Reply to 1 yr old dies after being bitten by friendly pit mix

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We contacted a couple of rescues that flatly refused to adopt out dogs to us until our child was 10 years old. I’m surprised shelters let families with young kids take pits/mixes home.[/quote]

That's because q lot of rescues are crazy.  Dogs and children can be great together.  Dogs and babies or toddlers can be great together, with a little sense and supervision.[/quote]

Sure they can.[b] They also cannot. [/b]Especially when parents leave them unattended and when parents don't teach their kids to respect the dog's space. I, myself, was bitten (through the flesh) on my face as a child. By a small, not tiny, breed that is always fawned over on this board. I was in her face when she was hot, sleeping, and wanted to be alone. She bit me.

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Agree. Our relatives used to have this tiny poodle mix who was a calm, if not overly friendly, dog. [b]But when it got old, it began to go blind and as its eyesight went downhill, it became very aggressive when startled[/b]. Not the poor dog's fault probably, but not compatible with babies and toddlers either. Our relatives are empty nesters, so it was fine for them. 
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This is what happened with our neighbor's chocolate lab.  Super friendly dog, had always been great with our kids (neighbor's kids were grown, but had been young while the dog was a puppy, so it was really used to kids).  Then one day we saw them out for a walk, my 2yo wanted to pet the dog, so we walked over and asked, just like always.  The kid held his hand out for sniffing and all that.  But while he was standing next to the dog, it heard another dog bark across the street, and it lunged and snapped in that general direction - which happened to be where my 2yo was standing.  It had been a few weeks since we'd seen them, and just hadn't realized how bad his eyesight had gotten.  I 100% believe my neighbors when they said that was the first and only time they ever saw the dog act the slightest bit aggressive.

Here's the difference, though: the lab snapped once and then pulled back.  I'm not going to say it wasn't traumatic; it was.  It took 10+ stitches at the ER to sew my kid's cheek and lip back together.  That sucked.  But 10 years later, there's just a very slight scar on his lip.  If he had been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time next to a pit instead of a lab, I doubt he'd have gotten off so easily.

Engineers talk about risk in terms of 'probability' and 'consequence' of an event - how likely is it to happen; and if it does, how bad will it be?  It takes both angles to decide how dangerous something is.  Other breeds may be just as likely to bite, but the consequences will generally be a lot worse if it's a pit or similar.[/quote]

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