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Kids & Canines Key Points M.E.S.S - MANAGEMENT. EDUCATION. SOCIALISATION. SUPERVISION. - Children and dogs should always be supervised regardless of age or familiarity with the dog
- The majority of serious bites to children occur in the home with a family pet or a well known friends or relatives dog - The majority of serious bites occur to children around 4 years of age - The dogs involved in these serious incidents have often been family pets that have been considered safe and accustomed to the child - A large proportion of bites are a result of fear - Just because your puppy is raised with your children doesn’t mean it is well socialised to any other children or children of different ages - It is normal for tolerance to reduce over time with lack of exposure, over exposure, stress, ill health and age so dogs need to continue being monitored and socialised towards all children throughout their lives to maintain tolerance levels Dog Owners - Have a responsibility to ensure the safety of any children that may come into contact with their dog at any stage during their dogs life - Should implement socialisation; training, education and management to child proof their dog regardless of whether they have children themselves - If appropriate could consider some constructive supervised activities that your dog can be taught to do with children, such as retrieving, games or tricks - Should provide a time out area in your home, where you pup can go to without being disturbed or accessed by children - Should consider in advance what risks are involved with their dog and what management will need to be implemented for occasions when children may be present
Children should
- Be taught to be well mannered and respectful around dogs
- Learn to turn away and ignore the dog when it jumps up, mouths or behaves inappropriately. (This can be difficult, if not impossible, for young children. Therefore it is essential that adults use good management and set both the child and the dog up to succeed) - Be encouraged not to pick up puppy’s or small dogs - Be reinforced for quiet and constructive time with the dog - Be taught to leave dogs undisturbed when they are; * Eating or drinking * Injured or aged * Asleep * Frightened, offensive or just not relaxed * Tied up or secured in a car or yard * May be guarding a stick, toys or a bone- Be encouraged to assist, where practical and safe, with your dogs training - Be taught to interpret and respect dog’s body language - Be taught to identify when it is safe to approach and how to pat a dog appropriately (Asking parents, owners and dogs permission. Petting on shoulder or chest instead of the top of the head). - Be guided and supervised to behave appropriately around your pup or dog Puppies
Puppies should be taught to be well mannered and respectful around children with a positive association. They should be socialised extensively with different children of all ages - note that children do not always have to interact with your puppy to achieve socialisation benefits and doing enjoyable activities in the vicinity of children can also provide socialisation benefits. Puppies can be taught to enjoy or tolerate inappropriate activities that children may do. The activities should be introduced at a level that doesn’t frighten or upset the puppy and coincides with a reward. Using this reward method, puppies can be taught to tolerate many activities that could otherwise present a problem later in life.
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