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Dogs May Attack Baby Swings

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

The Associated Press reports today that some dogs may attack baby swings, due to their back-n-forth motion:
Rocking your baby to sleep in a mechanical swing can trigger a deadly attack on the child by the family dog, a coroner warns.

At least two such deaths have been documented in Maryland over a four-year period, Dr. Albert Y. Chu of the state's medical examiner's office said Wednesday at a meeting in New Orleans of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

The back-and-forth motion may activate the dog's instinct to chase prey, he said.
The article goes on to cite a number of actual cases where babies were either killed or injured as a result.

However, one person feels that it has nothing to do with the rocking motion of baby swings, and has more to do with the babies themselves:
Dr. Marianne DiPadua of University Foggia in Italy said she is not convinced that the rocking movement sets off the dog. "It's true movement can trigger an attack," she said. But she noted that dogs have also attacked babies in cribs or beds.
There are certain breeds of dogs that just don't like kids. Rat Terriers are one such breed that I know of. If you think you know your dog, consider that a dog may be obedient when you are in the same room with it, particularly when it has accepted you as the pack leader. But when you leave the room, that dog may change its behavior.

2 Comments:

  • I thought it was a known fact

    NEVER LEAVE YOUR CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 10 ALONE WITH ANY DOG , including your family pet.



    Kids do stupid things, even though they were taught not to they still do it.

    That also goes for the people who allow thier children to climb all over their own dog, and jump on top of them.Not every dog will glady take it in with a grin.

    Ever here the excuse " The dog bites" so we have to get rid of him.

    Lovely what happened - My son jumped off the bunkbed and fell on him.

    Do you really blame the dog?

    By Blogger Jodi, at 11:20 AM, February 24, 2005  

  • My daughter was the 18 day old little girl in FL they mentioned in this article.

    First let me say that we know the dog did not do it to hurt her. He was mearly trying to help her because she was crying and I left the room to fix her a bottle. He had never seen her in the swing before and we believe he thought it was hurting her. He tried to pick her up and out of the swing by her head like a dog would do to thier own babies and it cut her jugular vein.

    We did have this dog put to sleep but he was also 12 years old and had some health problems as it was.

    It was a very hard loss for my family to not only loose a daughter, granddaughter and niece but to also loose a loved family pet.

    You can never be too careful. Some do happen by accident they are not always doing in to harm the child.

    By Anonymous Nichole Dillashaw, at 8:46 PM, June 29, 2005  

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