Welcome to the Animals in the News blog!
Please be sure to check out our sections to the right to see some of the history of how AITN was formed. But for now I would like to share some information about dog bites and clear up some misconceptions.
Taking precautions to prevent dog bites is a vital part of our lives, since interactions with dogs is inevitable year round. However, May 18-24th is National Dog Bite Prevention week, and is an important time to find out smart ways to prevent dog bites.
Most dog bites are preventable and are the result of circumstance, situation, and environment. Most often people are unaware how to read a dog's body language, especially children. Sadly parents who are afraid of dogs often make it even worse by teaching their children to fear dogs as well. Showing fear in the form of running or screaming is a very unsafe thing to do around a dog.
Instead of showing fear, people should avoid staring into a dog's eyes, teasing dogs behind fences, going near chained dogs, standing still like a tree if a dog approaches, and only petting a dog if having received permission from the owner.
There are also ways to prevent dog bites as an owner of a dog as well. Dogs prone to biting are often not socialized and without proper training, exercise, and mental stimulation. Dogs that aren't socialized often are fearful or aggressive towards humans and revert to the flight or fight response. Bored and unruly dogs may also act out. Besides this, dog owners should also teach family members and visitors how to act around your dog. These and other tips from dog experts can help prevent dogs bites. While, not all are preventable, most are, and it is up to you to be careful around dogs as well as give your dog the training and attention he or she deserves in order to be well-behaved.
With that being said, there are often misconceptions as to what breeds of dogs bite and if any breeds are prone to biting. The media often is biased towards certain breeds people are more afraid, especially, in recent times, pit bulls. The truth is all breeds of dogs can and will bite if provoked and no breed has locking jaws. Breeds such as german shepherds also get a bad rap sometimes because of their protective nature. It is important when dealing with dogs to not be biased or fearful to certain breeds. All dogs have the ability to bite, and in my experience it has been the small dogs who have caused me the most alarm. I have gotten more kisses from pit bulls than Chihuahuas.
I encourage you all to read care2.com's article on ways to prevent dog bites, which I used to write this post. http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-smart-ways-to-prevent-dog-bites.html#ixzz32EBabqFn
Hope you all have a wonderful week!
