I absolutely love dogs and when I read about dog attacks it's quite sad, but to be honest I feel a lot of the dog's behaviour is on the owners.
Recently a one-year-old girl in Ottawa was "attacked by a pit bull." She will have issues breathing for the rest of her life. It's a very serious thing, but to me the fact that it was a pit bull means very little.
I in fact, for unknown reasons, have always wanted a pit bull. As a breed they've never scared me, no more than any other breed. It seems each dog has its own personality and much of how they are comes with how they're raised and trained.
Despite my beliefs in all breeds being able to become dangerous if raised to be aggressive, I may be wrong. Maybe pit bulls are more dangerous than other breeds, but why was a one-year-old girl on the floor with any dog?
If the dog wasn't introduced and raised around children, then it likely won't know how to react to them. Little kids are rough with animals, they grab and pull without understanding how physical they're being because they are too young to know.
It's my understanding that the dog had attacked a child before and was being rehabilitated by this family, so more than the breed of the dog, what was the family thinking?
I've seen people with their dogs and introducing young children into their families. They watched them together like a hawk and only let the dog near if they were sitting right there where they could quickly react.
On a list I found online, the number seven most dangerous dog is the Doberman Pinscher. This, however, was my very first dog and she was an absolute sweetheart. She was the runt of the litter and didn't grow up to be very big. She wasn't scary at all and I loved her immensely.
Later in life we got a second Doberman and he was already fully grown, in fact Blade was what they call a king size Doberman. He was considerable in size and hated going outside, which was funny when mom or dad was trying to take him out but annoying when I would.
I remember one time I grabbed his collar to pull him out and he really didn't want to go. His mouth was literally the size of my hand, if not a little bigger, and as I pulled at his collar he at first tugged back, so I pulled again to which he turned his head quickly and took my hand in his mouth.
He didn't want me to put him out, he wanted to stay inside, which he relayed by this action.
Though it scared me for a second, just as he turned to encompass my hand in his mouth, I relaxed when I realized that was as far as he would go.
I'd liken the grip he had on me to that of what I would expect a hunting dog carrying a duck back to the hunter would be. I could barely feel his teeth, there was just a little bit of pressure, not even enough to leave marks. It was a gentle incentive saying he didn't want to go outside.
So, I grabbed the leash, I had forgotten that he listens best while on it and it was kind of my own fault for not putting him in his usual fashion in the first place. As soon as that leash was hooked on, he was willing to listen.
Though I had been frightened for that split second, all it did was remind me to never forget to put him out without leading him with his leash. I continued to lay with him inside and play with him outside, but just continued to put his leash on when taking him outside.
It's these little things that one has to learn about their dog because nurture in my opinion is bigger than nature. This Doberman was taught to do everything while on his leash I think, so he associated listening with having his leash on.
So, knowing your dog and being aware of its behaviour is huge. I'm lucky my lesson wasn't actually aggressive; but, I'm very surprised this family let a dog that had previously attacked a child near their one-year-old at all. Despite the dog's breed and despite not knowing the animal well as they had taken it in from others, they let it near their baby which to me is more of an issue than the breed of dog it is.
