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Originally Posted by bjh  I would never trust any big dog with a child. I have heard too many horror stories of dogs attacking children they have been raised with. When my daughter was 3 years old she was attacked by my in-laws basset hound because she tried to crawl in his dog house. She had to have 3 stitches in her eye lid. She was lucky she did not lose an eye.
Also, a few years about my daughter had an American Staffordshire Bull Terrier and he was so friendly to everyone and other dogs. Well one evening their neighbor come over carrying a small Pom that the Staff was familiar with but for some reason the Staff grabbed the Pom and locked his jaws on the poor little dog. My daughter could not get the Staff to let go and it was not until the neighbors husband walked in the door and yelled at the Staff then he let go. Fortunately the Pom survived. |
That isn't the correct name for that dog, this is why some people get different breeds mixed up. Those are called American Staffordshire Terriers and they are very much like a PITBULL terrier, which over here those are illegal, this type I have is not illegal and may be in the "terrier" family but these have not been found to be dangerous in my city otherwise Canadian Customs would of took her away when we tried to cross the border.
I know what you mean about large dogs though because my mom has an older very large boxer, she was never raised with children and sometimes can get a bit snippy with my daughter if she is bothering her. As long as you don't bug her when she is having her time alone she is fine, wouldn't hurt a fly. It all depends on the dog, like I said, this dog I have now has not shown any type of aggression towards children, she loves to play. She is very calm and not hyper like some others may be, shes very lazy but gets her spouts of wanting to play like ANY other type of dog. These aren't even that big, shes quite short and around 35-40lbs, But of course strong.
I personally was raised around dogs and never ever had one bite me or anything, I was always careful and gentle around dogs as my daughter has received this trait I had too. I don't remember ever meeting an aggressive dog when I was young, the only bad experience I had is when we had a Springer Spanial that was territorial over my moms bed if my mom was sleeping in it. And when a pitbull attacked her for no reason in our front yard.