about people problems. I wish people wouldn't leave their animals alone with little kids. I saw another story where a dog killed a child. Do you see this? Do you warn people about it?
2 people like this
5 responses
@Calais (10893)
• Australia
24 Jul 07
You should never trust any dog 100 %, but at the same time you shouldnt trust children around dogs, all it takes is for the child to pull an ear , poke an eye, or tread on the tail or toes...The dog has no other way to retaliated and say that hurts, but to snap..This is such a common problem that people do not understand and the poor dogs gets in trouble for this, its totally not fair, if anyone is to blame it should be the parents for not supervising their children around dogs..
@bonbon664 (3466)
• Canada
24 Jul 07
I couldn't agree more. It is our responsiblity as parents to protect our kids by not leaving our kids unsupervised with any animal.
@jcj_111776 (3216)
• Philippines
25 Jul 07
I think people will have different opinions about this. But I for one, never let my child alone with Ashley, our German Shephard. It's not that I don't trust Ashley but I'm fully aware of certain things that can trigger an animal attack. There may be things that my son might do that can push Ashley to attack my son. He's happy whenever he sees Ashley but I make sure that I'm always there with him. And because he's still 4 yrs old, I never let him near our dog. He can see her but I never let him touch her. I'm still afraid of the inevitable. Maybe when he's much, much older and a little more gentle. I have heard of such news wherein a child gets killed by their pet dog. And it's really a sad news. In their innocence, a child never see any wrong in the way they handle dogs.
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
24 Jul 07
There has been so many horror stories in the papers about young children getting mauled, bitten and worse and it's horrific, surely common sense should dictate that NO child should be left alone with a dog, regardless of the dog's nature. Dogs are animals and all animals will turn, regardless. It's not worth the risk, if you value your child's life then you wouldn't do it in the first place, not even for a minute!
@lecanis (16647)
• Murfreesboro, Tennessee
24 Jul 07
I have some serious issues with this one myself. I was pretty lucky not to be seriously maimed for life or anything, but as a child I was often bitten by my aunt's dogs, and it was always blamed on me and not the dog, even though I had done nothing to provoke it. I now have a serious fear of dogs. I see so many stories about children being killed by dogs, and I always find myself thinking "What in the world is wrong with the parents/grrandparents/caregivers/whatever?" How can people leave their kids alone with dogs, even dogs that have no history of biting, no matter what the breed? I don't care how nice the dog has been in the past, or what kind of dog it is, or whatever... there is ALWAYS a possibility of danger! I have friends with dogs that I will not allow to watch my child because of this issue, because I know they let their dogs be around their own kids all the time, without supervision.
• United States
25 Jul 07
I actually knew someone whose daughter got badly hurt by a dog. The little girl was playing in her yard and she had left her doll on the ground. The dog went and picked it up and the girl saw so she went over to take it back and the dog bit her face and left really bad scars on her. The dog was a golden retriever which is extremely rare for this type of friendly dog. Just to be on the safe side, I'd recommend either not getting a dog or keeping a very good watch on him.