Dogster Asks for Help on Dealing with Large Dogs Around Babies
Attention Dogsters with large dogs! What advice can you give this fellow Dogster who wants to make sure her new grandson will be safe around his family’s big dog? I haven’t seen problems with big dogs and babies so bark in and help her out!
I have a new grandson who lives in a home with 5 dogs, one of which is a 70 lb. pitbull. Any advice on what I can do about this? I am very concerned for his safety. I have nothing against pitbulls, I have 2 myself. Just not in the house around a newborn baby.
[...] (more…) bigdogsandbabiesadvicefellowdogsterhaven rsquoproblemsgrandsonsafelargedogsattentiondogstersfamily rsquobigdogbarkand October 01st 2007 Posted to Uncategorized [...]
Actually, i would more afraid of Pack dynamics, if anything, rather than one dog - no matter the breed. Any breed of dog that feels its place in the family is jeopardized or cannot deal with being demoted can react inappropriately. I am having and continue to have that problem with one of my dogs and must remind her that she remains last on the hierarchy despite the arrival of a new member (baby). It has been as easy as spending time with her to remind her that she is not forgotten and protecting her from him as much as him from her.
Don’t worry about the breed as much as the dynamic of the pack and not having their routine changed as much and even getting more attention and break from the baby…keep an eye on all the dogs - not just the pit…
I agree with the pack dynamics. That’s when things can get dicey. I would let the dogs get used to the baby but not too close either. It’s not easy coz you can’t appear nervous around the dogs - they pick up on that.
And what the previous poster said is absolutely right. Keep the routine going, take them on outings, walks, give them attention, etc.
I was just reading an article about dogs and children. I’ll copy/paste part of it here. All those dogs s/b neutered - very important. And never leave any dog alone with a child.
Here’s the info:
http://www.pbrc.net/misc/PBRC_stats.pdf
Never leave your child unattended with any pets. 79% of fatal dog attacks are children under 12.
The age group with the highest number of fatalities was children under the age of 1 year old; accounting for 19% of the deaths due to dog attack. Over 95% of these fatalities occurred when an infant was left unsupervised with a dog(s).
The age group with the second-highest number of fatalities were 2-year-olds; accounting for 11% of the fatalities due to dog attack. Over 87% of these fatalities occurred when the 2-year-old child was left unsupervised with a dog(s) or the child wandered off to the location of the dog(s).
• Overwhelmingly, the dogs involved in fatal dog attacks were unaltered males.
• From 2000-2001 there were 41 fatal dog attacks. Of these, 28 were attacks by a single dog and 13 fatalities were caused by multiple dogs.
Of the 28 single dogs responsible for a fatal attack between 2000-2001;
26 were males and 2 were females. Of the 26 males, 21 were found to be intact (the reproductive status of the remaining 5 males dogs could not be determined).
• Of the 448 cases of fatal dog attacks from 1965 - 2002, there is NO documented case where a single, neutered, American Pit Bull terrier was the cause of a human fatality.