My sister's rottweiler bit her son and was put down. Then they got a new one

"Why would you want to risk this again?" the woman tells Kidspot.

My sister, *Annie and her husband, *Shaun’s first baby, like many couples was a fur baby: a rottweiler dog named Max.

I have personally never liked rottweilers. As a paediatric nurse I have seen the receiving end of dog bites on kids and many of them have been caused by this breed, so I was always hesitant about Max, especially when my kids were present and didn’t think they were the most suitable breed to have around children.

But Annie and Shaun were responsible pet owners and did all the right dog things including obedience training from a young age, so Max was generally well-behaved, and never showed any aggressive tendencies. 

When Annie and Shaun discovered they were pregnant about three years after buying Max, they followed all of the tips online about how to prepare their dog for a new baby and when their son arrived and Max was introduced to him, all of that work seemed to have been successful.

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Image: IStock

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"My mouth was literally agape"

For two years, everything ran smoothly. My nephew and Max adored each other, they’d play (well as much as a baby/ toddler and a large-sized dog can) and would sit side by side on the floor, or Max would follow him around the house as he moved from room to room.

But one day, out of the blue, Max snapped and bit my nephew on the arm. He had to go to the emergency room and needed a couple of stitches and while it was a horrendous situation to be in, Annie and Shaun did the right thing in having Max euthanised shortly after.

At the time, everyone they spoke to agreed that they did the right thing as well and that often dogs like these would go from showing no signs of aggression to an attack like this and there weren't always warning signs. 

My nephew didn’t seem overly affected by the bite which was wonderful because lots of times these situations can be quite traumatic for young children. However, losing Max did upset him quite a lot. 

But it was Annie and Shaun who were most affected by his death as well as just being (understandably) shaken up by the ordeal, which I think was compounded further by the fact that Annie was also four months pregnant.  Because of all of this, I thought that they might never have another dog again and to be honest, I wouldn’t have blamed them.

But boy, how wrong I was. Only three months later, Annie told me that they were in the process of buying another dog, another rottweiler, one that would arrive mere weeks before her second baby was born.

Hearing this update left me with my mouth literally agape. I couldn’t quite believe that they were buying another dog, of the same breed, one that could potentially do the same thing, perhaps with an even worse outcome and only months after that incident. Plus, now they wouldn’t just have my nephew but a newborn who could be at the receiving end.

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"Why would you want to risk this again?"

I raised my concerns with Annie, asking her if they had really thought it through and whether they might be better with a different breed of dog, one that is deemed less aggressive by nature and one that isn’t listed as one of the top breeds that bite.

She told me all of the things I have heard from rottweiler owners before, that it isn’t the breed, that they are gentle and sweet dogs and are often depicted in a way that isn’t fair, nor accurate.

But, I said, in Max’s case, it was. Why would you want to risk this again?

Well, Annie didn’t like hearing this and our conversation didn’t go anywhere further after this. It was clear that she and Shaun had made their minds up and nothing would change it.

I don’t agree with what they are doing but all I can do is control what I can, so my kids won't be staying at Annie’s home without my husband or me there and even then, I will be asking for the dog to be placed in a separate area so my kids cannot be put at risk.

There is no way, especially after it already happened once, that I am putting my kids in danger, but I do wish Annie would be wise enough to do the same thing for hers.

Originally published as My sister's rottweiler bit her son and was put down. Then they got a new one