Parents, don't leave your babies near dogs!

I saw a TV show once -I think it was with Stanley Coren - a dog behaviorist,
who explained
how sometimes the baby makes sounds which to a dog may sound like a wounded animal squeals,
the dog feels like it has to kill it because that's what the nature dictates him to do - to stop the prey from suffering.

Or, the sounds the baby makes may sound like a prey so the dog
instinctively "hunts" it.

Just trying to explain the why.

Fuzzy
 
Audiofuzzy said:
I saw a TV show once -I think it was with Stanley Coren - a dog behaviorist,
who explained
how sometimes the baby makes sounds which to a dog may sound like a wounded animal squeals,
the dog feels like it has to kill it because that's what the nature dictates him to do - to stop the prey from suffering.

Or, the sounds the baby makes may sound like a prey so the dog
instinctively "hunts" it.

Just trying to explain the why.

Fuzzy
Click to expand...

Oh, welps! Well, that explains, I guess. :(
 
:wave:Audiofuzzy, yup, you're right about how many times, babies and young children - they make sounds and also they move/run erratically, wave their hands, fall....things are very much like a prey animal moving or an injured animal. These quick, erratic movements of young kids or the high-pitched noises get a prey response from a dog or cat because these are both predators and carnivores by nature. So they have a natural response of - hunt that! Not to do with any sympathetic sense of ending suffering - it's a predatory response. Children are also naturally closer to a dog's face and will do things that dogs consider inappropriate or VERY rude - these things are: prolonged staring, touching the dog's face directly with probing hands, forward-facing <imagine two people going up and shaking hands> body posture, patting on top of the head, hugging the dog. These are all things that primates like people, chimps etc like to do - but that dogs <which aren't primates> as a group do NOT naturally do and do not like. Some dogs can be taught to accept these things from people in their own households but that does not transfer to accepting the same things from someone outside the household.
 
i know some of friends who thought my friend's shih tzu are so cute and nothing. Good enough shih tzu doggie snapped and bit my other friends' faces. My friend kept warning them not to get close to her dog. I told them many times. its their loss.
 
Frisky Feline said:
i know some of friends who thought my friend's shih tzu are so cute and nothing. Good enough shih tzu doggie snapped and bit my other friends' faces. My friend kept warning them not to get close to her dog. I told them many times. its their loss.
Click to expand...

Huh? Frisky, what got lost?
 
That's right.

Some dogs are patient and some aren't. But that's not something we should decide. Whether the dog acts patient or not, we should always assume there's a risk.

Kids don't know their own strength. They don't know if what they're doing is wrong and/or is hurting the dog. Some kids see dogs as living stuffed animals and treat them the same... squeezing them... choking them... swinging them around... etc. That's why adult supervision should always be required.
 
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