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Tip of the Day Talk to Your Child After a Dog Bite It is NOT the Childs Fault

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It is Child Mental Health Week and Dog Bite Prevention Week, so we are starting off our series of daily tips on the topic of emotional support for children after a dog bite.

Children who are bitten by a dog often experience significant stress that can persist long after the incident. The may feel betrayed if their own dog bit them, guilt if the dog is put down or sent away, anxiety due to the distress that this has caused their parents and fear of some or all dogs. Signs that your child is experiencing emotional distress or even post traumatic stress include, nightmares, social withdrawal, fear of going outside or other changes in behavior that surface after the incident.

Please remember that no matter what, it is NOT YOUR CHILDS FAULT that they were bitten by a dog. If the dog was supervised and secure the child would not have encountered the dog. Be sure to reassure your child that it is not his fault and avoid using language that might add to a childs guilt ("you should have..." or "why didnt you..." or "if only you had..." or "I told you not to..."). In many cases neither the child nor the supervising adult, nor the dog owner realized that there was a danger of a bite because the dog was a generally friendly family pet. In other cases the child encountered a strange dog running loose, a situation that should have been prevented by the dog owner. Learning about dog body language and how to read the signs from a dog will help prevent these types of bites in the future and will be empowering for the child. We do not blame the victim, but we do encourage education for children just as we would for any hazard. The more they know, the less likely they are to be hurt.

Child psychiatrist Dr. R. Larry Schmitt recommends that parents repeatedly encourage and allow their child to talk about the incident and their feelings.

Read an article by Dr. Schmitt about why it is important to keep encouraging your child to talk about the bite or attack and more importantly to listen to your child.

Find out more and read answers by Dr. Schmitt to frequently asked questions from parents.

Dr. Schmitt will be giving a lecture for parents about how to help a child after a dog bite. This will be held at the San Diego Humane Society on May 22 from 6:30-8:00 PM. If your child has been bitten, be sure to attend so that you know how to prevent lasting emotional effects.

Click here for more information or to register.

Help us with our research into the lingering effects of a childhood dog bite by taking our survey:

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the worlds leading questionnaire tool.

Less Talk More Touch Whats Your Dog Saying to You

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Guest post by: Erica Feuerbacher, PhD, of Carroll College Anthrozoology Program (Facebook)

via Flickr creative commons

Hi Mia and Julie,

Like you and your readers, much of my energy is devoted to my dogs’ happiness. I can identify a plethora of things they do that make me happy and I want to know what makes them happy; I explore this in my research. What types of human interactions do dogs prefer and under what circumstances? Knowing this might help us understand how to produce and maintain better bonds with our dogs.

Two common ways of interacting with our dogs are petting or verbally praising them. My collaborator, Clive Wynne (@caninecognition), and I decided to ask dogs which of these interactions they prefer.

Schematic and dimensions of the room arrangement for concurrent choice procedures. The drawing is approximately to scale and the room dimensions based on those of the room at the shelter.

We gave dogs a choice between two concurrently available options and measured whether they spent more time with one than the other—and how much more—as common way to measure preference. One assistant provided petting whenever the dog was near her, and another assistant provided vocal praise whenever the dog was near her. The dog was free to interact (or not interact) with either person for ten minutes. To test whether the dog really preferred the specific interaction and not just that specific person, we had the two assistants switch interactions halfway through the session. That is, the person providing petting switched to providing only vocal praise and vice versa. If the dog preferred petting in the first five minutes of the session, would the dog switch to the other person who was now providing petting?

Twinky, a shelter dog, receiving petting from the assistant on the left, but soon alternates to the assistant on the right who previously provided vocal praise but now provides petting.

We tested shelter dogs and two groups of owned dogs: in one group both assistants were strangers, which was the same as the shelter dogs, but in the second group, one assistant was the dog’s owner. This allowed us to test whether the owner providing these interactions would change dogs’ preferences.

Across the board, dogs preferred petting to vocal praise. This difference was most pronounced in shelter dogs (out of the first five-minute period, dogs spent an average of 3.5 minutes with the petting person and only 7 seconds with vocal praise person). This result, however, held up across groups, even when the owner was one of the assistants and even when the owner was the assistant providing vocal praise. Additionally, when the assistant providing petting switched to vocal praise, dogs left …some immediately! When they found the other person was now providing petting, they stuck with her. Dogs even left their owner when the owner switched to vocal praise!

Patsy, a shelter dog, receiving petting from the assistant on the right but soon alternates to the assistant on the left who previously provided vocal praise but now provides petting.

Dogs clearly prefer petting to vocal praise, but what if vocal praise was the only game in town? Maybe vocal praise is good as long as there isn’t something better available. We tested this by giving dogs only one alternative at a time and measuring how much time they spent when the person provided petting and when the person provided vocal praise. The results were the same: dogs remained with the person providing petting but spent very little time when that person provided only vocal praise. In fact, we found that dogs spent as little time with the person for vocal praise as when the person was ignoring the dog! To dogs, vocal praise was equivalent to being ignored. On the other hand, we also tested dogs that received eight three-minute sessions of petting and those dogs spent almost all their time with the person providing petting, even in Session 8. There was no evidence that dogs get tired of petting; as long as you are willing to pet them, they are willing to be petted!

Our results point to the importance of touch or our pets and for us. Petting is an easy way to relate to a dog and help build a relationship. One thing to note is that in our study dogs were free to approach or leave the assistant—that is we never forced the dogs to receive petting. So, as much as dogs like petting, don’t rush out and pet every dog you meet! You need to allow the dog to come to you to be petted and to leave when it wants.

Scorch, an owned dog, receiving petting from the assistant on the left who is Scorchs owner. When his owner switches from providing petting to providing only vocal praise, he soon alternates to the assistant on the right, a stranger, who previously provided vocal praise but now provides petting.

It was surprising that dogs did not prefer vocal praise—even when it was the only interaction available. We often get the comment from people, “Well, my dog loves when I talk to him!” We have to remind them that we only praised the dogs whereas most people praise the dog and simultaneously do something else really fun (like petting). We also praised the dogs for a long time—as long as the dog stayed near the assistant. This is harder than it sounds and worth trying—a few dogs did spend a good amount of time with the vocal praise assistant and that poor assistant had to praise the dog for few minutes on end!

Now its your turn... Put YOUR dogs preferences under the Microscope
You can certainly do a mini version of our research at home: talk to your dog for an extended period without doing anything else—don’t grab the leash or pet him or reach for a treat. Does he stick around? Does he wander off? Dogs do learn to love certain words, like “walk,” “cookie,” or “good girl,” but those are only meaningful because they are usually associated with other good things—like going for a walk, getting a treat, or being petted.

What I enjoy about my research is it gives us the dog’s perspective and asks the dog, “what do you like?” rather than assuming we know what they like. Our results regarding vocal praise are really interesting given how much we talk to our dogs; perhaps all our chattering is more for us than for them and if you really want to communicate with your dog, you should try petting.

~ ~ ~

Dr. Erica Feuerbacher joined the faculty of the Anthrozoology program at Carroll College in 2014, after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Florida in the Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab. Her research goal is to enhance our understanding of the dog-human relationship to improve the welfare of both.

Further reading:

Feuerbacher, E. N., & Wynne, C. D. (2015). Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures. Behavioural processes, 110, 47-59.[Open Access PDF until Jan 2016]

Feuerbacher, E. N., & Wynne, C. D. (2014). Most domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer food to petting: population, context, and schedule effects in concurrent choice. Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 101(3), 385-405.

Feuerbacher, E. N., & Wynne, C. D. (2012). RELATIVE EFFICACY OF HUMAN SOCIAL INTERACTION AND FOOD AS REINFORCERS FOR DOMESTIC DOGS AND HAND?REARED WOLVES. Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 98(1), 105-129.

Udell, M. A., Lord, K., Feuerbacher, E. N., & Wynne, C. D. (2014). A Dog’s-Eye View of Canine Cognition. In Domestic Dog Cognition and Behavior (pp. 221-240). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Feuerbacher, E., & Wynne, C. (2015). Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures Behavioural Processes, 110, 47-5 - See more at: http://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2015/01/do-dogs-prefer-petting-or-praise.html#sthash.hdkEDN4o.dpu

Feuerbacher, E., & Wynne, C. (2015). Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures Behavioural Processes, 110, 47-59 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.08.019 - See more at: http://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2015/01/do-dogs-prefer-petting-or-praise.html#sthash.hdkEDN4o.dpuf

What You Know About Your Dog But Dont Want To Talk About!

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When you’re certain in getting a dog, Ill bet you dreamt about the countless times youd have with your new best friend. Nonetheless, there are things that you need to deliberate in order to keep your pooch healthy and happy. Things that possibly youd rather not even think about!

When you visit your veterinarian he may request you to bring a urine sample from your dog. How do you do this? Your dog confidently wont be able to hit a sample bottle. The coolest way to complete this is to tape a polyethylene vial to the end of a yard stick. While your dog is playing, position the container beneath his urine stream.

This is stress-free to do with male dogs than female dogs but you can habitually get a tester with one or two tries. Your veterinarian will need as fresh a sample as thinkable so if you wont be compiling the sample to the vet right away, keep it chilled until you bring it in. Your veterinarian will be examining the sample for a range of stuffs like bacteria and crystals. If bacteria are found it possibly will mean that your pooch has a urinary tract infection and will most probable necessitate your dog to be put in a sequence of antibiotics. Crystals form in the urine when minerals bind together, there are numerous different kinds of crystals and these are peak often treated with prescription diets.

If your veterinarian requests for a stool sample it might mean that he doubts that intestinal parasites are troubling your dog. They can acquire these by eating fecal matter from carcasses, unsavory things and another affected animal. You will want to get in a fresh sample. The doctor will inspect it under the optical microscope and look for telltale eggs of parasites. Commonest parasites are roundworms, roundworms, whipworms, hookworms and tapeworms. Several of today’s regular heartworm treatments also protect against hookworms and roundworms. If you’re living in the country where your dog stays outside for much of the day, he may prerequisite to be cured with a tapeworm wormer on a trimestral basis. Other diseases alike coccidia, can also be seen under the optical microscope from your dog’s stool sample.

So, now you can discuss about those unpleasant things! Its imperative that you are accurately educated and can identify signs and symptoms so that you keep your dog as in fine fettle as he can be.

Play with your dog for science

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Project: Play With Your Dog (our latest study)

Hi Mia,

Wow. Very heavy stuff. I’m really happy you put this all out there. Its a great resource, especially when people tend to think, "That wont happen to me." An uncomfortable and upsetting situation hopefully becomes more real and understandable. Hopefully, an eye of caution will be extended to those circumstances more often associated with bites.

Show us how you play
You’re right, my mind has been 100% on things not related to dog bites. At the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab, we just launched our next project. It’s called, Project: Play with Your Dog.

We are cataloguing all the ways—traditional, original, or creative—people play with their dogs. To do this, we are using the Citizen Science platform and asking dog owners to submit short videos of themselves playing with their dog. Its really just a happy study.

Our Project on Scientific American Citizen Science

This week, we launched with a guest blog post on Scientific American, How do you play with your dog? and the project is now on their Citizen Science page.

Now we need hundreds of videos of people playing with their dogs!

How people can participate:
Find or make a 30-60 second video of you and your dog playing in whatever way you like to play together, and then upload the video to our website and complete a short survey.

REALLY IMPORTANT: Both dog and person should be visible for all or most of the video. As cute as it is to see your dog running back and forth, we need to see you in the video playing with your dog. SUGGESTIONS: Attach the video camera to a tripod to capture the play area, or have another person hold the video camera.

Then, everyone is invited to add a picture to our Wall of Contributors (which is growing and the pictures are really awesome!)

Project: Play with Your Dog is open to anyone, in any country. If you live with a dog, we want to see you play.

Source: Business Insider Science

Additional details:
Subjects: Participants must be at least 8 years old
Time Commitment: 20 to 30 minutes
Project Duration: Ongoing through Spring 2013
Project Website: www.DogHumanPlay.com
Contact: DogCognitionStudy@gmail.com

Thats whats going on in my world. Look forward to seeing a video of Elke in the river and you with stick in hand ;)

Happy holidays on the horizon!!!

Julie

© Julie Hecht 2012

So much dog to talk about All the time in the world!

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(source)

Hi Mia,

Yowzer!! We have so much to talk about! Dogs eating poop, welfare assessment, behavioural needs, enrichment and the “guilty look” are only the beginning!

Speaking of which, I’m sure you have at least 7,000 more words on assessing welfare. Can you tell me more about assessing welfare?

You hyperlinked to a scientific journal article by Dr. Georgia Mason, and that made me smile a lot lot lot (or, Alot).

I am a bit of a Georgia Mason worshiper (for any of you who don’t know, she is a researcher in Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the University of Guelph. She explores how the housing of “Applied Animals,” those animals managed or controlled by humans, affects behaviour, brain functioning and welfare. She focuses on lab, farm and zoo animals... I feel like The Oz coming down and speaking to people other than you, Mia. Weird). Anyway, a while back, I gave Dr. Mason directions at a conference in France, and its still a big deal in my book.

So, yes! Tell me more about welfare assessment!!!

Life for me presently revolves around writing projects. Instead of writing about my writing projects, Ill give you a visual interpretation of what I’m working on and how I feel about it.

How I feel after reading a scientific paper and having a worthwhile thought: