Wolfgang, I know what you're saying but that doesn't apply to all big dogs, I can't imagine any Wolfhound biting any child, to be honest, I have never even heard of a Wolfhound biting anybody ever, let alone a full blown attack, they really are such gentle creatures. I'm not saying it hasn't happened of course.
RATTER I am thinking of the situation where the baby grabs or pinches, or the foot slips into the dog's eye or ear and he snaps as he would at a biting fly or a wasp sting. I know its not common but if the dog is big and the child small, the outcome can be dreadful.
Wolfgang, believe it or not, a Wolfhound would not snap under those circumstances either, The problem would be when the dog was trying to get away from that situation, the child could be sent flying or stepped on with 10 stone of weight, that would be concern, certainly not the dog snapping.
I do however concede that it is a possibility depending on the makeup of that particularr dog and its upringing but I would trust my dogs 100% not to snap or bite. They are just big clumsy oafs. Wolfhounds really are a breed like no other breed I know of.
Big dogs have a sense of scale. It takes quite a bit for them to respond with a bite, but individuals might be exceptional in that regard. I doubt whether a big mastiff would bite a child, or anyone, who trod on its foot or tweaked its ear, yet mastiffs were not bred as wolfhounds were.
Wolfhounds are very tolerant beasts. When a papillon, a small spaniel, was aggressive enough to bite one of mine in the ankle, the response was simply to glance down, with a look that said "What was that?" followed by "Oh , really!" . The little dog just gave up.
Lol Fred, when my Gilligan was attacked by a jack Russell, he just stood there with this dog hanging. In mid air from his throat, Merlin came to the rescue and pulled the little beastie off and just held him on the floor until I got there, totally unharmed. Even the jrt's owner was impressed. I must admit to panicking a little when I saw Merlin wrap his huge jaws around the little terrier.
Typical , raster. Only time I saw my grown dog's get aggressive was when the Dandie Dumont terrier bit the pup on the nose, apparently for get getting too close to her food. All Hell broke loose when they heard the screams. They charged full pelt from the room next door, and drove her off, leaving her cowering in the corner, scared out of her wits. Not surprising, being confronted with two beasts about three feet tall at the shoulder when she was only eleven inches !They then turned to attend to the pup.
::::but even then, they didn't bite her. They are great peace keepers too. When the little ones fall to scrapping, and, being mostly sisters they do this quite a lot, fur flying and screams emerging from the scrum, one of the wolfs dashes over, stands over the combatants, and goes "WOOF !" very loudly. One of them looks up, and all of them scatter. Peace is restored ! Of course, he may mean to shout encouragement, but it is never read that way
I love bigger dogs but I don't have the space in my little bungalow, so I have to make do with my shih tzu x westies. When I was young in the family we had nice but dim Afghans and deerhounds. I do like a dog you can stroke on the head without bending down.
We had the Affies from being quite young kids so in the early years the dogs were a lot taller than us 'standing up' . I just thank god none of them ever thought to lick my head ;-)