Why Dogs Attack Babies: Unfamiliarity, Smell, Sound And Gaze Can ...

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It is rare for dogs to attack infants, but as Monday's attack by a family's pet dog on a newborn baby has shown, even a child who is not interacting with a dog can be at risk.

Here are some of the factors experts say may prompt aggression in a dog.

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Smell

Infants have a strong smell. Given that a dog's sense of smell is tens of thousands of times more sensitive to odours than a human's, an unusual smell can seem like an assault on its senses.

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Dogs possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared with about 6 million in humans.

"What the dog perceives is very different from what humans perceive … There are things the dog can smell or hear that we can't," says veterinarian and animal behaviour specialist Andrew O'Shea, from the Sydney Animal Behaviour Service.

Sound

Dogs are much more sensitive to high pitched sounds than humans. Dogs hear a frequency range of 40 to 60,000 Hz while the human range is between 20 and 20,000 Hz.

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High-pitched, loud noises such as a baby's cry can excite them.

"It's possible a dog can misinterpret those sounds and think they're prey … or that tiny squeals might excite that dog," Mr O'Shea says.

Staring

Dogs in the wild tend not to look each other in the eye unless they are fighting for dominance. Babies don't blink very often, which can be taken as a sign of confrontation to a dog.

"With a dog that you don't know or have no social bond with, then staring it in the eyes can seem threatening," University of Sydney researcher and animal behaviour consultant Melissa Starling says.

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"With a baby … the quality of the gaze is different too, so it might disturb [the dog]."

This can combine with other unfamiliar characteristics of the baby to increase the potential for the dog to attack.

Movement

The behaviour of young children around dogs is a major factor in dog bites. Children and dogs can misinterpret each other's behaviour.

"The way toddlers move - they run around the place, they're not predictable, they move suddenly, they squeal, they wave their arms around - a lot of this can be scary to dogs," Mr O'Shea says.

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"We need to teach dogs to behave and be calm around kids, and we need to teach kids how to interact with dogs."

Unfamiliarity

"Especially for a dog that hasn't had much contact with babies, babies can seem quite strange. They smell strange, they make strange noises, their movements can be erratic," Ms Starling says.

All these unfamiliar characteristics may prompt a curious dog to investigate. And, like babies, dogs often use their mouths to investigate.

"When a dog comes across something new, they tend to grab it, pick it up with their mouth, drop it, pick it up, drop it again, shake it. And if the dog gets a good response from that, it's likely to do it again," Mr O'Shea says.

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It's possible, he says, that a dog that is investigating an unfamiliar arrival to the home can injure a baby through trying to pick it up or interact with it.

Jealousy (or hierarchy)

Can a dog attack a baby out of jealousy?

Little research has been done on this question, and the research that does exist is not clear on whether dogs experience jealousy as humans do.

Dogs can react to differential treatment. "But I don't know if you'd call that jealousy," Ms Starling says.

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"It could be the dog saying, 'I want that too' or responding to a sense of fairness ...

On the other hand, dogs are social animals and they obey a group hierarchy. Changes in the home, like the arrival of a baby, can prompt a family pet to behave differently to what one might expect.

Breed

The data is patchy but, anecdotally, most dog bites are caused by a small number of breeds, according to the RSPCA.

However, the organisation warns that any dog can bite.

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The RSPCA does not advocate breed-specific legislation and, where this legislation has been in place, it has not resulted in fewer bites, an RSPCA spokesperson said.

When it comes to size, the difference is the damage that can be inflicted by a large, strong breed versus a small dog.

Precautions

Related Article

Sydney father wakes to find pet dog mauling newborn baby in bassinet

"Any dog has the potential to injure children. Any dog has the potential to bite. Any dog should be supervised around children until the child is at least eight years of age," Mr O'Shea says.

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Here are some guidelines from the RSPCA:

• Children should be supervised around any dog. Do not assume that just because it is the family dog, everything will be fine. Children need to be taught how to approach, play with and interact with dogs.
• Teach children that dogs need their space. Let sleeping dogs lie. Do not disturb a dog that is eating. Recognise when a dog does not want to interact/play.
• Recognising fear and anxiety in dogs is important, as "aggression" in dogs is usually fear-based. Dogs usually show warning before a bite. Don't ignore these signals.

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