Dog Bites

As with any animal that a family may own, there are certain risks involved when it comes to the care and safety of not only your pet, but your family as well. It is quite popular to have dogs as they are entertaining and energetic. As family pet, they bring joy at homes. However, dogs must be trained properly.

As dogs are carnivorous by nature they do have an internal instinct to attack if they feel threatened or if certain things as their food or toys may feel threatened also. It’s an unfortunate fact that every year people visit hospitals due to dog bites and other dog related injuries, and a large proportion of these incidents occur to young people and children. Though dogs and children get along well, but kids under the age of 5 are at most risk due to their size and lack of full development, and they can easily anger a dog through no fault of their own. It is with this sense of danger to younger children that constant supervision must always take place with your younger kids and your pets to prevent any form of serious injury occurring.

Due to your child’s small size, the injuries are common on the face or head which can obviously leave to the most cause for concern, with other areas such as fingers, hands and arms also baring the brunt of such attacks. Make sure you choose the right dog depending on your kid’s age. Find the correct pet for kids of a particular age. With any form of animal attack, these can lead to serious infection or potential permanent scarring and even the chance of permanent disfigurement which is obviously a major burden for your child’s life. This then creates the further scare of a hospital visit and potentially large hospital bills. There are of course important steps you can take to avoid such incidents from occurring:

Supervise, Supervise, Supervise

This is the most important aspect when it comes to preventing serious injury for your child. It’s a simple solution but usually the best one. As we are all human, we obviously cannot be in two places at once, so if you can not adequately supervise your pet and child then separate them from each other but placing the dog in another room or back outside if that’s easier. If you can supervise, make sure your attention is constantly on the two, as it only takes a split second for a serious incident to occur.

Childs Play With Your Pooch

As your child has not yet fully developed into fully understanding the consequences of its actions, always make sure you watch how the play with your dog. Your child will no doubt scream in high pitches and have the potential to roughly play, tug and push your animal which your dog will not understand. Your child may also attempt to take your dog’s favourite toy, which could lead to further incidents if not careful. Teach your child that a dog is a living creature and should be treated the same way as you would treat a human, with no violence and respect for its property. Once your child gets this into their head, then you can relax future supervised play times. Dog bites often occur when a new dog is bought as a pet for kids. So, one must be careful during that time.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lay

Just like the saying goes, it’s important to let your dog sleep and it’s important to teach your children not to disturb them. In much the same way as a human might get angry and defensive if woken suddenly, dogs too can lash out irrationally at any sudden waking up. Make sure you teach your children when the appropriate time to pat is and pay attention to a dog, and that you should always let them rest when they are sleeping.

Eating Time

This is one of the most important aspects in teaching your child safety around dogs. You should treat feeding your dog any form of food, be it actual dinner or scraps off the table as ‘grown up time’ as dogs have the potential to react the most aggressive during feeding time. Always make sure our children know this is the case, and do not let them approach your dog during feeding time or when it has any form of food such as a bone or doggy treat. The dog may feel as though your child is attempting to steal its food and it may severely attack them due to this misconception. As previously mentioned, supervision is key.

While these are just a few steps, it’s important to make sure you follow them to avoid any serious injuries and the safety of both your dog and your child.