National Dog Bite Prevention Week

This week is Dog Bite Prevention Week.  I thought it would be a good time to share some tips on how to prevent dog bites.  According to the American Veterinary Medical Foundation, 4.5 million people in the US are bitten by dogs, 800,000 of these need medical attention and at least half of these are children.  Children are by far the most common victim of dog bites and are more likely to be severely injured.

 

 

So, what can you do to avoid dog bites?  Proper training of your dog, socialization, and educating children are a few options.  I know I go on and on about training and socializing your dogs, but this is vitally important, not only to prevent dog bites, but also for the health and benefit of you and your dog.  A dogs formative months are between 3 and 12 weeks.  This is when puppies should be socialized the most.  Get them around people, get them around other dogs, and get them around children.  Teach them that people, other dogs, and children aren’t bad.  You will have a much more behaved dog who will be comfortable in strange situations.

 

Here at the rescue we’ve raised many puppies over the years.  The feedback we get most is how well behaved and socialized our puppies are.  One thing is we do not adopt them out until they are at least 12 weeks old.  This is very beneficial for the puppy because they learn from their mother and their siblings.  Once they are about 4 weeks old, we start taking them out in public to get them used to people and other dogs.  The better you socialize your puppy, the better behaved they will be.

 

 

However, you also need to learn how to read a dog’s body language.  They can’t verbally say ‘Hey…leave me alone’, so you need to read the signs to know when they want to be left alone or play, or aren’t feeling well.  Modern Dog Magazine has a great article on how to read a dog’s body language.  Dog Language 101 also has some great information in this article.

 

We have found that a lot of dog bites happen when people are greeting a new dog.  Here are some tips on how not to greet a dog:

 

I’ve found, personally, that if I get down on the dogs level, they are much more comfortable in approaching me than they would be if I stood over them.  Especially with timid dogs.  Of course you don’t want to do this if a dog is clearly showing signs of aggression, but I always get down on my knees and wait for the dog to approach me before I pet it.  You don’t ever want to grab a dog and pull them toward you if you are just meeting them.

Since the majority of dog bites happen with children, you don’t ever want to leave your young child alone with a dog, even if it is your family pet.  Children must be supervised while playing with the dog and you need to pay attention to the signals the dog is giving off.  When the dog has had enough, put them somewhere where they can get some peace away from fawning children.  You aren’t just supervising your child, but also the dog.  If you learn to read the signs, you will know when your dog has had enough and they want some quiet time.

 

 

Also, teach your child not to disturb your dog while they are sleeping, eating, or chewing on a toy.  Teach them not to run up to a strange dog to give them a hug.  Teach them to be polite to the dog and respect their personal space.  In the rescue each dog has their own kennel that they can go to when they want quite time.  We never disturb the dogs while they are in their kennels.  If we want them, we call them out of the kennel. 

I could go on and on, but I only have so much space.  J  Bottom line, train your pet, socialize your pet, learn how to read your pets body language, and teach children to respect the pet.

 

Be Well & Be Happy,
Pet~Pourri