In my opinion, children and dogs should not be left together unsupervised. NO MATTER THE BREED! Things can turn ugly fairly quickly, even with a parent in the room, though the chances of things turning the worst way possible are much higher if they are alone. And since everyone is going to be snarky and not take info, have some proof (not for the faint hearted)
These are all news articles/news only from the US from the year 1995 to 2010 (because I am not in the mood to go all the way back to the 1800′s, but trust me, they have something on that there too. I am also not putting ALL of them on here because it would take me hours. Taking 1-2 from each year)
July, 2010, a 2 year old is killed by his step-grandfathers 3 pit bulls (or BBM). “
Grandfather arrested for manslaughter.[412] The dogs had decapitated the family’s pet Akita and killed the family’s pet Chihuahua and parrot within the prior year. The dogs, which were kept in a garage, had previously shown aggression toward the boy” (the link didn’t work 😦 )
^ click that to read all about the other attacks, they have age and description in each and every story.
Dogs should not be left alone with children. Children should not be left alone with dogs. Dogs can not babysit. Children can not fight the dog if something happens. Even some of the parents that were in the same room as the attack, were unable to save their children. The breeds in there range from pomeranians and rat terriers to rottweilers and mastiffs. The breed doesn’t matter, be a responsible parent and be a responsible dog owner.
Alright, so to add to this, is a story I have from when I was 12. It is something I do not talk about a lot.
Thank you for the share. I think it’s so important that people know that it doesn’t matter how sweet and amazing your dog has been, things happen and like i said, they can go wrong so very fast and out of nowhere.
This is so important! As the OP said, kids and dogs should not be left alone unsupervised together. I’ve written a few research papers on BSL for a few law classes, and in my research I’ve found, like OP has so nicely linked to us, that most child bites and most child injuries (and even deaths) have been because Doggy and Baby were together unsupervised. That’s how a majority of child-related dog injuries occur.
Be responsible and watch your kids around your dogs, regardless of breed.
A fantastic diagram of lots of the facial expressions of stress we talk about here a lot! Found on Facebook.
I think it’s important to take context and breed into account when you try to interpret canine body language?
Lio and many other greyhounds chatter their teeth when they’re happy or excited. I’ve only hear Lio chatter his teeth when he’s anticipating a treat or when I come home after being away for awhile. He gets puffy cheeks when he’s sleepy being his breathing slows down and his facial muscles are relaxed. Also, apparently some greyhounds grin when they’re happy? I’ve only ever seen Lio grin before a snap or lunge though so I only associate it with negative feelings when it comes to him.
Yes, greyhounds are huge weirdos! breed and context are important. This is a nice graphic though and I wish it had been posted at the shelter I worked at for the more inexperienced volunteers and staff. Might’ve prevented some issues.
The “clown mouth” is kind of standard for bully breeds as well. I have mixed feelings on graphics like these. On one hand they are a nice guide for taking care around a stray dog or a dog in a stressful situation, but on the other hand I hate it when people try to use them to look at photos of people’s pets and accuse them of being stressed. Context is very important, as well as taking into account breed traits. E.g. when Rudy is out in the yard and his ears are alert, he’s just being alert. However if I was approaching a strange dog and they had that expression, I’d be cautious and not go right up to and handle.
This also applies to basenjis. Ears back/flat is a sign of “OMFG, I’M SO HAPPY!” And ears alert…that’s just what it is. They’re alert of their surroundings. And the brows furrowed, that’s just normal. LOVE their wrinkles. :3
We’ve pretty much decided that the best way to tell of Cora in enjoying pets is to assume that the more nervous she looks, the better. She’ll side whale eye while licking her lips and if you stop petting her she will MUG YOU for more pets.
Kaeda does the SAME THING. She’ll do the tongue flick. If I stop, she looks at me and sometimes will even paw me to continue! hahaha
Also with German Shepherds their ears go back and loose and I’ve heard it called “Happy Seal Head” and it means they’re happy to see you, and it’s quite different from the ears pinned back thing.
Like, this looks like an all-round bad situation, right?
Context is everything. He was actually ecstatic to meet a person he lived with who he hadn’t seen yet that day but met on the driveway on our way out, but canine body language is one of the hardest things to read because every dog and breed is so different.
Even hackles can be mildly unreliable, though I wouldn’t fuck with a strange do with hackles up from shoulder to tail.
I guess you should get to know your own dog, and don’t tangle with a strange dog displaying any potential stress signals, regardless of whether they’re actually stress signals or not.
Okay, so this is a thread of commentary I want to talk about, because as a professional in the field it makes me want to tear my hair out.
This infographic isn’t misleading – it’s very, very basic, and it’s very, very accurate. This is posted for the new people who really have no visual context to even start from about what behaviors can indicate stress. I guess I shouldn’t have posted this without more context – because, as you said, context is the important thing. All behavior must be taken in context to be understood at all. As a professional, working with brand new clients, this is an infographic I would give them because it tells them where to start looking
What is important when looking at stress behavior is that that behavior is looked for in terms of change. A naturally prick-eared dog isn’t necessarily stressed if his ears are up – but if they prick hard forwards, stiffly, that’s stress. A wrinkly dog having soft folds of skin isn’t unusual, but he still might be stressed if they suddenly get super tense and deep and are simultaneous with other signs of stress or overall body tension. You can’t discount a signal by saying ‘oh well my dog’s body already does that so obviously he’s fine all the time this isn’t a valid signal’. Canine body language is canine body languge, and it can be subtle or different depending on the dog, but there’s not an animal out there that just “speaks a different language”.
If you have a dog for whom some of these aren’t stress signals, and you know that, great. At the same time, for every person I work with who know that their dog isn’t stressed, I have three more who say “Oh, Fluffy does this all the time but he’s fine!” and then I come in for a consult and Fluffy is stressed out of his eyeballs. So if your dog is displaying stress signals “a lot, but he’s fine” – maybe you should try to figure out why. Maybe it’s just that as much as Fluffy likes being pet by you, he’s nervous when you loom over him or touch his face. So then you could just change your posture or pet his flank instead, and you’d have solved the problem and made your dog more comfortable.
The thing that really, really bothers me about this is the fact that you’ve got people discounting very scary signals like ‘whale eye’ because they ‘see them all the time’. That tells me right there that the person commenting doesn’t know how to accurately identify the behavior that the term describes, which leads to a very slippery slope of ignoring signals when dogs are being pushed too far because since they’re ‘common’ people just ignore it. ‘Whale eye’ is is a super serious stiff, terrified look out of the corner of the eye while trying to move as far away from the object of the gaze – it’s not that thing that happens when your dog looks at you sideways. I’ve talked about this before, but what’s important to quantify is that it’s considered almost as serious as snapping/snarling in the behavioral evaluations I’m part of. If it happens “all the time” you’re just straight up incorrect. That’s. So. Dangerous. If you can’t call behavior accurately when you’re talking about concepts that drastically important, don’t use those phrases – because that gets people hurt, or dogs put down. (Same thing with the ‘did you see teeth’ or did your dog ‘snap’ at that other dog dichotomy I talk about a lot. Accuracy is important).
When people start assuming that their dog’s stress signals aren’t indicative of even minor moments of stress in an other positive situation, that gets bad quickly. You get really reactive dogs somethings who have learned that their people will ignore any small stress signals and that they have to snap or growl to get the human to listen, because we’ve learned to discount and write off their polite body language of ‘I’m not comfortable”. This is also where you get the idea that toy dogs should get shaking all the time, having seal ears, lip licking constantly… guess what? That’s not normal. People ignore stress signals in small dogs because we’ve decided as a culture we can, and the dogs eventually just give up and deal with being towed into every situations and manhandled… but they’re still showing signs of stress the whole time.
So yes, this infographic is basic, and requires context as does everything involving behavior, which I stress a lot .It’s also the best one out there I’ve seen because it effectively isolates the specific, subtle signs of stress everyone ignores. It’s the type of thing we get asked for a lot – visuals to help out the less dog savvy folk. So please, don’t chew it to shreds and be nasty because you’re sure that your dog doesn’t do that (trust me, he does) or because what you’ve learned on the internet has told you it’s okay to want to find wiggle room in behavioral assessments where it’s not accurate or appropriate to have it. That sort of commentary being propagated is literally why I have a job – fixing it.
A couple of comments based on discussions I’ve seen:
“Clown face” is different than the wide mouthed common bully face in its tension. You’re looking for lip tension and stiff wrinkles, combined with a spatulate and/or stiff tongue. Bullies will often do a similar happy or overheated face but it’s much more soft and floppy.
Dogs chattering in response to prey is still a stress response. The problem is that stress is always assumed to equate to negative things, when sometimes it’s a sign of arousal. (Eustress is a thing – stress can be good or bad, it’s just often more commonly thought of as a negative). A greyhound chattering at a squirrel is in a state of stress, especially if he’s restrained and knows he can’t go after it. Is he miserable? No. But it does tell you he’s aroused and distracted and more likely to react instead of focus on the handler.
I have not read a single paper that does anything but debunk the concept of canines smiling like primates, nor have a met a single professional or academic in ethology or canine science who believes it is anything but a layman’ misinterpretation. Smiling is a human behavior, and the lip movements we use are singularly primate. Dogs do not interpret lip tension and exposed teeth as affiliate in their own species-typical behavior, and therefore have no reason to display it as a referential behavior describing their own internal state. There is no level of behavioral mimicry from interacting with humans that would cause that. The smile behavior happens from stress, from random things, and from training – but not because the dog is happy. Canines do not smile like humans. QED
This is a totally anti-climactic video of my dogs lazy-playing with much teeth, a toy banana, and a stuffed orange.
Here’s a great example of why, when you’re seeing teeth, it’s super important to describe the behavior you’re looking at in details (if you’re asking for advice). This is soft, lazy, friendly play, but if you’re not paying a lot of attention or only seeing a glimpse of it out of context, it’s easy to go ‘*le gasp*, teeth!’ and totally misinterpret it – which is not good, if you then try to tell someone that your dog was baring his teeth at the other dog when they played and you’re worried about it.
There’s this car commercial of this guy taking his dog to do all these things on the dog’s bucket list and it’s so precious it makes me emotional every time.
Like I legit just had to wipe away a few tears because it makes my heart feel things.
Cats are very stoic and it’s easy for cat parents to miss signs of pain or discomfort. Because your cat can’t come to you the way a child can and verbally complain about being in pain, it’s important for you to pay attention to physical signs as well as changes in behavior or routine that could possibly be a red flag. If you suspect your cat is in pain, please don’t hesitate to get him to the veterinarian.
Here are 10 signs that your cat may be in pain:
Increased vocalization
Licking a particular area of the body more than usual
Appearance of the nictitating membrane (the third eyelid)
Hiding
Panting or open mouth breathing
Irritability or grumpiness (from a cat who normally isn’t that way)
Many signs of potential pain can be very subtle and easily missed. For example, if you aren’t routinely scooping the litter box twice a day you’ll miss the fact that your cat hasn’t urinated or defecated in there for a day or two.
If your normally friendly cat starts becoming short-tempered, don’t write it off as kitty just being in a bad mood. Cats are creatures of routine and a change in behavior can be a warning sign of something medically wrong. Don’t play wait-and-see when it comes to your cat’s health. Your cat may be communicating in the best way he knows how that he’s hurting and needs help.
A U.K.-based charity is warning people not to purchase or adopt wolfdogs that look like the direwolves that appear on Game of Thrones.
Artisan Rare Breeds has already rescued nine wolfdogs from homes recently. Wolfdogs are a cross between wolves and “shephard-type dogs.” The animals rescued by the group so far have all been Czechoslovakian wolfdogs bred by the Czech military. Unlike other dogs that may be rescued from homes, wolfdogs will never be placed in another home. Many require owners to have a Dangerous Animals license.
Director Wayne May suspects that people have been adopting these dogs because they look like the direwolves on Game of Thrones. Purchasing a third-generation wolfdog is legal in the U.K., but he estimates that the wolfdogs he rescues might be up to 50 percent wolf.
“To have these animals as family pets is really irresponsible,” he told The Telegraph. “Some of the ones we’ve rescued I reckon have more wolf in them than dog, which is illegal. I know they’re seen on telly in Game of Thrones, but people need to realise that these are basically wild animals and need to be treated with respect.”
These wolfdogs are often difficult to take care of. They eat raw meat and chicken because dog food upsets their stomachs.
While people buy them as pups, May says they find that they’re unable to cope with them when they get older, citing one example where a wolfdog caused £4,000 in damage after it was left alone with two chihuahuas for a couple hours.
Although cute in appearance, the direwolves on the show are difficult to raise, even in the fictional universe. Initially, Eddard Stark wanted to kill the direwolf pups, but he was persuaded by Jon Snow to let the Stark children take care of them on their own. Loyal to the Starks, they may seem like docile pets until someone tries to harm their owners. After the first season, Game of Thrones relied on CGI to show the direwolves on TV.
Sophie Turner, whose character Sansa was the first to lose her direwolf on the show, ended up adopting the dog who played Lady. That dog was a Northern Inuit.
May hopes that there is more restriction on breeding and selling wolfdogs, saying that “looks can be deceiving.”
What kind of dumbass leaves an actual wolfdog alone with two chihuahuas?? Good Lord.
My roommate and a friend have been watching game of thrones lately and the “wolves” they used in season one just killed me. Like literally my first thought when I saw one was that a bunch of morons are going to go buy German Shepherds and such legitimately believing they’re part wolf.
The fact that people can be so easily influenced to buy certain pets by things like TV shows and movies is honestly concerning. It’s like the surge in popularity of the Dalmatian after Disney got ahold of them. “Oh, that thing was cool on TV, I want to commit to owning one for the next 1-2 decades.” ??? Never mind how difficult it is to care for, it looks cool! That’s what’s important, right?
PiraticOctopus 