[Carol Burke]

I just had to add this: I have an 8 year old Rottweiler. He is an A/C CH with a CDX and he is a Registered Therapy dog. He is also temperament tested. Pretty impressive, a dog you could trust with any situation. I got him when he was sixteen months old and that dog has been exposed to and adjusted to any situation you could think off. He is fine with people, other animals including cats, kids, just anything except children under the age of four or so. I don't have small children in my house or any that come to visit so this was something I never even thought about, but I met a gal who had two small children, 2 and 4. She came to visit one day and my dog was like a different dog. He did not like these kids, he attempted to nip one of them and that was the end of the visit with the kids. I had another friend come to my house with her grandbaby, an infant in her arms and he was very upset, acted like he would nip. I do not ever let any of my dogs be uncrontrolled and he did not get to bite anyone. But, I have no doubt in my mind that he would bite a small child given the right situation. Especially if he were tied and a toddler approached him(which I would never do).

I think that we forget that these are dogs, big, powerful dogs. They have likes and dislikes and they have to be under our control at all times. It is not the breed, it is any dog. The problem is our particular breed can do a tremendous amount of damage doing the same thing a poodle, cocker or lab might do without any damage.