Tips for parents and owners

The three things your kids can learn!
1. Dogs Don’t Like Hugs and Kisses – Hugs and Kisses are only for Mom and Daddy. Hugging the family dog and face-to-face contacts are common causes of bites to the face, because the dog takes these too close “eyes and mouth” contacts as a challenge. Normally the dog does not feel comfortable during these close interactions and he starts to produce signs like “lick in the airs” or “painting” anxiously. It is important to teach kids what dogs really like, example, to be scratched on the chest or the side of the neck.
2. Be a “Pole” if a Strange Dog Approaches – Teach kids to stand still, like a pole. Poles are boring and the dog will eventually go away. This works for strange dogs that are “naughty” toward the kid and anytime the family dog gets too frisky or becomes aggressive.
3. Never Tease a Dog – and never disturb a dog that’s sleeping, eating or protecting something. It is important that kids can learn the body language of the dog, so that they can respect the “feelings” of the animal.
The two things parents should do!
1. Supervise – Parents assume that kids and dogs can get very well together: that is true, but THEY HAVE TO LEARN TO DO SO! They belong to two different species and for this reason they NEED TO LEARN how to communicate to each other. If a toddler or a child in general interacts with the dog, parents should have their hands on the dog too. Do not give to your dog the curse of “The Good Dog”: my dog is so good because even though my child sits on him, the dog does not react…..and so on. Your dog can maybe stand long time to improper behaviours of your child, looking at you for help, but one day, it will happen that your “Good Dog” bites your child. This is not the dog’s fault, but the mistake of the parents to not teach the child how to recognize and respect the “signals” the dog has sent to him. Unsupervised children-dog interaction can be explosive, why to take a chance?
2. Train the dog – Take your dog to puppy or obedience classes where positive-reinforcement is used. Training is very important, not only because you can “control the dog, but because you can educate the dog. An educated dog is an individual who can easily find his place inside the family. Moreover, training classes help you to develop a healthy bond with the dog and to teach you how to be a good leader of your four paws friend. It is important to involve children in the training program, because the learn how to properly behave with the animal and to respect his space.
The three things dog owners should do!
1. Condition your dog for the daily life – Your puppy needs lots of new positive experiences in order to learn how to move in his daily world. Go with your puppy to puppy classes in order he can get a lot of positive interaction and you learn what the social needs of your puppy are.
2. Supervise your dog – Supervise your dog at all times around children. Children do not know naturally how to behave with the dog, and the dog does not know either how to be around children. So, an unsupervised dog-children interaction can be explosive. If visiting children are bothering your dog, explain them how to properly behave or play with him. If they persist, bring your dog in a clam room with his favorite toy, away from the children.

When to be a good dog.....it is not that great!

How many times we said “Oh! Look how good our dog is with the child! The child can sit on him and he does not do anything! The child can pull the fur and he does not react! Such a good dog! ”…until one day, the dog bites the child, and automatically the animal becomes the bad dog. This is what I call a 'warning bite.' The warning bite is usually to the face or hand and while traumatic for the child, is often not serious in a medical nature.
There are many warning signals before the dog will lose completely his patience and bites, but these can be very subtle and they can be missed by the family members. Sometimes the warning has gone on for months or years before the dog finally loses his tolerance and bites. There are different signs that parents should learn to recognize and teach them to their children, and they include:
·The dog gets up and moves away from the child.
·The dog turns his head away from the child.
·The dog looks at you with a pleading expression.
·You can see the "whites" of the dogs eyes, in a half moon shape.
·The dog yawns while the child approaches or is interacting with him.
·The dog licks his chops while the child approaches or is interacting with him.
·The dog suddenly starts scratching, biting or licking himself.
·The dog does a big "wet dog shake" after the child stops touching him.
Do not forget that beside to get just bitten by your dog, the Curse of a Good Dog has serious implications for your child regarding other dogs. If you do not teach your child how to properly behave with the dog, he will acquire unsafe habits of behavior around all dogs. There is one important thing that people do not know about dogs: DOG DISLIKE HUGS AND KISSES! When you put your face very close to the dog’s face, or you look straight in the eyes of your dog, the animal feels uncomfortable, because these are behaviours of challenge.
It is important that you learn the body language of a worried dog and compare them with when your dog looks happy or relaxed. Unless you’ve got a suggestion box where your dog can write you a note and stamp it with a paw print, body language is all your dog has. Instead of expecting more and more of our good dogs, let’s honor their nature with our guidance and protection.

HUMAN ANIMAL INTERACTION

The relationship between human and animal is complex and articulate such as to suggest a natural and innate predisposition in the human beings toward the "eterospecific relationship". It is too simplistic to consider the human-animal relation only from a cultural point of view such the predatory aspect. In fact, human being has used the animal world in a much more complex manner: he utilized it as a vocabulary and sistemic operator. In the the zoomorphism he found the forms for his immagination , and the raft to go away from the place of the innate behaviours............

With this brief introduction i wanted to underlie the main points we are going to discuss in this blog:

- zooanthropology (the study of human animal relationship);

- animal beavioural medicine in pet and exotic animals;

- human-animal training and communications;

- animal cognition.............

.........and more.

Dr. Sara Platto

Bibliography: Marchesini Roberto. Canone di Zooantropologia Applicata. Alberto Pedisa Editore.