Articles

With ever increasing coverage by the media on the tragic consequences of dog bites in children, along with my own personal interest in pet behaviour and responsible pet ownership, I would like to give some guidance on how these awful accidents can be minimised or avoided.

We all envisage that our children are safest when in our homes and you may be surprised to learn that statistics show 65% of bites occur at home in children under 5 years of age, with a familiar dog.

The triggers appear to be usually an interaction instigated by the child towards the dog. These triggers seem to occur at home during normal everyday activities, such as playing with or around the dog, especially when eating, startling a sleeping dog, or even just `approaching' the dog.

It is therefore important that we recognised the early warning signs that may be present. All contact children have with dogs, including the family pet should be supervised by the parent. Young children are still learning how to interpret body language and so may not pick up on these early signs. By parents teaching children basic rules to follow when around dogs, these can help to minimise these accidents. Parental supervision at all times is vitally important as if they see these warning signs they can intervene and seek veterinary advice.

Recently, with this research in mind, a team of child psychologists, behavioural veterinary surgeons, ethologists and paediatricians set about producing an interactive CD that can be played at home with parents and their children as young as 3 years old. This is now easily accessible for parents to use to assist them in teaching their children how to interact with dogs.

The Blue Dog is an interactive game which gives the child a choice of different scenarios to go through with either a positive or negative outcome dependant on the interaction they choose with the dog. The graphics were designed by a graduate from the Royal Art Academy and have been carefully created to not look like any living dog (hence it is blue) and have the teeth visible at all times to indicate that the dog, even when friendly, can represent a danger.

Used along with other teaching methods on how to act when around dogs, it can be a very powerful tool in reducing these tragic attacks.

If you are interested in having myself come to your child's school to talk about this topic please contact me at Avenue Veterinary Centre, 0117 956 9038 or for more information on the interactive CD visit the website: www.thebluedog.org

Lydia Hasson VN,
Head Nurse
Avenue Veterinary Centre