I see several issues here: a.) The baby is left in a swing while the father sleeps in another room with the 3 year old? Who leaves an infant alone in a swing and then goes in the other room to sleep? Why not a play pen? Why not in the same room as the parent? That is mighty odd to me. b.) Dogs and swings: I have encountered a number of dogs that will get aggressive with kids in swings. I remember an Australian Shepherd that would bite the kids when they got off the swing. I think this has to do with the herding instinct, and the frustration of the inability to deal with a constantly moving small live animal / person. This dog looked to me to be an Australian Shepherd / Golden Retriever cross. c.) This was aggression, I'm sure of it. The child was dismembered. A fear bite is front teeth punctures. What they blocked from the article was a full description of the injuries. We can tell a lot from the type of injuries. Many of these attacks are skull crushing bites, and often cause the child to be decapitated. That happens when animals attack their own or the young of competitors. They go for the head and crush it, and they don't eat the corpse in most cases, unless they are males. Lions do it to other lions, for example. They go for a skull crushing head bite, and they tear the body apart. You can't assume a dog that is good with people is going to be good with an infant, because there is a different dynamic going on there. d.) It takes time for a rescue dog to settle into a home. I advise people to take 60 to 90 days to learn about the dog. I'm not sure how long this dog was in the home. e.) How many times do parents need to be warned that you don't leave infants and dogs alone together? You'd think that people would educate themselves more. Sam Basso http://www.samthedogtrainer.com

I think we should also address that shelter evaluations are NOT VALID. The dog is coming in, often unwell, stressed, separated from it's territory and pack. Then you threaten it with stupid tests and it defends itself. Way too many dogs are put down that are just acting normally for the situation.

So, is a police dog somehow defective? It is "reactive"... which is a stupid term because it doesn't mean a darn thing... and it has an uninhibited bite... it bites people all the time. Unfortunately, this isn't an area that I feel Ian Dunbar should be giving advice. I think his comments are illogical and ignorant, and discredit him as an "expert".

This makes plenty of sense. It's been obvious for years that there are a lot more pits and pit mixes than anyone knew, but everyone was going off the AKC records... but they don't recognize pits as a breed, only the AmStaffs. Once the actual numbers are in, divided into the actual incidents of aggression, then that blows the whole "vicious" argument out the door. There needs to be a balanced conversation out there regarding actual incidents, and what it means to be a responsible pet owner. But, the hysteria has outpaced the reality, and it is going to take many years to change the damage that has been done to these dogs.