When a parent decides to bring a dog into
the household, it is imperative that the parent take into account the
life-style of the family. For many modern families, it is often in the best
interest of everyone that a dog not be purchased at all!
To raise a dog to become a mannerly member of society,
one needs will, skill and time. All three commodities are in short supply in
modern American families. Here are examples of how innocent children bear the
brunt of their parents mistakes.
The most important factors to consider are the
physical age, and also the developmental stage that the children of the family
are currently moving through.
For instance, infants act/react to dog much
differently, than toddlers, who in turn act/react differently to dogs than do
preschoolers. In general, I advise most of my clients to postpone getting a new
puppy and/or older dog until the youngest child of the family is around
6 or 7 years of age.
Why? For reasons of safety.
-Children under 4 years old suffer dog
attacks, which then require medical treatment in hospital, twice as much as
individuals between 11 and 45 years old.
-In a study held in Dallas, over 1,754
cases of bites by owned and stray dogs shows
that the former (owned dogs) are generally much more
dangerous than the latter:
owned dogs are, in fact, are responsible for more
cases of bites in the head, face and nose.
85% of cases are represented by dogs which are
much closer to the victim, being either owned by the victim himself or by
friends or relatives.
WHY DO KIDS
GET BITTEN BY DOGS?
The answer is a simple one:
because kids bother dogs. I have seen great acts of
cruelty inflicted to gentle, sweet puppies by toddlers and older children, such
as kicking a dog that is lying down sleeping in the stomach or hitting a dog on
the head with a hard metal truck.
The parent at the scene has often refused to
intervene. This has happened, in my presence, in low-income section 8 housing,
and in 50 million lake side mansions; social class has
NOTHINGto do with properly raising your child
to respect life.
This is a pervasive cultural
disease in urban and suburban America. It seems that many people have little
hesitation in allowing their children to practice acts of
abuse, violence and
torture on innocent, dependent creatures. These parents
seem to believe that this is normal behavior for a child. And also, that it is
normal for a dog to accept his torment quietly and without complaint.
Can you imagine!
Unfortunately, it has been discovered that there is a
direct correlation between childhood abuse of animals and adulthood abuse of
women, children and animals.
Moore's Rule of Thumb is this, "If you the parent,
wouldn't want your child to be treated by another child, the same way your
child treats the dog, then you have an EMERGENCY in your
home.
So, if your little boy or girl kicks the dog or stomps
on the dogs foot, of hits the dog in the head with a bat/truck/brick/block or
stick a fork in it's eye/ear/anal region, ask yourself, "What would I
do if my child was abused just like that by another child?"
But, even this evidence is not strong enough to get
parents or adults to come to the rescue of the family dog. The following
articles go into greater detail on the how's and why's of dog bite statistics.
BUT WHEN THE PLAY BETWEEN DOGS AND CHILDREN GOES WRONG
-- CALL US BEFORE THE PROBLEM GETS BIGGER!
DOG BITE STATISTICS
DOG BITE STATS:
Children are the most frequent targets. Studies of dog
bite injuries have reported that:
The median age of patients bitten was 15 years,
with children, especially boys aged 5 to 9 years,
having the highest incidence rate.
The odds that a bite victim will be
a child are 3.2 to 1. (CDC.)
Children seen in emergency departments were more
likely than older persons to be bitten on the face, neck, and head.
77% of injuries to children
under 10 years old are facial.
Severe injuries occur almost exclusively in
children less than 10 years of age.
The majority of dog attacks (61%)
happen at home or in a familiar place.
The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to
the victim's family or a friend.
-Most woundings by dogs take place
around the victim's house. Dog bites generally occur while the child is:
playing with the
dog, (12%)
while petting
(13%)
or in the act
waking them (15%).
When a child less than 4 years old
is the victim, the family dog was the attacker half the time (47%), and the
attack almost always happened in the family home (90%).
Dog bites result in approximately 44,000 facial
injuries in US hospitals each year. This represents between 0.5% and 1.5% of
all emergency room visits.
The face is the most frequent
target (77% of all injures).
Mail carriers are an exception where 97% involve
the lower extremities.
The central target area for the
face includes the lips, nose, and cheeks.
Stray dogs seem to prefer human
limbs (86.8% versus 76.8%), specially fingers (stray dogs 36.3%, owned dogs
20.5%), whereas owned dogs tend to prefer heads and faces (16.53% versus
5.89%).
Here's how dog bites rank among other common causes
of childhood emergency-room injuries:
CAUSE OF INJURY
EMERGENCY ROOM INCIDENTS
ANNUALLY
Baseball / Softball
404,364
Dog Bites
333,678
Playground Accidents
268,810
All Terrain Vehicles, Mopeds,
etc.
125,136
Volleyball
97,523
In-line Skating
75,994
Horseback Riding
71,162
Baby Walkers
28,000
Skateboards
25,486
BITE
STATISTICS IN THE USA
Facts & Stats about Dog Bites
Dog bites to people of the male gender are
approximately two times greater than the incidence involving females.
Dogs not known to the victim
account for only approximately 10 - 20% of all reported dog bites.
Mixed breeds, and not pure bred dogs are the
type of dog most often involved in inflicting bites to people.
The pure-bred dogs most often
involved are German Shepherds, Pit-Bull types and Chow Chows.
In children, in particular, stray dogs show a
tendency towards biting hands, those parts of the body which more often move,
while pet dogs tend to
attack the child's face, with particular reference to the mouth area.
The aggression usually takes
place during play, when both dog and child are engaged in
play on the ground. By playing, children often increase the possibility
of a dog's attack, since they are often used to playfully assaulting the animal
either verbally or physically.
More than 50% of 112
serious cases of facial dog bites in Chicago hospitals concerned
children under 4 years.
Intact males are responsible for the majority of
bites to people and dogs.
Emergency room costs for dog bite victims in
the United States was about $102 million in 1994, and overall direct medical
costs was about $165 million.
In the two year period from 1997 to 1998,
twenty-seven people died as a result of dog bite attacks (18 in 1997, and 9 in
1998).
Of the 27 people who died as a result of dog
bite attacks in 1997 and 1998:
67% involved
unrestrained dogs on the owner's property;
19% involved unrestrained dogs off the
owner's property;
11% involved restrained dogs on the owner's
property;
4% involved a restrained dog off the owner's
property.
From 1979 to 1998, at least 25 breeds of dogs
have been involved in bite related deaths.
Pit Bulls and
Rottweilers were involved in more than 50 percent of these deaths.
THE DOG BITE EPIDEMIC
There is a dog bite epidemic in the United States
and the civilized world.
In a 10-year period, the
number of dogs in the USA rose by 2% while the number of bites increased by
37%.
There are almost 5 million victims in the USA
annually -- about 2% of the entire population. 800,000 need medical attention.
1,000 per day or 1 out of 6 need
treatment in hospital emergency rooms.
Dog bites send nearly 334,000 victims to the
emergency room every year or 914 a day.
As an American you have a 1
in 50 chance of being bitten by a dog.
The number of fatalities. In the U.S. from 1979
to 1996, 304 people in the U.S died from dog attacks, including 30 in
California. The average number of deaths per year was 17. Most of the deceased
were children.
Between 15 and 20 die per year.
Most of the victims are children, almost always bitten in the face by the
family dog or a friend's dog.
DOG BITES ARE ON THE RISE
Dog bites are on the rise: Although the number
of dogs in the United States increased by only 2% between 1986 and 1996, the
number of dog bite injuries requiring medical treatment rose by 37%.
The scene of attack is home or a
familiar place. The majority of dog attacks (61%) happen at home or in a
familiar place.
Dogs bite family and friends.
The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to the victim's family or a
friend.
Don't let
your child become another statistic.
Don't let a neighbor's little
girl have to have her face surgically reconstructed because your dog is a
biter.
Dear Ami, I just had to let you
know that Dolly and I just went for a walk and it was the first time in two
years it was enjoyable for me. No pulling! and we met another dog we knew and
Dolly just laid down calmly. I told my friend about you and she may call.
I asked her if she could believe the difference and she said, "Are you
sure she didn't slip her something?"
Thank you Ami....because of
you I am queen of my own house and Dolly is on her
way to being well adjusted . I am so impressed with you and your way
of teaching me how she thinks.
I can't thank you enough. Nancy
CONTACT INFORMATION
Doggie Do
Right-911 847-284-7760
DOG
FACTS
Did You Know... The tallest breeds are the
Great Dane, the Irish Wolfhound, the St. Bernard, the English Mastiff, the
Borzoi, and the Anatolian Karabash (Turkish Shepherd Dog).
All of these breeds can
attain 36 inches at the shoulder OR MORE!
When a parent decides to bring a dog into
the household, it is imperative that the parent take into account the
life-style of the family. For many modern families, it is often in the best
interest of everyone that a dog not be purchased at all! 
