Recent publicity about children being bitten by dogs in other parts of New Zealand is expected to result in extra demand for Dunedin City Council's free dog safety education sessions.
Senior animal services officer Peter Hanlin said that, with children, ‘‘the bottom line is never leave a dog with a child unsupervised''.
People needed to recognise there was ‘‘no such thing as a 100% safe dog''.
Sometimes dog owners took it for granted that other people would understand their dog's behaviour , but a stranger to the dog might be ‘‘ freaking out''.
Also, dog owners and their children could assume that other dogs would react the same way as theirs did.
‘‘Just because your dog is socialised and doesn't mind being patted, doesn't mean that all dogs are like that.''
Some children naturally loved dogs and wanted to make contact with them, but parents should stop them from rushing up to dogs in the street. If a child wanted to pat a dog, the owner should be asked first and the contact should be supervised.
In her sessions, animal control officer Roslind McDonald takes a dog with her to illustrate safe interaction. Teaching is reinforced with colourful dog-illustrated stickers with messages such as ‘‘Remember - if the dog's on its own then leave it alone!'' and ‘‘don't run and shout - it freaks us out''.
Dunedin author Pauline Blomfield's readily available book How to Keep Kids Safe with Dogs is also used in the sessions and recommended to parents (it is available at Dunedin public libraries).
It has a checklist for parents on how to keep children safe with a list of dos and don'ts, with an emphasis on supervision, including teaching children not to put their face near the dog's, and an illustration of how to recognise an unhappy dog.
Ms McDonald has delivered the sessions to thousands of people of all ages in the past eight years, but safety messages needed frequent reinforcement.
Anybody wishing to know more about the DCC's dog safety education can phone the council or register on-line on the council website.
- by Elspeth McLean
