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Kids` safety around your dog – and why we’re doing it wrong

Very often we tend to think of our dogs as equal members of our human family – and we are very proud of it! But if this is the case, why are there incidents of children bitten by the family dog?

In most of the cases, these incidents occur because of lack of understanding of dog psychology and dog behavior. And although families get shocked and think that this means the dog has a bad streak or an aggressive temperament, most incidents could have been avoided through proper education and avoiding the anthropomorphic social culture that now exists around dogs.

Dogs are a different species than us humans, and if we are going to live together, we need to understand how this species think. It is unrealistic to expect that, because we love them and treat them as members of our family, they should never bite us or use their natural instincts against us.

Unfortunately, we now live in a society where we have very little contact with nature. We get information on dog training methods from books or the internet, or from sources that have a philosophical point of view and little understanding of natural animal behavior. And since dogs cannot understand our complicated human behavior, we must learn to understand theirs.

Just as if our toddlers bit or hit another child, we would not put an “aggressive” label and give up on them, the same with our dog we must try to understand why it happened and why they chose to use physical means to solve a problem. As owners and guardians of our dog, we need to help and support them by providing leadership, discipline and protection.