Dog Bite Prevention

Dog Bite Prevention Challenge 2011

As part of Dog Bite Prevention Week, I wanted to jot down a few ideas on how we can prevent dog bites in our homes and communities.

Early Socialization

When bringing your puppy home, be sure to start socializing them right away – people, dogs, cats, puppies, children, vehicles, noises, wheelchairs, everything. Don’t miss a thing – these are all things that will not cause your dog stress later in life if associated with something positive early on.

Also, start working on a proper bite inhibition program right away. This means that you slowly teach your pup to have a soft mouth when interacting with people, but also socializing them very well between the ages of 8 and 20 weeks with other puppies his own age.

How do we do that? We allow a little biting, but we remove our attention when it becomes painful. Slowly over a few days to a week, we lessen our pain threshold until finally any contact teeth-on-skin means that playtime is over.

Why wouldn’t we just discourage all biting? Because you need to give your pup a solid warning system so that if he is ever in a situation where he feels threatened by a person, he will use that warning system (growl, snarl, snap, etc…) before he uses a bite and even if he does use a bite, it won’t be a bite that causes great damage – just a nip. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer a nip to losing my hand!

Puppies will teach each other how hard is too hard when playing, which is why it’s imperative that they play often in these formative weeks (despite our veterinarians telling us to keep them inside and away from other dogs until 20 weeks of age). If a puppy does not learn proper bite inhibition during play, there is a higher chance of them doing some damage when they play rough or get into a tussle later on.

Responsible Pet Guardianship

When we take on a pet, we take on a lot of responsibility so we must be conscientious when we are out and about with our dogs. We are our pets’ advocates so we need to communicate clearly and be responsible for their behaviour.

Manage situations by setting your dog up for success, ensure there is a level of trust between you and your dog, continue training good behaviours for the rest of their life.

If your dog seems uncomfortable, don’t force her – acknowledge her need for space and respect her signs and signals. Be firm with adults and children if your dog does not want to “say hello” – do not let other people dictate what happens to your dog.

Prevention

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is so true, especially with dogs. Prevent incidents by:

• never leaving dogs alone with children under the age of 12


• letting sleeping dogs lie / let eating dogs eat


• never snatching toys, objects, or food away from a dog


• teaching them a solid “leave it” and “drop it” as well as a reliable recall


• never using force, fear, pain, intimidation, or positive punishment with your dog (meeting aggression with aggression will not a happy dog make.)


• using positive training methods to ensure your dog is trusting and gentle


• learning about canine body language so that you can show your dog you can be trusted to get him out of a situation where he is uncomfortable.


• never punishing the warning system (growl, snarl, bark, lunge, snap, nip)

Management

This last point is not ideal, of course, but it is realistic. Some dogs become biters. Once a dog has bitten, they know it works and have passed a threshold, therefore they are at a higher risk of doing it again. (No, it’s not the taste of blood that turns a dog.) It is very difficult to back-pedal from there, so all we can do is manage. This means that we are cautious about who the dog interacts with.

After a bite incident, I generally recommend that the dog does not interact directly with children or puppies – both of which can be easily injured and traumatized. Supervision is a must in any situation. The use of tethers and baby gates to ensure your dog is controlled and close by, or a crate or “special resting place” to ensure she has her own space where she is not bothered.

If your dog is a biter, seek professional help immediately from a positive trainer or aggression therapist (contact us for a referral!) and accustom your dog to a muzzle from an early age so that if they require one later on, you save yourself the trouble and time.

If you have any concerns about your dog or are seeing signs of stress and anxiety, please contact us immediately so that we can “nip it in the bud”, so to speak.

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