03/14/2022
“How can I make my dog more child friendly?” The question really should be, “How can I make my child more dog friendly?”
This is a subject that I feel very strongly about, and I cannot stress enough how important it is to teach children how to behave around dogs. I often see children treating dogs like toys...jumping on them, pulling them, poking them, kissing and hugging them, screaming and encouraging dogs to chase them, which then sometimes leads to tears, anger, and stressed parents when the dog nips them, or worse. It’s usually the dog that gets the blame when this happens and it really isn’t the dogs fault.
Dogs don’t come with a built-in ability to know how to interact with children, and it’s up to parents to teach their children how to interact with dogs. If children were taught from a very young age how to interact and respect a dog’s space there would be far fewer incidents of dog bites.
The normal “human” behavior of showing affection involves hugging, squeezing, kissing on the face, or leaning against each other, but some dogs find this uncomfortable, stressful, or even frightening, and could easily lead to a dog bite. This is why it’s so important to always supervise young children around dogs...to be sure you're aware of how YOUR dog feels about this. When a dog is feeling stressed or frightened or trapped, and their attempt to communicate this through their body language is ignored, they may see no other way to make the scary situation go away than to snap or bite.
When you have children and dogs living together in your house, YOU are responsible for ALL of their safety, comfort, and well-being. Make it a top priority to learn your dog's body language so you can see what they're trying communicate at any given time.
Some dogs don’t like being hugged, kissed, or sat on, but because they love their people so much, they tolerate it. Teach your child that dogs usually like quiet, soft, calm voices and that shouting and screaming can scare or concern them. Teach them never to disturb dogs that are sleeping, eating, or chewing something. Teach them now what will be a lifelong understanding of our canine companions.
