Dogs are one of the most adorable pets that people keep at home. They are friendly, and many people enjoy being around them. One way to improve our socialization skills is spending time around dogs, which also prevents them from biting other people they interact with. Dogs generally help us be open and easily interact with people in our society.
The Importance of Keeping Your Dog Friendly
Keeping your dog friendly and allowing them to socialize with others contributes to their good manners. When your dog plays with others, it learns various tricks of existing in the environment. For instance, the dog understands when to back off during an impending danger or when to express excitement and the people it shares affection with.
Keeping the dog friendly helps them to explore the environment. Specifically, as the dog interacts with others in the environment, it adopts new smells, sounds, or other types of stimuli. A friendly dog will always appear confident in a strange environment.
A friendly dog is likely to avoid destructive behaviors. Allowing your dog to play with others prevents it from chewing valuable items like shoes when your dog plays with others, separation anxiety declines, and no destructive behavior sets in the dog.
When the dog plays, it releases excess energy, making it less destructive. It reduces the chances of attacking or biting strangers unless it is provoked. In most cases, a friendly dog learns several tricks of playing with the owner, making them more skilled than confined dogs.
How to Prevent Your Dog from Biting
Puppies have several teeth that seem attracted to bite anything they find their way. They will bite your fingers when playing or even destroy your shoes during their playtime. The habit of chewing everything puppies interact with is a developmental stage that should be trained away to avoid raising unfriendly dogs.
One of the best ways of preventing your dog from biting is inhibiting them from biting everything they find along the way. Dogs should be enrolled in a training program that reinforces good manners. They will know when to attack and retreat when they learn the lessons.
Allowing your dog to socialize with people and other pets is another way of preventing dogs from biting. Through socialization, the dog learns how to interact with children, older people, or disabled persons. Through the socialization process, the dog becomes friendly to people.
Regular exposure of dogs to other dogs, loud noises, or things that may instill fear in them makes them adapt to multiple environmental stimuli. From a young age, the dogs know that even in a fearful environment, they should not demonstrate aggression to people around them.
As a dog owner, you should pay attention to your dog to establish the circumstances that may lead it to bite. Know when to remove the dog in situations that may lead it to bite before the damage is done.
Avoid excessive aggression toward your dog when trying to discipline it when it becomes destructive. Instead, all the mistakes should be corrected by employing positive reinforcement that causes no harm to the pet. Furthermore, consistently praising the pet may make it friendly and lead it to learn how to have good manners all the time.
For dogs that cannot control their energies and anger, their owners should confine them in an environment that prevents them from causing harm to people. You can also keep them in sight and always stop them from causing unnecessary harm to people. You can notify people if you know your dog is aggressive to strangers.
Keep an active watch on your dog around children, especially toddlers. Toddlers are curious and fast and can and many times easily provoke, poke and pull at dog’s face and extremities, often without warning, but almost always when you turn your attention away for a mere second. If you can’t watch your dog, ensure your dog and toddler can’t touch each other while you complete your task.
Ensure that your dog’s vaccination against the rabies virus is routinely followed to avoid transferring the infection to persons the dog may bite in your absence. Rabies virus tends to coerce dogs to bite or become aggressive to other pets and humans. Vaccinating dogs is one way of preventing the transmission of the disease.
Proper Exercise, Diet and Mental Stimulation
It’s unreasonable to expect a dog that is not sufficiently having its exercise needs, dietary requirements and mental stimulation (aka breed working needs) met to be willing to listen to you all the time (or at least when it counts). Research what your dog’s breed or breeds job is which will give you a clue as to what types and how much exercise or other activities (digging, sorting, wrangling) that will help them feel fulfilled.
Proper Nutrition
A dog with a healthy gut has more of a chance to respond and not react when provoked. Reasonably of course. Make sure your dog has a diet of at least 50% wet food and 50% protein. Wet food means home cooked food (including organ meats) and/or meal prep services for pets or canned food. A pre and pro biotic is also essential to your dogs digestive system with the increasing processing in the meat and food industries (preservatives and sprays). Filtered water is also encouraged as is giving your dog fruit and veggies (see dog appropriate human food guides).
Mental Stimulation
Dogs thrive when they get to solve puzzles, practice their commands and learn new things. 20 Mins of sniffing on a walk can do wonders for your dog’s mental satisfaction. Bonus points for adding on a walk that is 45 mins or so (check what your breed and aged dog can handle, weather and health permitting), of an exploratory walk to a new neighborhood, store, or trip across town in the car or bus.
What to Do in Case Your Dog Bites
If your dog bites someone, the primary step is to try to confine the dog to prevent it from causing excessive harm to the victim. First aid is performed on the person by helping them wash the wound with warm, soapy water. Furthermore, you need to consult medical personnel and describe the severity of the bite on the victim. Depending on the damage, some dog bite incidents may require you to call an ambulance for the person harmed by a dog.
It is worth noting that dog bites are prohibited by law. You must inform your lawyer immediately if your dog bites a person. It would help if you were conversant with laws in your area regarding dog bites. When a dog bites a person, you must present proof that your dog has undergone rabies vaccination.
The dog may be quarantined if the rabies vaccination is not current. Additionally, if your dog is labeled dangerous, the court may give you specific directives that you must follow to continue keeping your pet. However, if your dog causes excessive damage or kills a person, it may be euthanized to prevent it from killing other people in society.
Generally, dogs remain some of the best pets to keep. Teaching them how to socialize and interact with people and environmental stimuli makes them acquire good mannerisms. It would help if you allowed your dog to socialize and train them to avoid biting people when they are still puppies. Well-trained dogs are the best friends an individual can have.
Written by Taylor McKnight, Author for BD&J Injury Lawyers
photo credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/adorable-and-funny-puppy-of-white-dwarf-poodle-having-bath-selective-focus-home-indoor-shot-fRhOSFYi3rM
Photo credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/adorable-and-funny-puppy-of-white-dwarf-poodle-having-bath-selective-focus-home-indoor-shot-fRhOSFYi3rM
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