To think learning how to behave around dogs should be part of the national curriculum

[Itsadogsworld]

I think schools should teach children how to behave around dogs, canine body language and so on. I think it would significantly reduce the number of children that end up in A&E each year due to dogs bites. I’ve seen some dreadful behaviour in my local park where children will run up to my dog and one child was continually trying to bear hug her own dog. Children clearly aren’t being taught this at home so I think they should include it in schools. I welcome your thoughts on this.

@stingofthebutterfly

I think owners need to train their dogs not the react to children being children.

How far do you go with that? A child is being a child whilst it's hanging off my dogs neck giving it a cuddle?

@FateHasRedesignedMost

I agree, but I also think children should be taught about responsible pet ownership.

Like don’t get a dog until you can afford to have insurance, vaccinations, provide adequate space (eg a large secure garden) and either send it to doggy daycare or have someone at home with it. The importance of training it. It should be drummed into children that you NEVER inflict a dog on other people, meaning it’s on a lead until it has perfect recall and doesn’t approach random people or pets ‘for a sniff’. It doesn’t get under people’s feet or knock anyone off balance.

I also think children should be educated about the hazards of owning certain breeds (such as bull breeds and other large powerful breeds bred for fighting and guarding). And how in-breeding has led to awful health problems for some breeds, like the French bulldogs who gasp for air.

Dog ownership should be presented as a luxury, a well thought out and planned decision, not a spur of the moment ‘let’s buy a cute puppy’.

Perhaps. But this is not the responsibility of teachers.

I teach my child not to approach strange dogs.

Now can all dog owners keep their bloody hounds on leads?

The other day, an off lead dog, the size of a small horse, licked my child's face. She was helpless

The owner couldn't keep up with it. Running behind huffing and puffing

13 stone. The dog, not the owner. He was much heavier than that

@FateHasRedesignedMost

I agree, but I also think children should be taught about responsible pet ownership.

Like don’t get a dog until you can afford to have insurance, vaccinations, provide adequate space (eg a large secure garden) and either send it to doggy daycare or have someone at home with it. The importance of training it. It should be drummed into children that you NEVER inflict a dog on other people, meaning it’s on a lead until it has perfect recall and doesn’t approach random people or pets ‘for a sniff’. It doesn’t get under people’s feet or knock anyone off balance.

I also think children should be educated about the hazards of owning certain breeds (such as bull breeds and other large powerful breeds bred for fighting and guarding). And how in-breeding has led to awful health problems for some breeds, like the French bulldogs who gasp for air.

Dog ownership should be presented as a luxury, a well thought out and planned decision, not a spur of the moment ‘let’s buy a cute puppy’.

Absolutely. If my DC ever wants a dog they will provide me with a business case 😂

I think there should be physical, psychiatric and financial pre-requisites on the owner before you are allowed to own a dog or cat above a certain size.

@Howshouldibehave

Teaching about dogs, and also maybe about other animals the children might come across, such as horses, deer, birds, while in school and by someone who knows what they are talking about, not some poor sod of a teacher who has been volunteered for it

That would be wonderful, but sadly, the government would never provide funding to pay for schools to hire someone who knows what they are talking about!

Schools can’t afford supply teachers, scheduled pay rises, new reading books or to mend the broken roof out of the existing budget!

Our visit was free as it is a Council Warden who does the sessions.

He also covered the responsibilities of dog owners, for pp who thought was a good idea. Many of our families own dogs, so it was interesting to see how many knew what you need to have when out and about with them - poo bags, ID tag on dog, areas and circumstances when they should be on a lead etc.
whether your family has a dog or not it is useful to know what to do if there is a dog not under control when you are out playing, particularly in yrs 5 and 6 when you might just be with your friends and no adult present.

Gov.uk, Twinkl, Scouts, TES all have activities and info on the Countryside Code, including what you should know if you have a dog with you, so pretty easy to source if you want to include it in PHSE. We plan it into the PHSE cycle along with Road Safety, Fire Safety etc even if we can’t have visitors in school to deliver sessions.

@millievanillaice

I teach my child not to approach strange dogs.

Now can all dog owners keep their bloody hounds on leads?

The other day, an off lead dog, the size of a small horse, licked my child's face. She was helpless

The owner couldn't keep up with it. Running behind huffing and puffing

13 stone. The dog, not the owner. He was much heavier than that

Dogs should be kept on leads if they have no recall. Dick head owners do no one any favours.

@Patapouf

Hilarious!

It's not a child's responsibility to behave a certain way around a dog. It's the dog owners responsibility to keep everyone safe by training their mutt.

I'd sooner ban all dog ownership than add to the burden on teachers to deliver the existing national curriculum.

Wrong. There's joint responsibility on both sides. Dog owners and parents. The number of people who allow their kids to wander up and touch my dogs who are minding their own business and sticking close to me on walks never fails to baffle me. Luckily my two are both fine with kids and will give themselves distance if they don't want to be touched, but an animal is not a machine, is not perfect, and often may feel more threatened on a lead because they can't escape from an uncomfortable situation. Parents need to teach their kids not to touch a strange dog without permission just as much as dog owners need to keep their dogs on lead and under control so they're not bounding up to people when they're not wanted. It goes both ways.

Absolutely not. However I feel strongly that it should be contingent on getting a dog that the owner is forced to do a course on responsible dog ownership. Especially teach them to keep their dog away from people and not trot out the old "he wouldn't hurt a thing".

I think it would be much better to bring back dog licenses and have some kind of onus on owners to control their pets. My daughter started off loving dogs and has now been put off due to dogs being off lead running up to her and growling, with the owners seemingly completely unbothered by this behaviour. She knows not to manhandle animals and had no control over that situation. I have seen loads of other terrible behaviour of dogs with owners who have no control. It’s only a small minority but it is a problem, and it’s not fair on the dogs either.

@alphasox

Absolutely not. However I feel strongly that it should be contingent on getting a dog that the owner is forced to do a course on responsible dog ownership. Especially teach them to keep their dog away from people and not trot out the old "he wouldn't hurt a thing".

But parents need to take responsibility for their kids too as mentioned previously.

Dog awareness days are obviously not a bad idea, schools frequently reinforce messages/have initiatives about stranger danger/road safety/whatever else

You never hear people complaining about them 🤔

I agree op, pet care, animal empathy, respect...as well as what you suggest.
A half day with an external drop in group teaching these things would be fab.

Schools?? Gosh no. That's a parents role.

I'd much prefer to see much more education surrounding relationships being taught in schools... marital/ partnerships and parenting .
What's acceptable and what isn't.

There's loads of things that should be on the National curriculum tbh:

First aid
Mindfulness/looking after your mental health
How to budget and manage money
Growing your own food
Coding

Instead the government thinks 8 year olds should be taught about fronted adverbials...

Current NC is not fit for purpose.

I'm it sure this should be added to the national curriculum but I agree that education about how to behave around dogs could help reduce dog bite injuries in children. Who delivers that education, I'm not sure, but it is worthy of discussion.

I think it's odd for anyone to suggest that educating children about safe behaviour around dogs is the same as blaming children for being bitten. We don't teach children how to cross the road safely to absolve drivers of the responsibility to drive safely we do it to reduce the risk of children being injured and killed.

The majority of dog bites come from the family pet so if we accept that the problem is irresponsible dog owners then we must logically conclude there is an overlap between them and irresponsible parents. In the majority of fatal dog attacks on children there are a number of common themes, one of which is children left with dogs unsupervised.

I think it would be much better to bring back dog licenses and have some kind of onus on owners to control their pets.

I’d also add doing some actual research before getting a dog and choosing a breed. A veterinarian friend of my DH says that one of the things that upsets her most are dog owners getting breeds they know next to nothing about other than how they look. No consideration on energy levels, how much room they need and definitely whether or not they should be around babies and young children. Some popular breeds that are not on the banned list are not supposed to be around babies and young children anyway and both dogs and babies should never be left unattended alone.

There are idiot dog owners and there are idiot parents.
One of those muppets once allowed his little son to run over to my dog and stick his hand into her mouth. It happened so fast, there was nothing I could do.
The idiot and his poor suffering child got a bit of a lecture. Fortunately, my dog loves children so she did not react at all.
I disagree that how to behave toward dogs should be a part of a school curriculum though. It should be the job of the parents, schools already have to stand in and substitute idiot parenting with something making sense.
On the other side, I agree that every dog should be trained by the owners and a good dog trainer. We have a Dobermann, a dog trainer is a non-brainer for us. She gets advanced obedience and she has also been socialised to death - she is very friendly to everybody, she loves children. I still would not let her run around freely around a group of children, for fear she would knock one of them down or, if they try playing with her, grab a ball out of their hands and accidentally hurt them.
Supervision is the key.

Perhaps dog owners should be made to volunteer at rescues etc and undego training before they are allowed to own one. Properly educated owners would be a better option.

@londonmummy1966

Perhaps dog owners should be made to volunteer at rescues etc and undego training before they are allowed to own one. Properly educated owners would be a better option.

This again. It is not helpful to the responsible dog owners fed up of the parents not teaching their children to respect dogs correctly

I think owners need to train their dogs not the react to children being children.
Both parents and dog owners need to reach/train their whichever offspring to have respect.
I believe most people do, there'll always be dog and DC owner's who don't care.

No, dogs are the responsibility of their owners, who I think these days sadly ought to all be licensed. And certain breeds should simply not be permitted, that action alone would significantly reduce tragedies from occurring.
I feel far too many consider owning a dog as their right without fully understanding (or caring) about the longtime needs and funds this necessitates. Space within the home, space and time in outside spaces, age-appropriate exercise etc, i.e adults need to be present in public spaces with dogs and for goodness sake yes, please use a lead.

@Itsadogsworld

And folks saying it’s the dog owners responsibility, I can’t stop and lecture every child that I see behaving inappropriately around a dog. I’m an adult, I can’t go round approaching other people’s child. How is it my responsibility as a dog owner to teach children how to behave when they run up to my on lead pup? I don’t get it.

But your post just above this one says that the main problem is dogs biting children they know in the home. In that scenario, it is the irresponsible owner not controlling the situation properly. I don’t think I’ve ever read about a dog attack where the dog was being fully controlled and the owner couldn’t have done any more. Maybe it happens occasionally, but I really don’t think it’s the main issue.

No that's insane.

Oh yes, let's just add that to the list of eleventy billion things MNers think schools should somehow be cramming into all that non-existent spare contact time they have!

FFS. Yes children should be taught how to behave around animals by their bloody parents.