Top Secret of Preventing Dog Bites
You may have heard of a saying “Let sleeping dogs lie?” In common sense, this is a true saying and it is not to restart old conflicts. The truth is, if a sleeping dog is awakened abruptly, he can bite the person before he is even fully awake!
As part of dogs survival tools, they have very active defense reflexes. In the wild they do not have the luxury of slow-waking. When they are asleep they are the most vulnerable to attack.
it is good to train your puppy to obey you at all time no matter the circumstances. Your pet should answer to your commands even if something more enticing is within, such as food or another pet. This training can be critical if your pet gets into a situation where a person is threatened since you may be able to prevent a bite by giving a stay or stop command.
Animals have defense reflexes. using this illustration for an example, if someone starts to poke you in the eye, will you ask “should I blink”? You will just automatically blink. This is the same case when the sleeping dog is suddenly awakened–his defense reflex is automatically triggered and he bites immediately even without knowing he is doing it.
So when a sleeping dog is awakened by a child or someone else petting him or the person walking by noisily, the dog can react immediately or suddenly that the person who provided the stimulation may be vigorously bitten even twice, before the dog is clinically awake.
Punishing a dog for biting out of reflex is not usually effective. The dog literally may not know why you are so angry or why you and your party are punishing him. Because the dog may have no memory of the attack he made since it was a reflex incident before he was fully awake.
So many dog bites record to family members, especially kids, occur when a sleeping dog is distracted. Sadly enough, dogs are even euthanized for biting when they have been awakened.
It is wise to researches which breeds possess more active reflexes and may be more prone to biting a person who wakes them; you can do this if you have young children in your home. And be sure you are your very little kids do not have access to sleeping dogs and that older children respect the saying “let sleeping dogs lie”.
Proper socialization during puppyhood is also another method to preventing dog bites. This can be done by exposing your dog to a variety of people and situations of all ages while your dog is still young so that the pet is less likely to be startled or fearful.
