Family Dog Seriously Injures Newborn
Here’s a sad, sad story. A newborn baby in Lexington, Kentucky was apparently taken from his crib and dragged into his back yard by the family dog. Alexander James Smith’s parents thought their new son was sleeping, when they looked outside and saw him with the dog. Dad rushed to the baby, chased the dog into some nearby woods and took the baby to the hospital, where he is in critical condition with puncture wounds. The dog, named Dakota, was picked up by Animal Control and currently is being quarantined. No charges have been filed at present in what sounds like a horrific accident.
I’m certainly hoping that little Alexander pulls through right as rain, but meanwhile, I thought I’d direct everyone to this article about preparing pets for the arrival of a new baby. A few tips include teaching a dog to tolerate rough play, giving a pet a safe retreat to go to when the baby cries, bringing home a blanket from the hospital that smells like baby before baby comes home and other helpful tips.
Most of all, sadly, perhaps, but truly, keep pets out of a tiny baby’s room. What else do the dog-experts out there advise?
image: breedinfocenter.com Note: this is not Dakota, but another dog of the same breed.
How horrible. I can’t even imagine what is going on in these poor parents heads. ;(
How awful. I hope the baby pulls through.
I bet they are the types who think of the dog as their first baby. Goof balls.
http://www.kentucky.com/latest_news/story/869058.html
The dog had wolves among its not too distant ancestors. Wolf-dog hybrids are not good pets. I hope the baby comes through this okay.
Wow Ali, you really are quite the considerate person.
We keep our two dogs and our son separate most of the time. Now that he is 2 and demonstrating a _little_ self-control, we have heavily supervised play times with every one every few days. As he gets older we will teach him how to give commands. But we never, ever, ever, ever leave him alone in the room with our dogs, not even for a second. I’m not saying we’re any better than the above parents. It’s just really easy to forget that no matter how gentle and connected, a dog is still a dog.
I agree with sster, we love our dogs (yes Ali, they were our first kids) but NO dog and NO kid should be left unsupervised. Period. Common sense people, come on!
I admit to being a little wary when we first brought our daughter home of what the reaction would be like from our animals. I actually used a bassinet with a netting that you could zip up over it (far above the baby’s head – not a strangulation hazard) so that they couldn’t get IN there just in case.
That said, we waited it out, saw how they were with her, and let it go. I don’t think never letting the two be in a room alone together is realistic for all families (it obviously works for sster) because being kept out of the family living space in favor of the baby is going to be put more stress on the animal.
A dog is a dog, but there’s a lot to be said for how the animal was raised and how the dog behaves.
You can’t blame the dog for acting like, well, a dog. Now he’ll probably be put down as a result of this whole sad situation.
Never leave dog and child unsupervised in the same room. I disagree with the advice to teach the dog to tolerate rough play; instead, I’ve taught my kid to respect my dog’s personal space. He already respects hers.
Actually wolf-dog hybrids are not good pets and are not as comparative to regular dogs as people often think. Yes, supervision is absolutely critical, but would you expect a wolf to be as human-friendly as a cocker spaniel?
is this breed a wolf hybrid? I didn’t know that. I thought they were banned or something…
From the article I cited above: “They got Dakota and Nikita from a Michigan breeder. He described the dogs’ grandparents “as 90 percent wolf.”" That’s a high hybrid level, and I guess it is legal in some places. The animal can’t help its behavior. Its possible that the dog was taking the baby away to a den and the baby was inadvertently injured. Its also possible that the baby was nothing more than a rabbit-equivalent.
Oh! I thought you just meant dogs in general had wolves as evolutionary ancestors. I’m a dope. So this dog was part wolf. Okay, now I’m willing to say “what were the parents thinking?”
This is so sad. The dog may have just wanted to play with the baby and was carrying it like it would another small animal. Just goes to show that no matter how much you love your family pet and no matter how sweet it is, an animal is an animal and you can’t expect it to know human things. I would definitely lock dogs or cats out of a room where the baby was sleeping. Better safe than sorry.
Also, on youtube, there are a lot of videos of family dogs with babies where the dog is showing all sorts of aggression signs towards the baby (recognized as such by animal experts) and the parents are totally oblivious to what the behavior represents. They just think its cute and you can hear them laughing in the background and saying, “awwwwww!”. This makes me cringe.