Bite Prevention

Bite prevention is very important for anyone, but especially children who are often very eager to pet strange dogs. Here are a few tips. If you would like to know more, please contact me, or if you think your child's school would be interested in having a dog safety and bite prevention talk and demo, please contact me for that as well.

1. A child should never run up to a strange dog - always approach calmly AFTER asking for PERMISSION to pet the dog first.

NOTE: You can say NO and not allow anyone to pet your dog - the choice is yours and you must look out for your dog especially if your dog is not friendly, afraid, new to you (recently adopted), easily overwhelmed, etc.

2. Once the dog is calm (on leash and by the master's side), slowly approach and allow the dog to smell a CLOSED FIST - NOT and open hand with fingers exposed. Fingers can easily be bitten.

3. Then calmly pet UNDER THE CHIN, not over the head as this could startle the dog.

4. Keep it petting to a minimum so as not to excite the dog too much.

#dogs #biteprevention #dogbehaviour #childrenanddogs