Ha. Open virtual mouth, insert virtual foot. I meant that this is Neatorama - I followed the link from mental floss - but the sentiment still holds true.
Alex - A few years ago, a baby in my area was killed by a 4-pound Pomeranian that had never been socialized with children. I myself, working with dogs for years, have been bitten many times by dogs of all sizes and only ever required medical treatment for the Jack Russell bite (15 pound dog) that nearly lost me my hand. In contrast, the pit bull with the gangrenous leg and foot that was literally falling off only tried to push our hands away with his closed mouth after he slipped his muzzle while we were treating him.
There's no way to tell. The most important factor is an individual dog's level of bite inhibition, which, whatever the media would have you believe, has very little to do with breed. Also consider that the most common victim of dog bites are children by an overwhelming margin, and the difference between a 20-lb dog and a 70-lb one becomes pretty insignificant. A collie is still stronger than a child, and a chihuahua can kill a baby just as dead as a pit bull could. The difference is that people, thanks to media bias, assume all pit bulls are ticking-time-bomb dangerous, and therefore all other dogs are safe, and parents don't worry about supervising their friendly poodle around the baby. After all, poodles don't attack, right? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,481426,00.html Oops. Okay, what about dachshunds? They're safe, right? http://www.wftv.com/news/18846964/detail.html#- Oh. Well...cocker spaniels are friendly, right? http://cbs2.com/local/long.beach.dog.2.960954.html I could go on for hours.
I have to say I'm rather disappointed to see this entire discussion here. This is mental floss. I really expected a moderately educated response.
In any case, it's an adorable video, and this sort of nurturing behavior is extremely common with bully breeds. There's a reason pits are called nanny dogs.
There's no way to tell. The most important factor is an individual dog's level of bite inhibition, which, whatever the media would have you believe, has very little to do with breed. Also consider that the most common victim of dog bites are children by an overwhelming margin, and the difference between a 20-lb dog and a 70-lb one becomes pretty insignificant. A collie is still stronger than a child, and a chihuahua can kill a baby just as dead as a pit bull could. The difference is that people, thanks to media bias, assume all pit bulls are ticking-time-bomb dangerous, and therefore all other dogs are safe, and parents don't worry about supervising their friendly poodle around the baby. After all, poodles don't attack, right?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,481426,00.html
Oops. Okay, what about dachshunds? They're safe, right?
http://www.wftv.com/news/18846964/detail.html#-
Oh. Well...cocker spaniels are friendly, right?
http://cbs2.com/local/long.beach.dog.2.960954.html
I could go on for hours.
I have to say I'm rather disappointed to see this entire discussion here. This is mental floss. I really expected a moderately educated response.
In any case, it's an adorable video, and this sort of nurturing behavior is extremely common with bully breeds. There's a reason pits are called nanny dogs.