05/18/2022
The world would be a better place for kids and dogs if we Just assumed that all dogs WILL and DO bite. Today I saw another post about someone giving up their 13yo lab because she had bitten the toddler. ALL. DOGS. BITE.
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Every dog, every human, every living creature has a breaking point. What we ask of dogs around tiny humans is INSANE and UNREASONABLE.
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Here a few guidelines for kids and dogs:
✅ dog and baby/toddler on the scene-parent in between. Quite literally this means that you need to be in between and actively supervising any and all interactions. Shoutout to @familypawsofficial
✅ toddlers and babies should never ever approach a dog. Period.
✅let sleeping dogs sleep
✅use baby gates and other tools to successfully separate dogs and tiny humans when you can not actively supervise (aka using FULL ATTENTION)
✅assume that your dog will bite and act as if it’s already happened. Truly. We’d all be better off for it
✅do not force interactions
✅your dog is neither a pony nor a teddy bear so riding, using a dog as balance or so forth is off limits
✅learn to recognize subtle signs of discomfort. The majority of dog parents do not know these and even those who think they are dog savvy rarely recognize these.
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It is not enough to watch and observe. It is not enough to think your dog is ok because they aren’t moving away. Most dogs don’t know that they CAN move away so they are caught in a lose lose situation. They don’t want to get in trouble for moving away (if you have ever corrected your dog for breaking a sit stay or down stay or a “place” or tried to get them to take a picture next to your tiny human…I’m
Talking to you) YET they don’t want to be subjected to whatever mayhem may be inflicted by the tiny human.
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If your dog can not move away, if your dog doesn’t know that they CAN move away, if they are punished for a growl, a lip curl, or a bark, you are on borrowed time.
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Sharing your life with a dog and a tiny human can be magical but BOTH the dog and the tiny human deserve to feel safe and not be put into situations where a bite is likely. Poking, prodding, petting that looks like hitting, running and falling into a dog, kicking (bc that’s what babies and toddlers do reflexively), throwing sippy cups…all would be incredibly annoying if it happened to even a human. We discourage pinching, poking, hitting, kicking when it comes to other humans yet somehow our dogs should just take it and do so gracefully?
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No one thinks their dog will bite until they do and truly, most bites with kids and dogs can be prevented. By assuming your dog bites, you can take proactive and preventive measures. It’s not about “bad dogs”. Any time you find yourself saying “my dog is so tolerant” or “Patient” or “lets my kids XYZ), you’ve already pushed your dog beyond what’s reasonable ✌🏻
