Dogs and Kids

I've been meaning to write this post for almost two weeks now, but I was really sick for more than a week + super busy. I want to make sure I get to it though, because it's very important. (Let me start by saying that I am by no means an expert. This is just what I have read and seen to be true.)

Having kids and dogs in the same house is a tricky thing. Make that a "pit bull" and it gets even trickier. Not really, but that's (unfortunately) what too many people think. I would like to think that anyone who could think logically would agree that it is NOT the breed, but the individual dog that determines whether a dog is dangerous.

That being said, if you are going to have a dog (ANY kind of dog) and kids in the same house, supervision is a must. This is especially true of small children, who may not understand how to act around dogs. Dogs can't talk, duh, but they will let you if they don't like something. If you’re listening (watching) you can avoid a horrible situation like a dog biting a child.

I took Jax to puppy kindergarten a couple weeks ago when I witnessed the perfect example, prompting this post. In his class, there was a beautiful lab/pittie mix with her mom and a little girl. The mom had had dogs before and took them to training as she is doing now with her family’s new dog. She seemed like a great mom, a very nice lady. I in no way mean to allude to anything else. I just happened to notice a common mistake that she made while in class.

Towards the end of class, she was talking with the trainer and wasn’t paying attention to how her daughter was interacting with their dog. The girl was stepping on the dogs tail, pulling its ears, and “sitting” on it’s head. The dog was giving the right signs to indicate that it didn’t like what was happening: she was whining, moved her head away when the girl was trying to sit on her, would “freeze and stare” when the girl was pulling her ears, and eventually started softly growling. The mom missed all this, and the girl was obviously too young to recognize the warning signs, and the dog snapped at the little girl.

Thankfully the girl was fine. The dog was just giving another warning – snapping, not biting – but it could have been avoided. I was really impressed with the response when the mom asked the trainer how to avoid something like that happening.

The trainer responded that while she had been busy talking to the mom, she hadn’t been paying attention to how the girl and dog were interacting, but that to avoid something like that happening it would require teaching kids how to act around dogs, and lots of supervision. She was very truthful and said that it was likely the little girl was doing something the dog didn’t like (it was at that point that the little girl was “dancing” on the dogs tail again), and that the dog gave warning signs that it was hurt or didn’t like it.

As I said, the mom and daughter were very sweet, nice people, but the supervision wasn’t there and what wasn’t a great situation could have been a lot worse. If you have a dog and kids, or even just when your dog is around kids, please remember to supervise, supervise, supervise!

An adult should also supervise walks!