Yes I know what it's like to be seriously mauled by a dog, when I was a child too. To a point I am still wary of certain dogs, but I wouldn't let it ruin or run my life.

Question for anyone really :

If one of the dogs that you own right now were in the same position and was let out by a stranger, then cornered by strange children and in it's defence, it bit one of them, what would you do ?

If it were me I would want to know why my dog was let out in the first place, and I would want to know what triggered my dog. In Bajaluna's case or anyone else in this position, they KNEW their dog was scared of children, and any animal who is scared can behave this way.

Yes I know what it's like to be seriously mauled by a dog, when I was a child too. To a point I am still wary of certain dogs, but I wouldn't let it ruin or run my life.

Question for anyone really :

If one of the dogs that you own right now were in the same position and was let out by a stranger, then cornered by strange children and in it's defence, it bit one of them, what would you do ?

If it were me I would want to know why my dog was let out in the first place, and I would want to know what triggered my dog. In Bajaluna's case or anyone else in this position, they KNEW their dog was scared of children, and any animal who is scared can behave this way.

I have always said it and even the if the two dogs I have here now bit a child for whatever reason they would be PTS - Harsh yes but I could never ever trust that dog again,been a mother of a child that was attacked I would not want any mother or child to go through what we did.

If any of my dogs, caused such horriffic injuries to a child it would be pts, i could not live with a dog that could do that.

Whether it was threatened, cornered or not, whose to say it wouldn't do it again when it felt threatened.

I'm still 100% with you on this bajaluna.

There is NOTHING ok about a dog attacking a child, but why should Bajaluna have been punished by losing her best friend when it was the child's mother's fault??

Sal, I hear what you're saying about a child who's been attacked and am in no way trying to make it seem less of a problem but what good would having a dog pts do?? There are millions and millions of other dogs out there, under less control so having one destroyed is not going to help with a fear of dogs.

It was the mother's fault, why should bajaluna have suffered by the loss of her friend??

I 100% agree that a dog should not be allowed to attack a child, but this dog wasn't allowed - he was locked up in a place he felt comfortable and the situation explained to the parents of the children.

What I really can't see is what good would come of having such a dog destroyed and why, if you should have a dog that's attacked destroyed, you shouldn't have any dog that shows any level of aggression destroyed?!

My point being - destroying a dog after an attack is useless, it's already attacked. Fair enough, if you don't feel you can control that dog but if your lifestyle allows you to and you are able to, then why not keep it?

Knowing Takara, I know she'd be uncomfortable when cornered by a group of kids (she just keeps away from them) but she would snap at the air and it'd take a lot for her to go any further. On top of that, she has fantastic bite inhibition so if she did bite, it wouldn't even break the skin but it would scare a child off and allow her to get free.

I adore her though - she's my life saver and my best friend and if someone broke into my house and threatened her enough for her to seriously hurt them then there is no way I'd let her be destroyed without putting up a fight!!

If my dog did enough damage to a child that required 50 stitches in its face, it would be dead in a flash. No questions asked.

exactly - and in my last post I have stated what I would do

Bajaluna - that's so nice that she played at your wedding - she clearly doesn't hold a grudge!

At the end of the day - I would never be in that little girl's situation because my mother was always very sensible around dogs - if we wanted to stroke a dog we asked (and were given the reasons for this), or we got severely told off, and if we had gone upto any dog and gotten bitten her first response would be 'well what did you do to upset it?'

ANY dog can do it and ANY time can be a first time.

Perhaps nobody should ever own dogs just in case?

Mine have never ever shown any behaviour EVER to make me consider that in a situation like described they would cause such damage to a child, But if mine did it, i would have it pts and i certainly wouldnt be grinning and making statements like:

well they won't do that again will they

I would be devastated and wondering if the signs were there earlier and perhaps i should have noticed them.