Dogs don`t know it`s `wrong` to attack babies. Unless they`re taught otherwise. That`s why we train our dogs to have bite inhibition and to respect all members of our family. A dog is a predator. Would you expect a Badger or a fox to think - oh it`s a dear little baby on the floor, better leave it alone`? No. The child was unknown to the dogs, had appeared in their territory and was a strange intruder in their eyes. I doubt very much if dogs associate babies with grown humans unless they`ve grown up with them. All of which leads me to despair of human intelligence.

I'm not sure you can compare a badger or a fox to a "domesticated" dog as its a wild animal - as you say dogs need to be trained, these dogs must were around people and were obviously kept in the home so i would hope they had some idea of boundaries.

The dogs could never had been rehomed anyway - they've killed whether human error was involved or not.

A dog is still an animal. It`s brain is that of an animal. It doesn`t get any information outside what it sees and experiences, unlike humans who read etc. Therefore it bases all its actions on `learned` behaviour or instinct. As I said, if a baby is presented to a dog who has not been taught to leave babies alone as they are not either threat or food, it is likely to treat it as prey or a toy - the same as if you were to put a baby rabbit in with dogs who had never seen one. Bear in mind these dogs were not bred over hundreds of years as companions but as ratters and farm dogs.
Yes I would liken a dog to a fox or badger - it is far closer to these than to us.

I'm not totally disagreeing with what you've said, i agree that dogs and babies shouldn't be left alone etc etc but i don't think just human error is to blame here. Perhaps people should think before having dogs with very young children

I've had dogs whilst all my children were young (had dogs before I had children). They've never been bitten or even growled at by the dogs. That's because the dogs were taught not to behave in an aggressive way towards the children. They learned that they were lower in the pack than the children. There has never been an issue.

Therefore, in my opinion, the dogs were not to blame. They were put in a position where they were not being supervised with a tiny baby, who was left on a table . I believe that the dogs had to be pts in the circumstances . The whole point I am trying to make is that the dogs and the baby should never have been put in the position that they were. The idiot Grandmother and the parents were at fault (they shouldn't have left the child with the Grandma knowing that she had two dogs that were not used to babies). They didn't put the child's safety as their priority. Who suffers, the baby and the dogs! That's all I am saying. I feel sorry for the dogs. As for the baby - I can't describe how bad I feel for him. Little sweet baby that has lost his life over stupidity from people who were supposed to be protecting him.

a picture is worth a thousand words...
here`s a few thousand words

Thank you so much Claire, those pictures have really warmed my heart!

Whilst I feel I have said all I can on this subject (summary - humans in this instance are to blame but dogs still had to be pts) it has got me now worrying alot. We want to try for a baby in the summer and I'm wondering what I should be doing with Woody now to get him used to the idea? We don't know anyone with small babies, only the neighbours and I'd be worried about trailing him out on them!

Shall I make a separate thread?

I have a 12 month old son as well as four dogs (and my hubby has nine working dogs). All our dogs are fine with the baby and I wouldn't be without either son or dogs!

Fabulous As long as parents are sensible and teach dogs to respect children, and children to respect dogs and use common sense at all times, there should be no problem.

Here are my thousand words ...











I could send more, but won't bore you all