i found these wonderful infographics about how kids should not/should interact with dogs that i thought i'd share on the blog.
when i take piri out for walks, sometimes the neighborhood children want to come and play with him. piri gets overwhelmed by sudden attention and he particularly doesn't care too much for little kids so the first thing he wants to do is go the opposite direction, which then prompts the kids to chase after him. piri is also deaf so sudden pats and "in your face" hellos startle him.
and it's not necessarily just kids. the same goes for adults. i had occasions where instead of holding out their hand for piri to sniff first, people would quickly come up and give a hard pat on his head, which would cause piri to jerk his head around quickly, which would then startle the person and react as if piri was vicious or aggressive.
the best scenario is when i'm able to quickly explain to folks that piri gets a little overwhelmed {and if it's a bigger male i have to explain that he gets scared by their physique} and that he is deaf, but that he would love a nice friendly hello and pat. i then get down to piri's level and give him a good scratch on his neck and pet him and then i invite kids {and adults} to do so as well {but not his ears because he doesn't like to have them touched. people love to touch cocker spaniel ears! i had no idea how popular his ears would be}.
it's important to teach kids how to interact with dogs. i have seen cases where toddlers and kids drag the dog around by its neck because they don't know the proper way of holding it and showing the dog affection. and it just kills me when the adults don't do anything about it {even while the dog is yelping and looks clearly distressed}.
i know that kids are just kids and sometimes they don't know any better and so the first thing that comes to mind is to give them a pass {at the expense of the dog}. like the time when my former neighbor's son threw a stick at piri thinking that he was asking him to play fetch. the stick ended up hitting piri in the face and i told the little boy that we don't throw stick at dogs. his mother just looked at me like i was crazy for telling his son what i did when all he was doing was just having fun, but she eventually gave a belated apology.
i think if we do this, giving kids passes, we don't give them enough credit. i believe that kids have big compassionate hearts and have the full potential to understand the proper way of interacting with a dog when taught properly. it's really up to us, adults, to guide them.
what are your thoughts about kids interacting with dogs?
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