3-year-old mauled by neighbor's dog

[habitual]

Ughh... What a horrible thing to happen. I do hope the boy recovers. Also, hope the parents keep better watch on their child. Also, wonder if the dog had a high prey drive?

[chrismariie23]

it is very sad.i have a 3 and 4 yr old.and a new rott pup, but i know and am learnig about them daily.I plan to be responsible and care for my dog and right now in Kentucky,they are trying to put a ban on pits and rotts, i believe they are punishing the breed not the deed, the very sad part is, there have been no rott attacks to bring this on, just pit bulls of irresponsible owners. it breaks my heart.they just threw them in on it, it is awful.

[tuffsmom]

That is really sad for the parents. I hope he's okay. I do agree with you that it's TOTAL crap that they are trying to ban rotties. That is ridiculous!! It's the way you train them, not the breed. WHEN will people get this? It makes me so mad that people can just assume that because you have a rottie, it must mean they are dangerous! Urggghhh....I agree, what was a 3 year old doing by himself? So I guess we should "ban" bad parents too then. What crap.

[Dolphn2355]

Originally Posted by Cordelia

Parents fault. The Rottweiler should have behaved better but all this could of been avoided if the parent actually watched their child. The parent should be convicted.

You evidentally dont have any children. You can not and do not watch a child while said child is down for a nap and most parents if they are being honest do NOT follow around behind, in front of or beside their toddlers every second of every day. Things happen, who are you to judge this man and his family? He is putting himself through hell , he loves his boy very much and before the general public goes off half cocked, they should get more information about what happened and this family. There is plenty of info out there to be had. Please be slower to judge.

[Dolphn2355]

Originally Posted by onthedl74

3 year old roaming around? Not that I am justifying the bite, but c'mon!

The father thought checking on his 3 yr old 15 minutes prior that he was napping, Dakota got out of the house through the back door and there was a toy by the fence where the dog is kept.... that is how a "3 year old roaming around" happened, please get all the facts before passing judgment

[Dolphn2355]

the parents are not blaming anyone but themselves. But who can watch a child every second of every minute of every day? There was no negligence here by either the owner or the parents. The owner has said he will take the rott back to the house they got him from, which in out of town.

[RottsNScotts]

There have been numerous incidents of toddlers going out of the house during "naps" and having unfortunate things happen. I think it is responsible parenting to have the house secured so that a child of that age cannot let themselves out.

[fbkeays]

Originally Posted by RottsNScotts

There have been numerous incidents of toddlers going out of the house during "naps" and having unfortunate things happen. I think it is responsible parenting to have the house secured so that a child of that age cannot let themselves out.

A number of years ago there was a case where a toddler was found wondering around the railroad tracks. It was a single mother and not enough sleep. So when she put the boy down for a nap, she zonked out. She was charged and sentenced to do time even tho there was no other signs of neglect found. A few months later in a nearby city a small child died and the mother nearly so in a fire because the house was locked up. The mother was charged and I believe did time because she had a lock on the child's door because he had a habit of wondering. So damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[ElsasFamily]

I just wanted to weigh in here. Parenting is tough. I'll admit there have been situations where I have lost my own child in my house. He was downstairs and I couldn’t find him. I'm not perfect, and I have made mistakes.

That is exactly what this accident was; a mistake. The father thought the child was in a safe environment, sleeping in his room. The dog owners thought their dog was safe, in their backyard.

However, I would never leave my dog outside while I wasn't home.

But no laws were broken to my knowledge. Accidents happen. This one was extremely tragic.

[zoose]

I was doing some researce on rotti's when I came across this site,you see I was just given a 7weeks old rott because my long time companion lg male germon shepard past away and I owned a pit before him so I do know what kind of responsablity it takes of owning a lg powerful dog.I was very disturbed to read a few people really belive that this horible thing was the not the fault of the dog owner.If you choose to have a watch dog that has not been properly trained not to bite a child than no 3yr old child should have ever been able to enter that property.All children will get away from you at least 1 time in there life as they try out there independance it happens even to the best.I think this was clearly tha fault of the dog owner.Not all were ment to be parents and not all were met to be dog owners,people like this should not be able to own a dog again before under going some kind of training for dog responsibilty.Any size dog can badly hurt a 3 yr old.( I also have 3 small dogs)

[BigBark]

Interesting points you raise. But, as much as this is a tragic accident, there is plenty of blame to go around. Yes, the dog owner should have their dog in a more secure environment. Also, the parents should have taken better steps to secure their home.

I have 2 children. Boys, ages 8 and 5. If we lived next door to someone with a dog that was only secured with a 4 foot chain-link fence, the VERY first thing I would do is make sure that my children could not leave our house without my knowledge. There are numerous steps that could be taken tp ensure this (chain on doors, alarm chimes when doors open, dead bolts out of their reach, etc.). These are things that we have already done to our home. But would be especially at the forefront of our minds if we lived next to a dog that we were only separated from by a 4 foot fence.

Dog owner should have secured their yard and dog better.

Parents should have secured their home and child better.

[Kaiser-Ezekiel]

I love my Rott more than anything on the planet but when something like this happens it saddens me for most of all the small child, then his family, and also the people that continue to defend the breed. This was a terrible occurance and I hang my head for a brief moment then my focus goes back where it belongs-MY DOG!!!

[onthedl74]

[quote=Dolphn2355] You can not and do not watch a child while said child is down for a nap and most parents if they are being honest do NOT follow around behind, in front of or beside their toddlers every second of every day.QUOTE]


.................Maybe that's the problem!

[fbkeays]

There was a follow up news article last week that I read. The boy was not, "put down for a nap". What happened was that the boy and the father were watching the TV (or video, can't remember which) when the boy fell asleep. The father left the boy on the couch and went into another room to finish watching the show or video, so to "not disturb" the boy. So while father is engaged in watching the TV, the boy wakes up and goes outside.

[RottsNScotts]

[quote=Dolphn2355] You can not and do not watch a child while said child is down for a nap and most parents if they are being honest do NOT follow around behind, in front of or beside their toddlers every second of every day.QUOTE]

I know that there are alarms that one can put on their outside doors that go off when the door is opened without the alarm being disarmed first. Allows parents of children and caretakers of the mentally disabled know when someone has gone out the door.