Two Dogs Attack A 10-year-old Boy In Bellambi

[GeckoTree]

DO NOT ENTER, that is the sign people need if they do not want people entering a space. Heck even in sign language or a cartoon if needs be.

All 3 even.

Braille even.

Edited July 12, 2014 by DaffyDuck

[Sabbath]

Common sense means not entering a yard with a dog in it.

Even a 10 year old?

Well 30 years ago I was 10. I knew not to do it.

[twodoggies2001]

Common sense means not entering a yard with a dog in it.

Even a 10 year old?

Well 30 years ago I was 10. I knew not to do it.

Not all 10 year olds are the same

[Amax-1]

Common sense means not entering a yard with a dog in it.

Correct, especially entering through a gate with "beware of dog enter at own risk" sign on it. If the child wasn't street wise enough to adhere to that warning, perhaps the child wasn't mature or educated enough to be wandering the street without parental supervision?

Edited July 12, 2014 by Amax-1

[Staffyluv]

Common sense means not entering a yard with a dog in it.

Even a 10 year old?

I think again we fall back to education - parents should be responsible for teaching their children NOT to approach unknown dogs and don't go into a yard with a dog in there. Don't pull animals tails, ears, stick things in the ears, eyes and bums..

At 10 years old, surely a child knows not to enter a yard with dogs in it - or am I expecting too much from a 10 year old these days.

I know my boys at that age would not have entered someones yard uninvited, let alone one with loose dogs.

It is a very sad situation for all involved.

[twodoggies2001]

Common sense means not entering a yard with a dog in it.

Correct, especially entering through a gate with "beware of dog enter at own risk" sign on it. If the child wasn't street wise enough to adhere to that warning, perhaps the child wasn't mature or educated enough to be wandering the street without parental supervision?

We don't know the circumstances concerning the 10 year old child. Maybe the child left his home without the parents knowing? There are a lot of maybes. The fact is that the dogs attacked, the owners, by putting the sign up admitted that the dogs are capable of attacking someone walking onto the property. That could have been anyone attacked, even if they wanted to ring the front doorbell. The dogs should have been contained away from the front area. I am not blaming the dogs, I am putting the blame fair and squarely on the owners.

[Amax-1]

Common sense means not entering a yard with a dog in it.

Even a 10 year old?

I think again we fall back to education - parents should be responsible for teaching their children NOT to approach unknown dogs and don't go into a yard with a dog in there. Don't pull animals tails, ears, stick things in the ears, eyes and bums..

At 10 years old, surely a child knows not to enter a yard with dogs in it - or am I expecting too much from a 10 year old these days.

I know my boys at that age would not have entered someones yard uninvited, let alone one with loose dogs.

It is a very sad situation for all involved.

It reminds me of the report a few years ago where a dog on the vets table to be euthanized for biting a child in the face causing severe injury had a coloured pencil jammed into it's ear canal......the child shoved a pencil into the dog's ear and got bitten?

Years ago I taught a child to play ball with a dog of mine who was bullet proof with kids, a dog of extreme nerve strength. I taught the child to throw the ball and when the dog returned it, tell him "out" and he will drop the ball in your lap and you throw it again for him. That was great for 3 retrieves of the ball and on the 4 retrieve the child decided instead of the "out" command, he would smack the dog on the nose with a steel ruler he grabbed from the desk to release the ball. The dog growled and bared teeth frightening the child who's mother threw a fit at me for exposing her child to my dog exhibiting signs of a child killer.

This dog did not spook and bite out of line, he was a super dog in stability so what did this child do to cause a reaction in the dog to warn the child to knock it off......the steel ruler was laying on the floor? The child admitted in the end he whacked the dog across the nose with the ruler so he wouldn't drop the saliva soaked ball on his lap. I have never let a child play with my dogs from that day forward which was 20 years ago. Kids can do some stupid stuff with dogs and few dogs are really child killers but many have been sadly PTS on that assumption.

[Staffyluv]

Parents should teach their kids how to interact (or not) with all pets..

I remember my brother being bitten on the hand by a ACD when we were kids - he put his hand in the back of the ute, the dog was on, to pat it and it bit his hand. Not severely but enough to break skin.

My father clipped my brother around the ear for being an idiot and he should have known better than to touch a dog on a car..

It is totally the other way around now - if a kid did that today, the dog would be more than likely be euth'd..

Not for one minute saying kids deserve being attacked, just that we don't seem to be imparting enough info to our kids today about what is and ins't appropriate around animals for them to stay safe.

[hankdog]

In the last house the neighbors kids would hop over the fence and swim under the pool cover as soon as we went out. We asked the parents to stop them as we felt it was unsafe. They'd just laugh and say kids will be kids....Hank was also in the backyard, really the kid should have respected the fence. Again he doesn't deserve to be bitten but if there's a fence then stop.

[Amax-1]

Parents should teach their kids how to interact (or not) with all pets..

I remember my brother being bitten on the hand by a ACD when we were kids - he put his hand in the back of the ute, the dog was on, to pat it and it bit his hand. Not severely but enough to break skin.

My father clipped my brother around the ear for being an idiot and he should have known better than to touch a dog on a car..

It is totally the other way around now - if a kid did that today, the dog would be more than likely be euth'd..

Not for one minute saying kids deserve being attacked, just that we don't seem to be imparting enough info to our kids today about what is and ins't appropriate around animals for them to stay safe.

The ACD was the classic ute protector and guardian of the tradie's tools :laugh:

That happened to me years ago......the police pulled me over for a licence check and then wanted to check under the bonnet for oil leaks on my ute. The young cop went to lean in and open the bonnet and I told him not to otherwise my dog will bite him more than likely and he didn't listen. The dog tore the sleeve of his jacket open and just grazed his arm. The young cop starts complaining and the old sergeant who was with him said "he told you not to stick your arm in the window you dickhead, now get back in the (police) car". That was in 1978 and the rules then were stick you hand in where a dog was contained and you get bitten, bad luck :D

A lot of car yards had guard dogs back then at night, GSD's and Dobes were common and if someone jumped the fence and got bitten tough....there were no arguments or litigation about it, shouldn't have jumped the fence was the resolution!

I have a had a woman go as far telling me that saying to her child who I stopped trying to pat my dog that he might bite was emotionally damaging placing fear of dogs into her child's mind? Mum told us from as long as I can recall that other people's dogs can bite so don't touch them. Mum taught us from a young age to stand still if bailed up by a dog, don't stare at it and don't run....we had good dog education as most kids did back then as there were plenty of loose dogs around in the day.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Amax-1

[Amax-1]

In the last house the neighbors kids would hop over the fence and swim under the pool cover as soon as we went out. We asked the parents to stop them as we felt it was unsafe. They'd just laugh and say kids will be kids....Hank was also in the backyard, really the kid should have respected the fence. Again he doesn't deserve to be bitten but if there's a fence then stop.

You don't need to loose Hank to the bridge either if he did bite them for doing something stupid whilst in your "fenced" yard.

[JulesP]

The owners didn't 'need' to pts these dogs they wanted to. It was their choice.

[Staffyluv]

The owners didn't 'need' to pts these dogs they wanted to. It was their choice.

That is true Jules, there would be a lot of people that would do the same thing - the whole 'can we ever trust them again' thing would scare some owners.

I still think it is a terribly sad situation for all involved.

I also still believe that at 10 years of age, a child can read and should know better than to enter a yard with dogs and a sign saying beware of the dogs.

Parents should teach their kids these things.

I hate the kids over the back coming over my fence but what else can I do - nothing. They are too young to be charged with anything (not that I would want to go down that track anyway). But they and their parents just won't listen when I tell them if they throw their toys in my yard, to come around the front and ask me to get it for them.

Because Zig has never done anything to them, they think it is safe.

It concerns me because I have foster dogs here from time to time and I worry that a foster might not be happy about them jumping in the yard - then it will be my fault that their kid gets bitten and I will more than likely be expected to euth the animal.

It is a hard call but I really do believe that parents should teach kids and kids should know better.

[Trisven13]

Common sense means not entering a yard with a dog in it.

Even a 10 year old?

I think again we fall back to education - parents should be responsible for teaching their children NOT to approach unknown dogs and don't go into a yard with a dog in there. Don't pull animals tails, ears, stick things in the ears, eyes and bums..

At 10 years old, surely a child knows not to enter a yard with dogs in it - or am I expecting too much from a 10 year old these days.

I know my boys at that age would not have entered someones yard uninvited, let alone one with loose dogs.

It is a very sad situation for all involved.

Would one have entered someone's yard uninvited looking for their brother who they were told was at that house? I can see why a child who is told their brother is at a specific house would feel that it was safe to enter when otherwise they may not.

[~Anne~]

Dogs should never be trained to attack. Why we do this I will never know. There are plenty of other methods that can be used to protect property.

[Staffyluv]

Common sense means not entering a yard with a dog in it.

Even a 10 year old?

I think again we fall back to education - parents should be responsible for teaching their children NOT to approach unknown dogs and don't go into a yard with a dog in there. Don't pull animals tails, ears, stick things in the ears, eyes and bums..

At 10 years old, surely a child knows not to enter a yard with dogs in it - or am I expecting too much from a 10 year old these days.

I know my boys at that age would not have entered someones yard uninvited, let alone one with loose dogs.

It is a very sad situation for all involved.

Would one have entered someone's yard uninvited looking for their brother who they were told was at that house? I can see why a child who is told their brother is at a specific house would feel that it was safe to enter when otherwise they may not.

I wondered if the lad knew there were dogs in the yard to begin with - is it in his neighbourhood?

Was his brother even there?

If so, I wonder how his brother got into the house, via the yard without being attacked??

In my case with my boys, no - there is 7 years between my boys, so they never associated with the same friends etc.

But I guess under those circumstances, I guess it is reasonable for a lad to go looking for his brother at the address..

Has anyone heard how the poor little guy is going?

How his surgery went?

I do hope he is OK. I am sure the physical scars will heal well - it would the be emotional scars from an attack like this that would be more serious for such a young mind.

[raineth]

I was about 10 when I went in a yard with dogs in it and one of them bit me.

We were friends with the family who lived there. She had called my mum and asked my mum if I could bring over some sugar as they had run out (we lived rurally).

I walked over with the sugar. It was a distance of about 1km.

When I got there the dogs were in the house yard and began barking at me, so I stayed on the outside and called out... no response. I called out, and called out as loud as I could many times and apparently the lady mustn't have heard me, or the three dogs which were barking at me (how I do not know, as together we were all being pretty loud).

So I was really conflicted. On the one hand I knew going into the yard was a bad idea, but on the other I thought I would get into trouble from my mum if I didn't deliver the sugar.

I kind of knew the dogs, and I thought if they were really a problem they wouldn't have left them in the yard when they knew I was coming over. So I decided to go in, and I got bitten. Not badly though.

Kids just don't always make the best choices.

[Simply Grand]

Oh, you poor thing raineth That makes sense now you say it though, I think a lot of kids think along those lines - "I was told to do something so I have to do it" and they don't yet have the maturity or experience to realise that sometimes it's ok not to do what you've been told in circumstances like yours.

I wonder if the little boy had been told to go and get his brother? Of course he might not have been but it is another possibility

[Sabbath]

I guess anything is possible to propose why the boy was there. The dogs don't know why the boy was there. Sad all round but I still can't reason why the dogs must pay.

[cavNrott]

Would one have entered someone's yard uninvited looking for their brother who they were told was at that house? I can see why a child who is told their brother is at a specific house would feel that it was safe to enter when otherwise they may not.

Who told the 10yo boy that his brother was at the house? No one here knows, if the brother was there.

My 7yo grandson wouldn't enter a neighbours property without invitation, especially if there are dogs in the yard.