The three-day-old boy was in bed with his parents who were watching TV when the mother coughed and startled the two-year-old, nearly 100-pound dog called Polo.
It reacted by biting the child, said Sergeant Tu Nguyen of the San Diego police child abuse unit.
"The mom coughed unexpectedly and it startled the dog, which bit the baby, causing traumatic injury," said Nguyen, whose unit was called in to investigate the death of any child.
"The parents were able to separate the dog from the baby and they rushed him to the hospital but they were not able to save him," he said.
Nguyen, who called the death a "tragic accident," declined to say where the baby was injured and said police are waiting for the Medical Examiner's report on the exact cause of death.
The dog was taken into custody by San Diego County Animal Services, officials said. Any dog that bites a person is placed in quarantine by animal control, said Dan DeSousa, deputy director of the agency.
DeSousa said the family can direct animal control to euthanise the dog or they can claim the dog at the end of a 10-day quarantine, but so far the agency has not received any instructions.
If the family do not reclaim Polo, he will be put down.
Nguyen said the dog reacted by biting the baby, resulting in a traumatic injury. He said the parents pulled the animal off and took their only child to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy is under way to determine the cause of death.
Nguyen, a sergeant in the child abuse unit, says the baby's death appears to be "nothing more than a tragic accident."
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports animal control officers took the 2-year-old dog into custody.
(Mirror UK - April 23, 2016)
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