I wanted to share with you a little about why dogs bite and how you can significantly reduce your child’s chances of being part of these statistics. It’s important to understand that any dog of these categories of dog can bite. Friendly, aggressive, reactive, easy-going, service dogs, police dogs, professionally trained, or even dogs raised around children, all can bite.
It’s also relieving that you can actively reduce the stress that very often builds in your dog as a parent. This stress increases when changes take place in the house (like a new baby.) You can easily safeguard your new baby by taking simple yet highly effective actions before your baby arrives. Start by managing your home environment as you prepare for your new baby. One way of doing that is by desensitizing your dog to baby cries and giving him coping behaviors (otherwise known as basic obedience).
All of these new skills are listed on the Preparation Checklist and demonstrated in Dogs to Diapers. These examples help you take the precautionary steps with your dog to reduce any further potential stress that is happening with the arrival of your baby. If otherwise ignored will begin to accumulate.
Speaking as a new Mom, it does not have to be stressful for anyone involved, including the dog. By recognizing your dog’s stressors, such as visitors coming and going, baby crying, or change of routine around the house. You can help control these stressors and not allow them to build up. Often it is not a single stressor that results in your dog biting; it is an accumulation of stressors over time without relief that causes your dog to bite. A dog will not bite without warning, but they will bite when all their warning signals are disregarded and go unnoticed. Remember, dogs can’t verbally communicate with people when they are uncomfortable or stressed. Understanding the signs that your dog is giving is crucial in the prevention of any potential bite.
Avoidance and displacement behaviors are your dog’s best communication that they are uncomfortable with a situation and that “stressors” are starting to accumulate. I display all of these behaviors in Dogs to Diapers, and it is critical to see what they look like if you want to create a balanced environment between you, your dog, and your baby.
Dog bites have sadly risen in number and severity over the last few decades. Unfortunately, children are the most frequently targeted of these often preventable bites. We must educate ourselves so that this trend ends!
It has become a personal passion of mine to see these numbers decrease. I’ll show you how to reduce your dog’s stress level. Sharing this information with others and support the cause in lowering the number of dog bites in small children.
Warmly,
Carrie Silva Wooddell
