Dog Bite Prevention Week just wrapped up, but let鈥檚 keep our children safe year-round. Children are the most common dog bite victims. Half of us will experience a dog bite by the age of 12. And when children get bitten, it is often to the face. Bites can be serious, and even fatal.
So, how can we prevent dog bites? Firstly, we must always supervise children around dogs (this includes the family dog and the dogs of our friends). We can make sure our dogs have lots of positive interactions with other pets and people. We can train our dogs, spay and neuter them, and keep them safely at home (not on a chain). These are all great ways to help prevent bites. And, we can teach our kids to safely meet a dog.
All the Lakes District kids who met Dusty the classroom dog will remember how to safely meet a dog, but for the rest of us, here is a quick and easy way to remember the steps. With our colleague Staci Hurley, the Dr. Seuss Foundation Humane Educator we have updated many of our activities and our new meeting a dog system is called WAIT (thanks also to our friends at preventthebite.org for the original concept).
WAIT stands for: W is for WATCH - Is the dog on a leash? Does the dog have friendly body language? A is for ASK 鈥� The child needs to ask their responsible adult AND the dog鈥檚 guardian for permission to pet the dog. I is for INVITE 鈥� The child can invite the dog to approach them by patting their leg. They let the dog choose to come to them. If the dog doesn鈥檛 want to, that鈥檚 OK 鈥� maybe another time! T is for TOUCH 鈥� If the dog comes in, the child should stand to the side of the dog. They can gently pet the dog鈥檚 back or side.
In the next article, you can learn about reading dog body language to keep everyone happy, healthy and safe. Until then, have fun practicing WAIT with the dogs you meet.
鈥擜listair Schroff is with Increased ACCESS (formerly Lakes Animal Friendship Society)
