Why Do Dogs Bite Children? read on for a solid perspective…
This afternoon I was walking my dogs in the park by my house (as I do most every day). There were many people in the park, other dogs, soccer practice and birds singing – a beautiful afternoon.
Suddenly from around the corner a young boy comes out with a soccer ball in his hands. He stopped when he saw me and the dogs and looked directly at me and then the dogs. He took the ball and threw it with all his might at my dog Maya. He didn’t toss it to her to try to play with her, he threw it with force hitting her in the head. Then he laughed. I might add at this point that Maya is a 65lb German Shepherd who is competitively trained – good for him, read on. I asked him why he did that, expecting the answer, “Because I wanted to play…”” No such answer, he shrugged his shoulders. I told him it’s not a good idea to do that. “Why not?” Was his sarcastic reply. I said because dogs bite when they are teased. “So?” he replied… Just then his father got his ass out of his beach chair and said, “What’s going on?” I explained to him that his son threw a ball at my dogs face. “So what?” he said, “He’s a kid and kids are better than dogs.” I suddenly understood that “stupid” doesn’t always skip a generation. I tended to disagree with him on the point that kids are better than dogs and made that clear in no uncertain terms. He came towards me, at which point I explained to him that was a bad idea on many fronts.
See: online dog training
He continued to challenge me saying, “That’s just a dog.” I explained to him that dogs have feelings and dogs bite children when children do stupid things… more importantly dogs bite children when parents are too stupid to teach their children responsibility and then make stupid excuses for their ignorant behavior.
The thing I found most disturbing about this experience was not that the boy threw the ball at my dogs face (which did piss me off), but the callous attitude from the boy and then from the stupid father. These are the kind of ignorant people who find being a thug ok until it bites them in the ass, or in the face.
My dogs are perfectly controlled so I have no fear about them doing something stupid, but other dogs will respond to a threat (real or perceived) and they will follow through. Then these dogs are punished with their lives. Thousands of dogs are killed in shelters every year because they bite children.
Parents must teach their children respect for animals and what is right and wrong. This ignorant father was smart enough to back down and sit himself back in his beach chair, but the cavalier attitude that children are better than dogs, it’s just a dog, he’s just being a kid and all the BS that ensued in this conversation were exactly what is wrong with our society. I am constantly being called to defend dogs that have bitten children and so much of the time it is the child or parents fault, yet the dog pays with his life. Dog bites on children are almost always a death sentence, and if a dog bites a child unprovoked, I am in favor or putting the dog down, but if the dog is instigated, teased, abused or cornered, then we have to shift the blame to the person at fault.
Children learn from adults and by example. Please teach children to love and respect animals. I can tell you that almost every day my dogs meet children at the park. These kids pet my dogs and laugh and run around them so happy to see them. My dogs love kids and so do I. BUT, I don’t like kids who are abusive to animals and I really have a disdain for parents who are too damn stupid to teach their kids right from wrong.
