Oh look! ANOTHER dog attack yesterday.

[i-need-a-martini]

On a 3 year old girl. This times it was (surprise, surprise!) the family staffy who has never "lashed out" before.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/family-staffy-bites-girl-3-on-face-in-richmond/story-fni0c...

What does that make it? One death and 2 serious injuries in a fortnight.

[azureline**]

No thanks.

Poor little girl! Hope she is OK.

We have a person in our neighbourhood with what they describe as a pit bull. It bit my sister on her hip. Complaints have been made to the council but the dog is still there. No lock on the gate. Time for another call I think.

[twinkles**stars]

Dogs and young children do not belong together

Of course they do. And have for decades. Beautiful to watch a child and their dog grow together, play and great company.

Dogs need training and children taught how to treat an animal / pet with respect. Very small children need supervision around animals.....something adults seem to forget.

None of my children or grandchildren have ever been snapped at by our dogs.

There are far more child bashings and abuse than children being bitten by a dog....yet the dog bite hits the headlines while we hear very little about the abuse of children left maimed and scared for life, often leading to death.

Stop blaming the dogs and look at the owners (children that don't know how to treat a dog) and their lack of control, training and supervision.

[polksaladallie]

---

@twinkles**stars wrote:

Dogs and young children do not belong together

Of course they do. And have for decades. Beautiful to watch a child and their dog grow together, play and great company.

Dogs need training and children taught how to treat an animal / pet with respect. Very small children need supervision around animals.....something adults seem to forget.

None of my children or grandchildren have ever been snapped at by our dogs.

There are far more child bashings and abuse than children being bitten by a dog....yet the dog bite hits the headlines while we hear very little about the abuse of children left maimed and scared for life, often leading to death.

Stop blaming the dogs and look at the owners (children that don't know how to treat a dog) and their lack of control, training and supervision.

---

Well, I believe the experts.

            

[twinkles**stars]

*shakes head* My dogs LOVE being cuddled and kissed, they insist on it when the children are here.

Do you have a dog, one that has been around children all their life?

Experts? hmmmmm

[azureline**]

I can both sides of this but it's not until it happens that we can "see" a problem. We have a small dog who has bitten my grandchildren, most at least once. Fortunately he has been retrained (rescue dog) to know it is unacceptable. However, I never allow them to be alone with him.

We enforce continually that they must not put their face near any dog, nor go near them if they are eating. (no matter how docile the dog) but they still do it.

Prior to this dog, we never had any biting incidents with our own dogs. (we did have a cat that attacked my sister once)

[twinkles**stars]

Oh yes cats are nasty...old Puss tore my leg to bits once. He will bite too when disturbed.

[polksaladallie]

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@twinkles**stars wrote:

*shakes head* My dogs LOVE being cuddled and kissed, they insist on it when the children are here.

Do you have a dog, one that has been around children all their life?

Experts? hmmmmm

---

Remember I said YOUNG children.  And I repeat, I believe the RSPCA boss, who would love all animals, and would know more about animal behaviour than the rest of us.

[***super_nova***]

The one most important rule is NEVER to give bones if there are kids around.  Many dogs might tolerate anything but will be protective of their bones.  If you give a bone make sure all bones are confiscated and accounted for = not buried somewhere.

In this case the child came near when he/she was eating his/her bone, and her face was down at the dog's level. 

[twinkles**stars]

Mine don't have bones and readily share toys. Although they often mistake sharing as in sharing the childrens toys lol

The RSPCA 'boss' is someone I have no time for. The RSPCA has a lot to answer for. I do support Oscars Law though.