Dogs and kids

• Dogs need to be socialized to children when they are puppies, from the time you get your puppy home. This is crucial to ensure they never bite a child in the future, and are comfortable around children. There is a very small window to socialize your pup, the first 16-18 weeks are crucial to teach your puppy bite inhibition and also to like kids, men, other dogs, etc…
• To help with the early socialization of puppies, have a puppy party, invite friends that have kids, or invite your kids’ friends to meet the puppy. Do this when your puppy is between 10-12 weeks of age.
• Take your puppy to the park and let the kids pet him and bring treats so they can feed him. This will create a positive association.
• Always supervise the children around a new puppy, 1 negative experience can impact your dog for life. Keep it fun and positive.
• If your puppy gets overwhelmed easily, keep the interactions short and positive. Only 1 or 2 kids at a time at first.
• Kids can be unpredictable and very stressful for dogs that have not had much exposure to them. They typically run around and appear very chaotic to dogs. This could stress your dog, and cause him to make a bad decision, like nip, bite or chase a child.
• If your dog is not used to children and you have people with children coming over, set up a quiet spot for your dog to relax if needed. A crate with a nice blanket and bone in a quiet area of the house often can do the trick. Tell the kids this is his room, and they should leave him be. Some dogs especially older ones appreciate the break after a while.
• Kids and dogs should always be supervised when together, especially If your dog is older and has never really been around many kids.
• If you are not sure how your dog will react to kids, place him on leash if kids come over, this will help you teach him how to behave.

It’s important to get your puppy in a good puppy class between 10-12 weeks of age. If we see a socialization problem at that age, most of the time we can fix it and prevent a problem in the future. Puppy class should not only be about obedience, it should also be about socialization. Even if you have had dogs all your life, this is an important step in your puppies’ life. I take all of my puppies to puppy school, even though I have trained thousands of dogs.

If your adult dog has never been exposed to children or are afraid of kids, you can still help them cope with children by enrolling in a socialization class. One thing we can teach them is to ignore kids and walk away from kids when they feel uncomfortable. Your dog will thanks you for it J

Check out this website http://www.doggonesafe.com/ which has programs teaching kids how to behave around dogs, and also teaches everyone about bite prevention.

www.boldcanine.com

1-888-8BOLDK9

To register for a class, click here

http://www.boldcanine.com/schedule.html