Attack by three rottwielers :(

[Cataholic]

It is a parent's job to watch their kids and pups. I feel awful that this child was killed, and the thought of this happening to my younger brother makes my stomah turn but the rotts were probably put out back for a reason while the guests were over, and this father should have been watching his son. I feel like the father should be charged for neglect! The owner did what he needed to prevent this by having them outside. I would never leave my dos with my brother, no matter how much I trust them all.

It comes back to people need to control their freaking kids instead of blaiming their errors on other things... like dogs, made up disorders, video games... its all ridiculous.

I do recognize that this whole post is years old, and I am not sure I saw it originally. Having a 4 year old son, I take exception to the comment that "people need to control their freaking kids...". I don't "control" my child. And, no matter how viligant an adult may be, kids this age are notorious for sneaking out the door. While I may be blessed with a child that has never opened a door and walked out, unattended (without my knowledge), I also had hotel locks installed at the top of each door to avoid the possibility.

Having been around big dogs my entire life growing up, I can tell you without question that NONE of the 5-6 dogs (at one time) would never have attacked any of us kids (of which there were a lot of us, too). I think this is horrific. I can think of no justification for keeping dogs that would do this to a child (or an adult). As a parent, having my own dog tear my own child apart...there would have been NO hesititation as to my next course of action as it relates to the dog.

This is a parent's worst nightmare. You don't want anyone blaming the dogs? Okay, your perogative. On the same token, you cannot blame the child or the parent, either. Even in the BEST of circumstances, momentary inattention is a real possibility. No one is perfect...(despite claims otherwise), and that is a facet of life. No one should have to factor in their child being torn apart by family pets.

[bckrazy]

Ugh... but seriously, how clueless can one be? 3 unknown dogs. 1 dog in heat. The dogs are going to be extremely over-stimulated and excited. And no one knows what that kid did, because no one was there, at all. I lived with my little brother and Gonzo for 5 years, and I can honestly say in those 5 years they were never once alone together. It isn't that hard. I was a teenager, and I had enough sense to keep track of them both. No one is perfect, but when you have a young child, you should at least be in the general vicinity of where they are.

I've noticed that in so many of these cases, a dog in heat and unaltered males are involved. A few years ago in my area, a little boy was left alone for a long period unattened with two intact male dogs and a female in heat, and he was killed. I wouldn't leave DOGS alone together with a female in heat around - period. Much less with the possibility of a kid getting in the middle of it. It's very sad for the parents, but it's 100% their fault, unfortunately. Setting both the dogs and the child up for a disaster. Some people should not have dogs or kids ever.

[Cataholic]

I lived with my little brother and Gonzo for 5 years, and I can honestly say in those 5 years they were never once alone together. It isn't that hard. I was a teenager, and I had enough sense to keep track of them both. No one is perfect, but when you have a young child, you should at least be in the general vicinity of where they are.

Seriously? In 5 years, never? I would love to know what others that have dogs and children say to this. In the normal course of a day, I shower alone, use the bathroom alone, run up and down the stairs to do laundry alone, fold and put away laundry alone, prepare meals alone. I cannot imagine making the statement that my child is never alone with a dog. You are suggesting that you took your dog with you when you did all this activity? I find that very hard to believe. I find it hard to believe that most parents of smaller children and dog do as you suggest. You are either very unusual, or knew you had a dog with 'tendencies'.

Life happens. Accidents happen. I turned my back for two seconds and my son rolled off the changing table. Classic example...I KNEW better...and I am far from a negligent parent...my son fell just the other day, running...I was in the general vicinity...just didn't have 5 foot arms to catch him. Things happen even when one is right on top of their child. The distinguishing factor is that in the normal course of life there ARE accidents...then, there are those things that one can never imagine happening. Family pets tearing apart the child is one of them.

[atchbedyto]

Yes, this is VERY old news. I don't remember all the details but some I do remember. I met those dogs, they were you typical dominance based trained dogs that cowered around their owner. I dealt with these dogs at the Vet clinic, not bad dogs, fearful yes. Also has anyone ever heard of predatory drift??? if not that is what happened in this case. I believe it was confirmed that the female was not in heat.

That poor little boy who was killed lived a tragic life, in and out of foster care. The child was scared of those dogs and yes the men left the young boy inside the house to watch some videos while they went outside to the cellar/basement (I believe they had to go outside the house to get down). The little boy came out to look for his father and at the time the dogs were outside loose (normally they were kenneled). The little boy got scared of the dogs, perhaps ran from them and all of a sudden the little boy looks like a prey object. Predatory drift is the most common cause of mauling attacks.

I forget all the details as it was so long ago but these dogs were never trained to attack etc. The only unfortunate thing with these dogs is they had not been properly socialized.

A little boy was killed in a horrific manner. Even the ambulance attendants were sickened and horrified at the state the boys body was in. When the ACO came to pick up the dogs the dogs were very friendly and happy and not aggressive towards him in the least. Predatory drift is something we dog owners with breeds with the full series of motor patterns and enhanced drives have to be very aware of and...socialize, socialize and then socialize.

I feel bad for the little boy in this case and I feel the local authorities handled this well. They did not judge the breed, and even the vet mentioned predatory drift as she has dealt with this. For anyone to be upset over the dogs being destroyed needs to wake up...a tragic death for a little boy in a horrific manner and someone is upset because they used the word destroyed??? These dogs were not "bad" dogs but, they were potentially dangerous to meek children and possibly fearful adults.

And just on a side note.. does it sicken anyone else how they say the dogs were "destroyed"? Like they were a piece of trash. Makes me so angry how our society treats animals like property. Does no one realize these are living, breathing, thinking, FEELING beings? These are LIVES. Not just some object or posession. But anyhoo.. I wont go all animal rightsy here. Just found that sickening..
Veegan

What about the little boy!!! it was a horrific horrible death that little boy suffered. I find the way that poor boy died sickening.

[bckrazy]

Seriously? In 5 years, never? I would love to know what others that have dogs and children say to this. In the normal course of a day, I shower alone, use the bathroom alone, run up and down the stairs to do laundry alone, fold and put away laundry alone, prepare meals alone. I cannot imagine making the statement that my child is never alone with a dog. You are suggesting that you took your dog with you when you did all this activity? I find that very hard to believe. I find it hard to believe that most parents of smaller children and dog do as you suggest. You are either very unusual, or knew you had a dog with 'tendencies'.

Super late response, but...

do you leave a baby alone, while you're showering? No, I wouldn't do that. I don't find it incredibly unusual either.

There are ways to safely secure a dog and/or keep a dog and child seperate without having one physically at your side. Baby gates, his crate, and brief periods hanging out in the backyard ensured that my dog was NEVER left to the whims of a toddler. It's not that I have a dog with tendencies, there isn't a dog alive that I would trust moreso with "his" children (my brother and my neices) than Gonzo. It's that little children have "tendencies". A woman in my Obedience class started coming in after her Golden Retriever bit her child, while she was preoccupied, for seemingly no reason at all... she took her dog in to the Vet to be euthanized, and they discovered that the child had stuck an ENTIRE pencil into the dog's ear. Another person I know didn't realize that their child had put a rubber band around the family dog's neck until it began to smell from infection. No dog should be expected to simply tolerate the pain/fear that an unsupervised, young child who couldn't possibly know any better can inflict on them.

[atchbedyto]

There are ways to safely secure a dog and/or keep a dog and child seperate without having one physically at your side. Baby gates, his crate, and brief periods hanging out in the backyard ensured that my dog was NEVER left to the whims of a toddler.

In this case this was an accident. The uncle moved in with the father of the little boy whom the father had just gotten back from foster care. The uncle had Rottie's which he kept kenneled at all times. The father and uncle put the 4 year old in front of the TV to watch his favorite video because they needed to attend to something in the cellar. While they are out there they decide to let the Rottie's out to stretch their legs knowing the child is in front of the TV watching his favorite show. For some reason the child needs his father walks outside sees the Rottie's are loose and tries to be brave but ends up being afraid and runs back to the house. This triggers predatory drift in the Rottie's a running prey object and they automatically go into attack mode.

My own Rottwieler has an extremely high prey drive which a Rottie is supposed to have and I've seen her go into predatory drift...she did it to me a few times when I first rescued her and she attacked me! I was walking her loose in a field and decided to run and looked at her and she lowered her head (eye stalk) then came running after me and attacked me quite seriously. This took a lot of positive redirectional training to modify. Anyway, having first hand experience with this enhanced drive with my own dog I "know" how easily and accident like this can happen. I know we all like to put all dog breeds on the same level and tell people a Rottie is no more dangerous than a Newfoundland. But, that is doing the breed an injustice and an owner who doesn't understand can be a dangerous owner especially if they don't do the proper socializing. Some owners are fortunate that they are able to socialize without even realizing they have been doing so. But, the owners of these Rotties obviously did not socialize therefore the Rotties never imprinted properly on children. Take for example a dog that is imprinted/socialized with sheep will not show predatory drift towards them. To bring up a good guardian dog you raise them with the sheep. To bring up a good herding dog you don't want them imprinting on the sheep so they will show proper predatory drift towards them. Different breeds have different motor patterns as well, a good sheep herding dog should not have finisher tendencies where a Rottie and terriers should have finisher motor patterns. That is how breeds were designed, the behavioral conformation formed their physical conformation etc.

Any who, this was an unfortunate accident that happened. I can't remember if any criminal charges were given or not now.