Dog Bite Prevention Tips

ALL BREEDS can cause serious injury; including small dogs and popular "family" breeds. Whether you own a dog or not, you can help prevent children from being seriously injured by teaching the following safety tips:

Even the friendliest dogs can be uncomfortable with a child's quick movements and loud tone of voice. Children tend to get excited around dogs, approaching quickly, talking loudly, sometimes even hugging. Any one of these actions can easily result in a bite. So what's a child to do?

Speak quietly and move slowly around dogs, and follow these simple rules:

• Never play with a dog unless supervised by an adult.

• Never approach an unfamiliar dog.

• Before petting someone's dog, always ask permission. If it's okay, approach slowly and quietly. Let the dog sniff the back of your hand, then gently pet the dog's side or under its chin.

• Never disturb a dog who is sleeping, eating, caring for puppies, in a vehicle, behind a fence, tied or chained up.

• Never tease or chase a dog.

• Never scream around a dog.

• Never try to outrun an unfamiliar dog. Instead, try to back away slowly.

• If approached by an unfamiliar dog, remain motionless. Be still like a tree.

• If knocked over by a dog, roll into a ball, your knees into your stomach, hands over your ears and lie still. Roll up lie a rock.

• Use backpacks or bikes as shields.

• Immediately report stray dogs or dogs displaying unusual behavior to an adult.

• If bitten, immediately report the bite to an adult. 

 

For Pits' Sake dog bite prevention resources are available to help keep kids safe around dogs, reduce the number of dog-bite-related injuries in your community, and enhance the bond between people and dogs.

For Pits' Sake is the ONLY organization that provides dog bite prevention classes for FREE!! We don't ever want to hear that a child was attacked by a dog because he/she did not know what to do because they couldn't afford to go to our class or receive our materials.

To schedule a class, or to order the For Pits' Sake Safety Around Dogs video, worksheets, quizzes and/or coloring books, contact us by clicking HERE.