By Heidi Clayton
In 2013, The National Library of Medicine published a study that of the over two million reported dog bites where a child was the victim, roughly 90 percent of those victims knew the dog that bit them. Most of those bites occurred when an adult was nearby but not directly supervising the interaction between the child and the dog. In a 2022 study, the number of reported dog bites had slightly increased, maybe due to the uptick in dog adoptions during the pandemic. The median age of dog bite victims was 6.8 years old, according to that study published in the National Library of Medicine.
Dogs (particularly puppies) and children need time and patience to learn the rules on how to interact with each other correctly. I firmly believe how quickly that happens has little to do with obedience, but rather with the temperament of the dog/puppy and the amount of effort put forth by the adults in rewarding desired behavior.
It is common for older dogs that have been great around a baby to suddenly become over-aroused once the child develops more mobility and vocalizations. The overstimulation from this newly moving person may just be too much for the dog. Puppies generally do not possess the impulse control to contain their arousal when around a mobile, screaming, happy child.
Many of the dog bites I have worked with started with the child being happy and running. The dog joined in and became overstimulated, first knocking the child down. That resulted in crying, which further stimulated the dog. Then the nipping began, which sent parents into a panic, yelling “stop!” Before they knew it, there was broken skin.
Dogs with any sort of herding instinct will naturally chase moving things and nip them to move them to where they feel they are safer. Terriers may hear those sounds and think it’s vermin that needs to be dealt with. Nipping during over-stimulation can be terrifying to a child and lead to actual bites, which are one hundred percent avoidable.
As much as your puppy or dog needs to learn the rules, so do children. Remembering that approximately 90 percent of the dog bites in the 2013 study were at face level, it is important for parents to show their children how to pet their dogs. I discourage teaching your children to be at eye level with a dog’s mouth and having the children pet a young dog or puppy’s face. If a puppy is mouthy with adult hands, you have zero business putting a child’s hands near their mouth. Bending down over top of a puppy or dog can invite jumping or headbutts.
Teach the child to calmly pet a dog or puppy behind the ears or on the body slowly, instead of excitedly petting in a way that elicits arousal in the dogs. I like to have one person managing the child and another rewarding the dog, perhaps on a leash. Keep in mind that it can be hard to manage both if you’re alone. If a child gets upset and needs to be picked up or held, you are now holding the source of the dog’s overstimulation. That invites a dog with no self-control to jump and possibly nip at the source of their arousal. I also don’t like situations where children grab puppies by the face to give them a kiss if both are still learning how to behave around each other.
In my experience with dog bite cases where a child has been bit or where the child was knocked over and hurt, these situations all could have been avoided with proper management and training. Give your kids and your puppies the best chance of building a solid relationship by using sound judgment during their interactions.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email heidi@fouronthefloordogtraining.net.
Heidi Clayton started Four On the Floor Dog Training to provide positive, reward-based dog training in South Jersey. She breeds, trains and shows bull terriers under the SoraBully’s Bull Terriers kennel name. Email questions to heidi@fouronthefloordogtraining.net or learn more at https://fouronthefloordogtraining.net
