Comment by Tor3
14 days ago
Dogs have instincts, and that's the problem. Apparently you can trigger one of those by approaching a dog from behind and put your hand on the dog's shoulder. At least that's the explanation I've seen for when a kind dog out of the blue attack a child reflexively. Obviously this is not something I'm willing to try out myself.
From my other comment, quotes from Wikipedia :
A dog killed an infant as it slept in bed with its parents. The baby's father awoke during the attack, saw the injuries to the child, and immediately killed the dog.
The family dog killed two-month-old Julius who was in her infant bouncer while her father was sleeping. Julius was taken to the hospital where she was declared dead
An eight-month-old girl in a bouncy chair was attacked by the family pet while in the care of her grandmother. Fire and rescue declared her dead at the scene.
That doesn’t mean that the overwhelming majority of well-trained dogs belonging to non-aggressive breeds are not almost entirely trustworthy under most circumstances.
Of course unnecessarily risking the life of your child is still a horrible idea (especially considering that a dog might still hurt it entirely unintentionally).