We had a German Shepard when I was little and she loved children. But my mom would always put her in a pen when we had friends over because she was afraid that Gypsy would confuse our play with danger. If she thought for one moment someone was trying to hurt us, she would have done anything in her power to stop them.

Alot of the cases involving shepards and retrievers are because they are thinking that they were protecting thier owners. They mistake our body language sometimes and beileve they are hostile actions.

But in this case, it sounds like the dogs went back to pack instinct.
And I agree with Cisco's Mom. That child was probably about 40 pounds at the most , so just one of them dogs is over twice his wieght! I honestly believe people don't watch their kids anymore!