It's the picture of the all-American family -- mom and dad, three kids and a pooch. But a new study suggests families should wait until children are older before adding a dog to the household.
Austrian medical researchers say that, even then, families with children should carefully choose the breed of dog they adopt. A collie or schnauzer is fine a Doberman pinscher or German shepherd is another story.
Dr. Johannes Schalamon and associates at the Medical University of Graz studied 341 cases of children treated for dog bites over a ten year period. They found that infants, children age one or younger, had the highest risk of being bitten. The risk, they say, remains high for kids up to age ten.
The researchers recommend that parents put off purchase of a dog until children are of school age. They say dogs are hard-wired to view very small children differently than older kids.
"Throughout evolution dogs have lived in packs with a specific order of dominance. In view of this rigorous hierarchical system in a pack, dogs may regard newborns as well as toddlers as subordinate," the researchers said.
The study was published in the March issue of Pediatrics.
