MalloryKeaton

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/health/0...babyswing.html

Parents Warned Baby Swings May Trigger A Dog Attack

By The Associated Press
(02/23/05 - NEW ORLEANS, LA) — Rocking your baby to sleep in a mechanical swing may 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.

"Think about dogs chasing cars or tennis balls. They can't control their behavior -- they just go," he said.

In 2003, a 2-week-old boy was dragged from his swing and killed by the family's pit bull in Baltimore after the baby's mother left him to answer the front door. In Edgemere, Md., in 1999, a 3-month-old boy was mauled to death as his parents slept in another room.

An Associated Press check of online news archives found at least one more death -- that of an 18-day-old girl in Tampa, Fla., in 2000 after her mother left the room to warm a bottle for her -- and at least two non-fatal attacks around the country in the past few years.

In one of those cases, in Summerville, S.C., in 2003, the dog lunged for the baby and bit her in front of the child's mother.

In 2000, Sabrina Williamson of Peru, Ind., had gone to the store while her husband napped in another room, about six feet away from 9-week-old Alex. She walked back in and found her husband wrestling their pit bull off the baby. They had had the dog eight years, since Alex's brother was 4.

"I think it could be a key factor. Our dog had never been mean towards a child before," she said in a telephone interview.

The baby's face was bitten and bloody, and his collarbone was broken and protruding from his shoulder, police said.

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.

Dr. Jane Sanders, a radiologist and a board member of the humane society in Jackson, Miss., said she planned to pass on the information to the shelter's director. Most dog attacks are by pets that have never been aggressive, she said.

Catherine Mills, a Marshall, N.C., dog trainer with 25 years' experience, and John C. Wright, an animal behiavorist at Mercer University, said pets should be conditioned to ignore baby swings before a baby is put into one.

"Put the swing up, leave it on without a baby in it until the dog or cat totally ignores it," Mills said.

Wright suggested even more extensive "desensitization": Get the dog used to a lifelike crying doll -- with a real diaper, if one is available -- then the swing, then the two together.

Everyone interviewed agreed on one thing: Do not leave even the most trusted pet alone with a baby.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

A.Film.By.Tiff

Wow, that's really scary. Makes me even more paranoid about everything that has to do with babies.

sick little jag

see, the mistake that is being made in this situation is not having mechanical swings, it's having agressive dogs like pit bulls around babies.

TheAngel

Yeah, I mean, I grew up with dogs. When I was born my parents had two dogs but they were both older and I was five when we got a beagle. I was about seven when we got our dalmatian and have never once had problems with my dogs. I think it depends on the temperament of the dog and also how the parents train the dog. All my dogs have been well trained and the dogs were shut up if my parents were going to be out of the room or away for a while. As a matter of fact, one of the dogs I was born with actually became so protective of me that she'd fight off the other dog.

MarvelRoswell

This is a very tragic case for the children and their families. However, I have serious issues with the doctor’s claim. As a doctor addressing a group of his peers in such a public educations forum, Dr. Chu should have realized that an issue like this, in which the main provocation, according to him, of the attack is such a widely used item in homes with new children, is not a good idea if you don’t have proper evidence to back up such a claim.

As for the dogs’ temperament being the problem, I don’t believe that is the case either. I think it is merely the dog trying to establish dominance over the child just the way they do with other dogs. For example if a owner has one dog for 4 or 5 years and that dog is the center of the owner’s universe being spoiled and getting all the owner’s attention during that time and then the owner brings home another dog and the first dog gets less attention and has to share his space with the new animal, the first dog is going to try to establish his dominance over this new dog to show it who is boss thru whatever method is most successful.

Sorry if I offended anyone I just feel strongly that Dr. Chu should have more evidence if he is going to make such claims.

TheAngel

I disagree with this simply because of my experience. First of all, if the human male has established his dominance in the house as the alpha male then the other dog should not find a problem with the child. Also I've found that dogs become protective of the baby, at least that was the case when I was growing up.

MarvelRoswell

i agree with you TheAngel that it is important for the male, and female for that matter, to have dominance, but I know from my experience as well that it doesn't matter if the alpha male has dominance. I've had a German Shepard since I was 10 and he knows my father is the dominant male in the household and I have seen him get violent towards strangers he thought was threatening towards myself and my brother, but that didn't stop him from attacking me in front of my father when I was 13.

On another note, there are certain animal owners who believe that just because they have a large breed dog that the dogs don't need to be trained because it will harm their territorially nature or that because their dog comes from a genealogy of will trained worker dogs that somehow they are automatically trained from birth to listen to the owner's every command.

-Kelly-

Oh no