A tragic event occurred on Thursday in Brooklyn, when a local family’s pet Doberman attacked and killed their 8-month old baby.  Click here for the full story.

This chilling event should serve as a reminder to all dog owners and parents to ensure that they are especially vigilant in monitoring their dog or child when they encounter each other. 

According to dog behavioral experts, children under 6 years old can often trigger unexpected or violent reactions from dogs, even if the dogs are normally gentle in nature.  Here’s why…

• Children are often unpredictable and their actions can often be perceived as a threatening to a dog.  Additionally, children are usually unable to recognize the warnings that dogs give to communicate that they’re feeling threatened (stiffening, walking/running away, growling).  If the warnings are ignored, instinct might cause the dog to react as it would with another dog who was behaving inappropriately or invading their space - by biting.

• Additionally, this problem can be exacerbated when the dog is part of a family with children,  if the dog considers the child to be equal or lower in the pack hierarchy than they are.

When something as awful and tragic as this happens, it’s also important to stop and remember how dogs enrich the lives of millions of adults and children through their love and companionship.  

Our hearts go out to the Stein family and we mourn their loss as a result of this terrible accident.