Teaching Kids Dog Safety: How to Respect and Safely Interact with Dogs

Adding dogs to a home with young children requires special consideration. If you have a toddler or preschooler, you know how marvelously spontaneous they can be!  A common toddler response to a dog is enthusiastically throwing their little arms around the dog’s neck intending to give a big squishy hug.  Some dogs read this as a sign of aggression and may react accordingly.  A toddler or preschooler in your home will require heightened supervision any time your child and the dog are anywhere to a position to interact.  It requires constant awareness of, and the ability to read, your dog’s body language.  It also means training your young child to have good doggie manners at all times. 

We know! It’s a big committment, and we’re very careful in deciding which (if any) of our dogs would potentially work in a home with young children.

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