Baby Freebies

Keeping Dogs From Biting Kids

I would like to introduce you to a technique for reducing dog aggression, if you are concerned about your dog’s aggression towards you children , that I call “Toddler Proofing”.

Toddler Proofing is a technique for re-programming a dogs emotional reaction to your child’s touch, or presence, from feelings of aggressiveness to feelings of excitement, or at the very least… tolerance.

This process is CRUCIAL for families who want to prevent their children from being bitten by their dogs when they aren’t looking.All families should take preventative training seriously, as roughly 65% of all cases of dog biting are to the face.

Children cannot always be prevented by their kids from pulling their dog’s tail, climbing over him, or curiously trying to take food out of his food bowl, so it only makes sense to consider preventative training.  And while this article can in no way guarantee that this will work for all cases of dog aggression with children … it is a great starting point.

Using what I call “Hi Value Emotional Rewards” to your dog when the child does something irritating to him BEFORE the dog can experience the aggressive emotions, is the secret behind effective Toddler Proofing for fixing dog agression with kids.

Here’s how Toddler Proofing works:

Step #1: Make sure you know what your dog loves more then anything in the world. You need to have a Hi Value emotional reward in order for Toddler Proofing to work.This could be treats such as cheese or meat for some dogs.It might be chasing a ball for other dogs.Interrupting the normal emotional pattern your dog experiences when your child goes to bother him may be done by using this reward.Always be sure to to have this reward handy.

Step #2: Start small! You should not try all at once to get you pooch to accept all sort of behavior from your child.Pick a behavior that instead only mildly bothers your dog.Let’s say the behavior we want to work on is allowing your dog to tolerate having his tail pulled without growling in this example.

WARNING!!! You should NEVER do anything that puts you or your child at risk of being harmed by your dog.Use these techniques only for mild cases of aggression.You should consult a professional trainer in your local area to help you with your issues directly, instead of following these directions, if your dog is dangerous or you are afraid of being bitten.This article cannot address every factor considering your safety, because there’s simply too many of them.By all means, please by careful.

While only “slightly” bothering your dog, reward him. To teach your dog to be more accepting of “Tail Pulling”, reward your dog while lightly grabbing his tail.Instead of pulling his tail, just lightly grasp it at first.Reward your dog, at the exact instant you grab his tail, with a food treat or other reward.

Instead of feeling aggression, you can FORCE your dog to feel an emotion of excitement for a reward when his tail is being touched.By doing this several times, you are reprogramming your dog to get excited about having his tail touched, since most of the time, it leads to a reward.  In effect, you’re reprogramming his emotional mind!

Step #4: Slowly add more discomfort. It is time to increase the discomfort when you dog willingly lets you grasp his tail 10 times throughout the day without growling or showing signs of aggression.SLOWLY and CAREFULLY is how this should be done.  Don’t push your dog past his comfort zone.While continuing to reward him with food treats, instead just try grabbing your dog’s tail slightly harder.

If you notice your dog is bothered by this harder grasping of his tail, then BACK OFF, and squeeze lighter.

Teaching your dog slowly that having his tail grabbed is a good thing is the goal.

By continuing to reward your dog for having his tail grabbed while receiving a treat, you’ll be able to continue to increase your dog’s tolerance threshold.If done correctly, you can substantially increase his tolerance threshold of how much discomfort your dog can feel before acting aggressively.Toddler Proofing is such a wonderful technique for fixing dog aggression towards children.

Such Toddler Proofing techniques, in many cases, have been used on working dogs, such as seeing-eye dogs.Dogs should be trained to tolerate having their tails stepped on or run over by wheel chairs in cases like these.Dogs must not bite their handlers, even though they might accidentally cause them pain.

All sorts of behaviors that children do to dogs that cause aggression, such as whisker and tail pulling or feet touching, can be effectively fixed using Toddler Proofing strategies correctly.

I hope this helps reduce your dog’s aggression towards your child!