Hi Animal Humane Society fans, this is Katie
I'm an Animal Behavior and Training Lead here at Animal Humane Society.
It is Bite Prevention Week this week
and I'm here with some tips for you
to minimize the risk of bites happening
First, when meeting a new dog, you want to ask permission
from your parents, so if there's a child that wants to pet a dog
you want to make sure you ask your parents and then
you also want to ask the dog's owner.
And then you want to remember these three things:
Pat, Pet, Pause
So I'm going to have my friend Talia help me
and this is Mel helping us with our demonstration today
Okay so Pat, Pet, Pause. This is good practice for grownups
and kids alike. So meeting a new dog or an unfamiliar dog
first thing I'm going to do is make sure there is plenty of
distance between us and then I want to make sure the dog
knows I'm here, pat my leg, and this allows her to come over.
She gets to choose coming over or not. It helps that I had treats that time.
I'm going to pet and then I'm going to pause. And if she chooses
to come back in for more pets that's great, but she's chosen
okay, I'm going to walk over by my mom, which is just fine.
So when she walks over you notice that she has a loose, wiggly body
her ears are back and she's going to lay down on her bed. Good girl!
Now most bites are happening to children 10 and under from a
dog that's familiar to them. And there's usually an adult nearby.
So what's happening here? Supervision is super important, but
we also need to know what to look for.
So you see Mel's body, she's laying down, she's relaxed, loose.
Her ears are back. So these are all signs that she is comfortable and relaxed.
Now things that you want to look for to signal that the dog is
uncomfortable would be lick lipping, yawning, sniffing the ground,
lifting a paw, hiding behind someone's legs, these are all
very subtle and they can happen quickly
but once you know what to look for
you can understand that the dog might be asking for
a little bit of space in that given moment.
Now what if we meet a dog that is young and very bouncy?
Mel is about three, so she's pretty chill. Some younger
dogs are going to be pretty bouncy, especially if they're
excited to see you, so what you can remember to do is
be a tree. So you've got a dog that's bouncing and you want
to bring your branches in and look at your roots.
And you're just gonna stay still. And if you're a kid you
want to make sure you have a grow up around, make sure you get their attention.
Now, dog attacks are very very rare.
In the very very rare instance that something like that might happen,
you're going to be a rock.
So I'm going to be a rock by getting on the ground, I'm going to cover
my neck and cover my sensitive tummy. Hi Mel!
She's a ferocious one isn't she? Haha.
So if you can remember Pat Pet Pause, this works for
dogs that are familiar to you, unfamiliar to you.
The key part there is that we're always allowing them to choose to come to us
and if she doesn't move towards me she's say "no thanks"
and that's just fine. She can do that.
Then we have Be a Tree, so I'm going to bring my branches in,
if I've got a jumpy puppy I'm going to stare down at my roots
I'm going to be still. And usually that helps to get them
calmed down. And then the last one is Being a Rock,
down on the ground. You can also think about using
any kind of physical barrier between you and a dog that
is making you feel uncomfortable. So a parked vehicle,
a trash can, a fence can be helpful.
Any of those things just to put something between you if you're feeling uncomfortable.
All right. Let's see here.
So the two biggest categories of bites occurring to children
aren't very intuitive to most of the adults that are supervising.
So things that you want to look for would be a resting dog
like Mel. This is a situation where I would gently clap my hands to get her attention
as opposed to going up and touching her while she's sleeping.
Hi lovey! Yes. Good girl. How about you come lay down over here?
All our fans want to see you! Good job.
Some other situations that you want to be aware of
where bites are more likely to happen would be if
Mel is chewing on a bone, a pig ear, she's eating her food,
has a coveted toy. In these types of situations it's usually a
high-value item. So that's a situation where you want to
make sure you're not approaching your dog chewing on
their special toy. And the other situation, the other top
category would be interactions that we as people see
as normal. So hugging a dog, kissing a dog, even sometimes
just petting a dog or talking to them if it's a really
high-arousal situation and our dog is a little bit more on edge.
So in those situations we want to make sure that we're
reading body language and giving dogs the space that they request.
So what's the body language to look for in a dog that's excited,
maybe not so excited, and then maybe a dog that doesn't want to
say hi? So I would avoid approaching a dog that's very stiff
with a closed mouth. Nothing good ever comes of a stiff body.
So a dog that's more hesitant might be just avoiding eye contact a little bit
and then of course our bouncy happy dogs we want to see lots of waisted movement,
open mouth usually, the ears are back. And take note that if
the tail is wagging, the tail wags in a lot of different scenarios
with all kinds of emotions. So you want to make sure to look
at the whole body: What are the ears doing? What are the eyes doing?
If I have a hard stare from a dog, that's not a good thing,
so I'm not going to approach that dog.
If the ears are pinned really far back or straight up and forward
and the mouth is closed with a hard stare, those things would
indicate that the dog is uncomfortable with me continuing to approach.
So if you can remember TEEM: Tail, Eyes, Ears, Mouth. You
want to look at all of those things and what are they doing,
and then draw your conclusion: Is this dog happy and relaxed and friendly?
Is this dog a little bit nervous? And you also want to consider
the context of the situation. So some dogs get overwhelmed
in public places, so if we go to a farmer's market, or a busy
day at the park, it might be harder for them to cope.
And that might be a day when they'll need more space
which is just fine. Those dogs are probably going to be
panting a lot, wide eyed, you can see the whites of the eyes,
the ears might be back, they might be hypervigilant,
so be aware of what's going on around you and how your
dog might be feeling on any given day. I know I don't want to
say hi to every person I meet on the street every day
and I'm not going to expect the same thing from my dog.
Alright, so that just about wraps it up.
If you have any questions you can feel free to submit them
via our Facebook page, and we hope that you enjoy the lovely
spring that's starting, and stay safe out there!