Chloe King, 21, found Ava-Jayne Corless lying on a bed, with her body floppy and blood on her.
Miss King had put her daughter to sleep in a bedroom of Lee Wright's house in Blackburn - her then boyfriend - in Lancashire and had gone downstairs and fallen asleep on the sofa with him.
She said when she fell asleep the dog had been secure in the kitchen.
But it had got free and gone upstairs and attacked Ava. The child died of 'unsurvivable' multiple injuries inflicted by the alleged pit bull terrier-type dog, which is a banned breed of the animal.
At an inquest into her daughter's death Miss King told how she discovered her daughter's lifeless body when she woke up and went upstairs on February 10.
She said: 'I walked into the bedroom. The landing light was on but the bedroom light was not. I remember seeing there was a dark stain about halfway down the bed. I noticed the dog was in the bedroom and I thought, what is it doing there. Ava was halfway down the bed. My initial thought was that I needed to pick her up. I knelt on the bed and picked her up. She still had a blanket on her. Ava was really floppy.
'I had only just woken up. At that point I had not realised blood was on her. I thought she was in a deep sleep. I laid Ava on the bed, kneeling over her, cuddling her, Ava made a grunting noise. I was giving her kisses, talking to her ... Lee was screaming "is she all right?" I got my phone and said I need an ambulance now.
'I turned the light on, I saw Ava pale, her lips were really white. I thought she was asleep for a split second. I then noticed drops of blood on the floor.
'I ran out in the hallway. I thought I was going to pass out. I felt sick and I collapsed on the floor. I thought I (had) woke up in a nightmare and it could not be happening.'
Miss King said she believed the dog, called Snoop had been blocked in by a speaker and a golf bag stand in the kitchen when she put her daughter to bed that evening.
In a statement read out to the court she said: 'I gave her [Ava] a kiss and told her that I loved her like I always did at night. I told her she was my dream girl and gave her another cuddle. I left the room about 8.45pm and went downstairs. We put a film on and I fell asleep. When I had fallen asleep the dog was in the kitchen.'
The couple woke up at about 11pm and went upstairs where Miss King was initially baffled by the appearance of the dog in the bedroom.
She said: 'I thought maybe the dog had been chewing a toy on the bed. I laid her (Ava) on the bed and started cuddling her. I was holding her close and she was making a grunting noise. I was giving her kisses and said "you need to wake up now, come on."'
Only when she turned the light on did Miss King realise how badly injured her daughter was. She rang paramedics who tried to revive the child before they took her to the ambulance and to hospital. She died shortly afterwards at 11.53pm.
Miss King also rang her mother, Claire, and screamed down the phone: 'Ava's dead. The dog got her at Lee's.'
Miss King, a student, was not allowed to go to hospital with her daughter at the time.
'I said I just wanted to die,' she told the inquest at King George's Hall in Blackburn.
'Why could not I have died? Why did the dog not attack me? I said I did not want to live either if Ava did not make it.'
The inquest heard that the dog was usually kept away from Ava, but that night she had a 'nasty cough' and the bedroom door had been left open so Miss King could hear her if she woke up.
In the statement she added: 'Ava had only been in contact with Snoop once or twice before. He was always in a separate room and never upstairs when Ava was there. I was always quite wary in case he stepped on her.'
In tribute to her daughter, Miss King told the inquest: 'I'm devastated about what's happened. My baby has lost her life. It will stay with me for the rest of my life and I would have done anything to trade places with her. I don't understand why the dog attacked that night. She will always be my beautiful daughter and I shall treasure the memories.'
After her daughter was taken to hospital Miss King was arrested on suspicion of child neglect and was taken to a police station in Blackburn where she was later informed her daughter had died that night.
Both Miss King and Mr Wright were then held on suspicion of manslaughter before they were released on bail and told in April that no charges would be brought against them.
Dr Philip Lumb, a forensic pathologist, said Ava died from the multiple injuries she suffered. This included a large wound on her neck with bruises and grazes covering her head, neck, chest and arms.
The child also had a severely damaged rib cage and punctured lung.
Miss King had been seeing Mr Wright for three to four months but they had only been together officially for ten days when the incident happened.
They had met in September 2013 when Mr Wright was out walking his dog, known by neighbours as Killer. She said the dog had never bitten anyone before and she had never heard him bark, but instead he had normally greeted her by 'slathering kisses.'
Miss King said her former boyfriend had described the dog as an American Bulldog and told her he had spent £4,000 prior to the attack fixing his broken leg.
The nine stone animal had injured himself while fighting with Mr Wright’s other dog, a Japanese Akita called Wolfgang some months before.
The court heard that Snoop had also killed a neighbour’s cat in March 2013.
Mr Wright was said to be 'always paranoid' burglars were going to break into his house but denied to police that he owned the dog for protection.
Giving evidence, retired police officer Peter Talak, who now specialises in prohibited dog breeds, examined the dog the day after the incident and concluded that it did have 'substantial characteristics of a pit bull terrier type.'
Police believe the dog is a pit bull terrier, which is on a list of dogs banned in the UK along with a Japanese Tosa and Figa Braziliero. However Mr Wright denies this and said the dog is an American bulldog.
He has been charged under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and his trial was postponed until the New Year because experts have been unable to identify the dog's breed.
The inquest continues.
(Daily Mail - Dec 9, 2014)
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