What Causes Dog Attacks On Children & How To Prevent It?

Dogs have become an indispensable part of the society over ages. We must accept it and adjust ourselves to this irrevocable fact. They are mostly useful as guards, companions and friends. Dog is said to be “man’s best friend”. There are also many feral dogs and abandoned ones. This intimate relation of man with dog also includes many problems with the animal. It is due the slyness, agility, swiftness, strength, territoriality and voracity of dogs owing to their descent from the wolves, that dog attacks on humans result. This becomes a big menace when a dog attacks children. Children are smaller in size and cannot control a dog attacking them viciously with its sharp teeth and powerful jaws. Though its claws are not retractable, yet they cause painful lacerations. Children also cannot mostly sustain wounds produced due to dog bites, and could even die.

The reasons for dog attacks on children could include all the reasons for their attacks on adults plus lack of a child’s ability to judge the danger from the animal. Dogs are social animals and require lot of socialization and care. They should be brought up with love and care without any stress, but in reality many dogs are just caged or chained most of the time and the isolation turns them into stressed ferocious aggressive creatures. Most of the times the cause for the dog attack are highly human mistreatment of the animal. Few other causes include lack of understanding of a dog’s behavior or incapability to read the dog’s mood changes and body language. Dogs are territorial animals and try to dominate. They do not allow intrusion into their territory at any cost. They could be aggressive when they are prone to fear and attack in self-defense. Sick dogs or dogs in pain also are agitated and attack easily in self-defense. Children do not understand these and always approach the dog when they are not supposed to. Most the attacks occur on children between 5-9 years, though cases of attacks on even sleeping infants have been reported. Children of 2-5 years of age see the dog as a play thing and approach the dog at wrong time and carelessly touch, pull or injure any part of the dog. This would surely provoke the dog to attack the child and basing on its severity it could even prove fatal. Owing to small size of children some dogs view them as rivals and not superiors.

To prevent dog attacks on children parents should never leave the kid with the dog unsupervised even if it’s a family dog and has never had any history of aggression. Children should be educated about possible dangers from an interaction with a dog. They should be discouraged from approaching any dog in absence of adult supervision. Dogs must be taken good care of and not allowed to approach kids. Neutering or spraying dogs makes it less aggressive. Children should be warned not to approach injured or sick dog.