Just Thought Id Share

[adele1985]

Just thought id share this article (if it works)

What are your thoughts??

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-Alsatian.html

[uf353432]

I bet she hasn't risk assessed going to visit that home, that dog or whether s was safe for the child to be playing close to the dog. What the hell was she thinking letting a small child pull a dogs tail. What the hell is she thinking that the childs paretns would be considering her feelings one little bit. All she is doing is passing the buck, there doesn;t seem to be any remorse - even if she wasn't to blame you'd give the impression that you felt a huge amount of guilt surely?

I take children to friends houses, some have pets some don't but I tell you something there is no way on this earth I would assume a pet was ok to play close to or with. EVen my dog has strict rules about when and where it comes into contact with the children.

Shocking really - that poor little boy!

[Boris]

How horrific! That poor child, his face looks terrible.

I personally don't like dogs due to being bitten as a child so I am always very wary about dogs when I am out with the children. My CM friend has 2 dogs who are big but very gentle and we do go there to play sometimes but she always puts the dogs into another room so they can't get close to the children.

I do feel for the CM too though, she must feel terrible and we don't know the circumstances.

[Ripeberry]

I feel for the poor owner of the dog, they might have their dog destroyed, but then again, why did the CM bring a 'strange' child to the friend's house if maybe the dog is not used to that child?

I don't as a rule visit friends when minding, unless they are CMs as I know that their house will be R.A and is toddler friendly.
Anything could be lying around in someone else's house.

Just very sad sequence of events

[mushpea]

I dont leave the children alone with our own labrador yet alone anyone elses,, he is either in the kitchen behind a gate or in the garden where I can see both him and the children, the dog and the child should have been kept apart then this wouldnt have happend,, I do think the childminder came accross as being very selfish saying they hadnt considered how she felt and she hadnt said anything about wishing the child well or how she delt with his injurys etc.

[kel1983]

My brother has just moved in with us along with his 1 year old Staff. The dog is not allowed to be in the room with the children. He is either shut in the garden or in the kitchen with the stairgate. He is a really lovely dog and doesnt live up to his breed at all but you never know what could happen if one of the children wound him up.

[danasdaycare]

Horrific for all involved. Poor wee boy.

I have taken one mindee to friend's house with dog but R.A'd before and the dog was out of the way when children were playing (I know dog well and she is lovely but she does not even stay alone with my child and she guarded me when pregnant and my girl when a baby).

Now this part of my reply may offend, but don't mean to-I would not comment on any incident to the Press until governing body had given their reply after a full investigation and sought legal advice from my public liability insurer's. I feel it is a bit unprofessional?

It would be meaningful to show remorse for incident to parents & child privately, but not say 'oh the parent said I could do what I want with him'!

[MAWI]

OMG, just read that, its horrific. Poor little boy and his family. I'm reading it thinking "Risk Assessment, Risk Assessment " and Why oh Why would you let a strange dog mix or play withas omens else's child. I am very nervy about dogs and do not own one. I only visit other CM houses when working on rare occasions and one has 2 large dogs (labradors)but she always ensures that they are locked in kitchen as it is just common sense not to mix unfamiliar kids and dogs. This article makes me so angry. It also gives us childminders yet another bad name.
Also don't want to say too much more as no doubt this is the Mails version.

I know these things sometimes just happen out of the blue but from what I read she took no prentative measures. I somewhat sympathise with the childminder in that her livelihood has probably now gone and her family will no doubt get bad press etc.. ..that said, what on earth was she thinking! blimey. Wouldn't want to explain that to a parent!!!

[uf353432]

thing is when a parent says 'you can do what you like with him' I assume it is taken as read that they don't need to follow that up with 'as long as you keep him safe and secure, you protect him like your own and you make sure you deliver him back to me in a similar condition to the condition I left him in.' I mean - there is an implication that the childminder is suggesting that since mum said ' you can do what you like' that somehow that exhonerates her from putting him in a position where he could get seriously hurt.

Even if the childminder couldn't predict the outcome of a very young child playing close to an animal that they had never met, you certainly would hope that she should err on the side of caution and almost certainly not be allowing the child to pull any body part.

I agree I wouldn't have made any comments to the press - Ofsted haven't even been round and she's already spouting off.

[xgemx]

What an awful story that poor little boy
And i think she is a bit unfair to say the mum isnt even thinking about what she is going through well i should imagine the mums main priority is her son who has just been mauled by a dog

[Lady Haha]

What an awful story that poor little boy
And i think she is a bit unfair to say the mum isnt even thinking about what she is going through well i should imagine the mums main priority is her son who has just been mauled by a dog

This is exactly what struck me! The childminder is saying 'I saw the attack, it's me who is still having nightmares'........I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure the little boy's mum is feeling ALOT worse!!!! This childminder sounds very selfish and is only worried about losing her business!

[jane5]

I agree that the cm is not being very sensitive and is not doing herself any favours.

My daughter was bitten by my friends Alsation when she was 3 (in her 20's now).

We had come back from nursery and she walked over to the dogs bed and put her hands on its face to give it a kiss. This was a dog who was used to children and very friendly and it actually didnt bite her, it snapped at her to warn her off but its tooth caught the top of her lip and ripped it open.

It was horrific and she had lots of stitches and the dog was put to sleep.

I have a bit of a phobia of dogs after this and will not let my children or mindees any where near dogs. I am very aware of the damage a dog can do to a child.

My daughter on the other hand is dog mad and worked in a dog salon washing and clipping them. She is 5 ft and weighs 7 1/2 stone and used to tell me about the rotty that didnt like being bathed and I would be having a panic attack

I hope this little boy is ok and doesnt grow up afraid of all dogs.

[mummyMia]

I actually feel kind of sorry for the childminder. It is not clear from the article what the circumstances were and I am sure that the Mail would have picked out all the worst comments that she said and left out everything else. She may well have been negligent and been chatting in another room while the child was pulling a strange dog's tail in the kitchen. On the other hand she may have know the friend and the friend's dog for years and the dog may have been very placid up until now and she may have been in the kitchen supervising when it happened and it may have just been a really unfortunate accident. We just don't know the details.

[Trouble]

i never wrote this on my thread but i have 2 dogs a nutty boxer who is never with the kids as hes too bouncy and we lost a Labrador this year who was 12

we had both from pups the lab jack was a 100% trust dog he NEVER in all his years ever gave us a cause for concern

earlier this year a child came who didnt like dogs and i dont know if he sensed it or it was cause he was getting ill but when he saw the child he would bark the first time he did it i rushed he to the vets thinking he was in pain or something but no he was fine

but what the vet did say was his eye site was going and the child's shadow had frightened him (jack) and thats was why he had barked the way he did not long after we had him put to sleep as he got worse health wise but i NEVER EVER thought he would do that so it just goes to show

[Louise317]

Oh bless him

I've been bitten twice by dogs one been an Alsatian but he was provoked by someone else but I got it.

I'm always really weary when it come to pets.

I feel for all parties really

Is a dreadful Incident... just want to give him a big hug x

[Jodie1989]

Childminder is at fault in my opinion.. Poor poor child he should never have been put in a position like that BUT nore should the dog have been in an awful position that he needed to bite the child.

This gives childminders with dogs a harder time when good childminders would have risk assessments in place to avoid this.


Oo and not such a need for such a horrible picture of the 'type' of dog.

[ziggy]

I have just replied to other thread about dogs

sorry but you never know how a dog or a child is gonna act, safer to keep them apart in my opinion

[nikki thomson]

I personally wouldn't leave a child (mine or mindee) unsupervised with a dog but you can't really gage from the article the circumstances leading up to the incident.
I don't think the headlines help cm at all, but that's the media for you.

I would be devistated if a mindee was injured badly while in my care, it's bad enough when it's your own chdren.
The way the article is written makes out the cm doesn't care but I don't think people should jump to conclusions on the basis of a newspaper article.
I do however think the dog should be put down. X

[JCrakers]

Poor thing

I wouldn't like to comment on the article as I don't know the full story. She may well have been at fault and it's terrible what has happened and she's not doing herself any favours by saying what she has but things like this happen so quickly.

She may have known the dog for years and it could have been really placid and used to kids, the child may have just run up and pulled its tail and the dog could have turned all in a matter of seconds. It just goes to show that can a dog ever be trusted around small children? Children move quickly and they can shock a dog and the dog can just react to that in seconds. I'm not the one to comment until I know the whole story. As a childminder I would hate something to happen to a child obviously but if no one knows the whole story that's how gossip starts and if they get the wrong end of the stick, business and reputation could be ruined.
Poor little one, hope he gets better soon

[rosebud]

Thats really really sad.

I would just like to say that the childminders comments may well have been edited to sell papers, so wouldn't like to judge.