There’s nothing quite as cute as seeing your kids bonding with their four-legged friends, and being around dogs can be very rewarding for children who learn how to care for another creature in the process. However, you should never forget that dogs can be a danger to adults and children alike.
That’s why it’s important that you teach your kids how to respect dogs and how to keep safe around them, as well as how to show them love and affection.
How do you keep your kids safe around dogs? By doing the following for starters:
Supervise Them
You should never leave your’s or anyone else’s dog around young children unsupervised; It is unfair to both the dog and the child to put them in a situation which could be stressful and dangerous for them both. Once they’re older and they know how to behave around dogs, providing you know the demeanor of the dog, you can afford them more freedom, but while they’re small, you need to be there all the time.
Teach Your Kids to Ask Before Patting an Unknown Dog
For the good of your children, the dogs in your community and their owners, you should very early teach your child that they must never run up and pat a dog that they don’t know. If they really want to give the pooch some attention, they should politely ask the owner first because the owner is the one who will know how safe it is and is the one who’ll be on the wrong side of a lawyer for a dog bite injury if things go wrong, and even then, they should only really be doing that when they’re with an adult because encouraging them to talk to strangers is obviously a big no-no too.
Teach Them Not to Hurt or Scare the Dog
Although some dogs are just of the temperament that children make them nervous, it’s pretty common for the most placid and loving of dogs to turn violent when a child is allowed to treat them like a ragdoll, pulling at their tails and flinging them around. That’s why it’s so important that you teach your children how to behave around dogs, You should teach them how to gently stroke the dog or tickle his belly and make it abundantly clear that the tail is out of bounds. You should also make it clear that putting their face in the dog’s face is not safe, nor is taking his toys from him or waking him up when he’s sleeping.
Learn a Little About Body Language
It’s never a bad idea for you and your kids to learn a bit about doggy body language so that you can spot the signs that they are mad, angry or scared and therefore modify your behavior or remove yourself and the kids out of his path. It will help you take better care of your pooch too.
Dogs and kids can get along like a house on fire, but it all depends on what you teach your kids and how you train your dog. It’s worth remembering that before you throw them together.
Pingback: Letting Your Kids Choose Their Own Clothes