Mar 08 2009
Babies & Pit Bulls
I love my dogs and I know they would never hurt me, but when I was pregnant with my daughter, with all of the stories in the news about dogs (not just pits, all dogs) attacking and killing tiny babies, I was scared. I didn’t know when or how I should introduce them. In the first days I would bring my sleeping child up to their crates and let the dogs sniff her. Eventually I would let them come around while I was holding her. Over more months, as I felt more comfortable, I began to let them roam freely around her. I was a bit nervous at first, but then something strange happened.
My dogs saw her as a real person, even more real than I saw her. If my sister or someone else came into the room and yelled for whatever reason, my dog would actually stand in front of my daughter, as if they were protecting her, and growl or bark at the aggressor. My baby would fall asleep in my arms and I would transition her to a pallet and go about my business in the same room. When I looked over one of my dogs would be curled up next to her on the floor. They are never rough with her, and when she uses rough hands once in a while (we practice “nice hands” but sometimes she gets a little rambunctious) they don’t pay attention. They lick her. My pit/retriever mix brings things over to her to throw, and sometimes she actually complies (by accident, of course). When she cries, they whine. When she laughs, they wag their tails. My 75 pounder tries to sit in her lap (he sees himself as a tiny lap dog). They wait under her high chair for her to throw food.
While I wasn’t paying attention, they accepted her into the family. I am always careful and never too trusting, as they are still dogs no matter how human they seem to be, but they love her. They protect her. They cuddle with her and steal her blanket, and I am eternally grateful.
Well, I’d always heard that the best dogs to have around small children were the ones with high pain thresholds so pinchy little tail-grabbing fingers wouldn’t bother them much. As a category, it’s hard to beat pit bulls for that trait!
Thats a great story.We used to own a part pit .We loved her dearly and she was extremely smart. She dissapeared and we miss her.I always heard that pits don’t recognize babies and small children as human and that may be why you hear about them attacking small children. But you seem to have a handle on it with a watchful eye and I hope everything goes well.