Dog Bite Prevention

(below from ASPCA)

"Did you know that 50 percent of all children in the United States will be bitten by a dog before their 12th birthday? did you know that 800,000 bites a year are severe enough to require medical treatment, while 1 to 2 million go unreported?"

Many children are bitten by dogs they know. You can help prevent many of these bites by teaching your child the correct way to behave around dogs. Here are just a few things not to do:

  • Don't bother a dog or try to take his food away while he's eating.
  • Don't bother a pet a while he is sleeping. This may startle/frighten him causing him to nip.
  • Never attempt to pet a dog when their owner is not present (whether loose or tied up).

The ASPCA web site has program ideas and a printable activity worksheet that you can use to help educate your children. To obtain these materials follow these instructions:

  • Go to http://www.aspca.org (a new window will open so you can follow the rest of the directions by returning to this window)
  • In their search box in the upper right hand corner type in "dog bite prevention" (without the quotes)
  • Your search should return a page like this:

screen capture of ASPCA search results for "dog bite prevention"

  • That's it! Click on any of the links for the material you would like.

Back to top of page

Back to Archives page

spacer