Police dog tries to eat toddler's face...

[BoristheBiter]

Over all it was an unfortunate event but everyone seemed to be very reasonable about it (for once!). Good on the family for not being these hysterical nut jobs you see usually when things like this happen.

Little kids are immensely annoying to dogs and, like others have said, the trick is to keep the kids' faces away from the dogs' faces. I should know, my face was mauled by my cousin's dog when I was 4 (Still have the scars - they add to my rugged masculinity). I was sorry, the dog was sorry, and the dog and I were best friends until he passed on many years later.

Little kids are immensely annoying full stop.

[scumdog]

Saddest of all is that the kid will now have a mistrust of unknown dogs (at the very least) for life.

Probably save it being bitten - again.

[george formby]

I've had dogs on & off for years, Alsatian, Bull Terrier's etc & the one thing I have learned is never too assume how the dog will behave. Regardless of breed they are all the same toothy carnivores. My dogs are well trained, socialised & friendly, soft lumps but i never trust them when around other people or dogs. I have no idea how they perceive a situation & believe prevention is better than cure. If my lovely pet nipped or bit an adult or child then it's all over, dead dog, hurt person, very sad George. If kids or adults want to stroke or play with the dog I have no problem but I watch her like a hawk & stay right at her side, if it's not 100% tickle my tummy time then it's game over. Not worth the risk, ever.
It's very sad that a trained trusted dog has hurt a small child, I wonder if the officer in question would ever have had doubts about putting his dog into that enviroment purely because of the risk, no matter how slim, of an incident like this. Maybe just following orders even if they were considered potentially risky by the handler.

[Shaun]

We have no idea what would have happened to the child if the handler wasn't holding onto the dog, The potential for far more serious injury was only a hair away.

If I owned a dog and it done that to a policemans face it would be destroyed before anyone could claim it was a one off event and I'd be getting the beating. Not that any such claims would make any difference even if time was given to voice them.

If the police paraded that dog in front of my children there would be hell to pay.

That aside, We had a dog that done that to a childs face, It was horrible to witness and completely out of character.

A year or so later it tired to do it again though it was stopped before it could pierce the skin. We had him put down . A sad day for an old friend but it should have been done after the first incident.

AGREED, shoot the Dog, and TRAIN the Handler to handle the dam thing properlly. Any Dog ever bit my Daughter would be dead, simple.

[Indoo]

Teaching good dog safety would surely be to encourage young kids never to touch, approach or stroke any dog other than their own family pet. Unless its some 12 year old obsese Lab or other walking zombie type breed any dog has the potential to give a strange kid a 'nip' who approaches and trys to touch it. To a dog a nip is nothing of consequence, its just a warning - telling someone off and acting on instinct they aren't going to always realise that humans damage easier than other dogs. It's also something easy to prevent in future and nothing that should stop the dog catching more crooks. An attack is something else all-together and would warrant destruction of the dog.

[scumdog]

, and TRAIN the Handler to handle the dam thing properlly.

Ya goin' to teach him how eh? eh?

[Kickaha]

Any Dog ever bit my Daughter would be dead, simple.

Even if your daughter did something to antagonise the dog? yeah that'd be fair

[avgas]

Stupid kid - you never pat a police dog.
Isn't that like feeding a gang members rotti?

[peasea]

Stupid kid - you never pat a police dog.
Isn't that like feeding a gang members rotti?

I bet the kid didn't know it was a gang members dog.



Oh, hang on.....

[sinned]

I've had dogs on & off for years, Alsatian, Bull Terrier's etc & the one thing I have learned is never too assume how the dog will behave. Regardless of breed they are all the same toothy carnivores. My dogs are well trained, socialised & friendly, soft lumps but i never trust them when around other people or dogs. I have no idea how they perceive a situation & believe prevention is better than cure. If my lovely pet nipped or bit an adult or child then it's all over, dead dog, hurt person, very sad George. If kids or adults want to stroke or play with the dog I have no problem but I watch her like a hawk & stay right at her side, if it's not 100% tickle my tummy time then it's game over. Not worth the risk, ever.
It's very sad that a trained trusted dog has hurt a small child, I wonder if the officer in question would ever have had doubts about putting his dog into that enviroment purely because of the risk, no matter how slim, of an incident like this. Maybe just following orders even if they were considered potentially risky by the handler.

Thanks for adding some sense to this discussion. A dog is a dog - not a variation of a human as some people want to consider and treat them. And a child to a dog is what?? To suggest a dog is put down for a giving a bite is ridiculous. The police need to review how they allow a dog to interact with children. A muzzle seems a simple solution when the dog is to close to children.