Pound Dog Rescue

Familiar Dogs and Dog Safety

Most children who are bitten by a dog know the animal or its owners. Teach your children that it is important to remember dog safety rules with every single dog, even the one that shares your home.

1. Always be calm around a dog. Children tend to get carried away with their excitement at seeing or playing with a dog. A child’s enthusiasm can be contagious, and even dog that is normally calm may become excited and hurt a child by accident.
2. Once you give your dog his dinner or a treat, let him eat it in peace. Dogs may become protective of their food if they feel it is threatened by a child.
3. Teach very young children to be gentle to all animals. If a toddler is pulling on a dog’s ears or tail, gently say, “be soft to the doggy,” and show them the appropriate way to stroke a dog.
4. Explain to children that dog’s don’t like to be touched in certain places like their ears, eyes, and feet.

Unfamiliar Dogs and Dog Safety

A child that has grown up with dogs in her home may be overconfident in approaching loose or unfamiliar dogs. Teach your children that they should teach dog they don’t know as “strangers.” Just as your child wouldn’t walk up to a strange person and try to talk to them, she shouldn’t walk up to a strange dog and try to pet it.

1. Children should never attempt to pet a neighbor’s dog through the fence. The dog may seem perfectly friendly until a child invades the dog’s territory by crossing the fence line.
2. Teach your child to ask permission from the owner before petting a dog on a leach.
3. Take time to talk to your children about dog body language. If a dog is saying, “go away!” with his body language, your child should be able to interpret that message.
4. If your child sees a loose dog, tell her to go and tell an adult rather than try to capture it herself. Explain that the dog may be sick or angry and that there are special people who are trained to catch loose dogs. Never make animal control officers into the bad guys.
5. It is instinct for a dog to chase a child that runs away from it. Help your children practice slowly backing away from a friendly dog instead of running. That way, when your child encounters a loose dog, he’ll know how to escape unharmed.

The National Centers for Disease Control estimate that 4.7 million Americans are bitten by dogs every year. Dog bites are the 5^th most common reason that children end up in the emergency room. Far too often a dog bite results in a traumatized child and the death of a family pet that ends up being euthanized for aggressive behavior that wasn’t entirely the dog’s fault. Educating your kids about dog safety is an essential step towards dog bite prevention. A few minutes spent talking to your child could save her the mental and physical suffering of a serious dog bite or mauling.