Why teaching your kids “How to Greet a Dog” is so important.

 

Some may argue that it’s enough to teach a dog to be tolerant of ear and tail pulling, to be ok with having a teeny unpredictable human screaming loudly at them or running towards them at full speed. To put it simply- it just isn’t. A dog can only be so tolerant before we’ve missed all of their signs and signals showing discomfort and anxiety.

Conditioning your puppy (or adult dog) to not be bothered of a child’s unpredictable, erratic movements is absolutely (in my opinion) one of the most important things you can teach them, especially at a young age. In fact, puppy socialization classes exist for that reason. They are there to help you learn how to introduce your dog to new things, new people, new sights and sounds-and kids as well as adults. But this is only half the job if you have children in your life at all whether they are your own, or your nieces and nephews for example.

Teaching kids to respect animals, interact with them appropriately, and read dog body language is the other half of the responsibilities that we as the grown-ups have when it comes to bite prevention. This means explaining the ways that are and are not okay for greeting, petting, and what to do if they are uncomfortable around a dog who looks a little scary. This also means teaching them what not to do; such as ear and tail pulling, and respecting their furry buddy’s space. Had we taught Bruna as soon as we adopted her that she doesn’t need to be fearful of kids as well as to have excellent recall, things could have taken a less dramatic turn. Perhaps, if the neighbours son was taught what to do in the event that he caught the attention of a dog who was highly suspicious of his motives (when running into the yard), we may not even be having this conversation. It doesn’t mean that neither Bruna or the boy would have been unafraid in that instance, but the course of events could have been mighty different.

I’ve attached a couple more of Dr. Sophia Yin posters specifically directed towards kids and dogs, as well as a link to her website that will go into detail of each portion of images.

https://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/preventing-dog-bites-by-learning-to-greet-dogs-properly/

Thank you for reading the latest post, join me tomorrow for a bit about dog body language 🙂

XO

How NOT to interactHow TO interact