Recently in the news there’s been a tragic story about a 7-year old girl who was savagely attacked by four Staffy cross dogs belonging to a family friend. There are few details available about the events or situation leading up to the attack but two things are absolutely clear: first, the dogs attacked for a reason; and second, the attack was completely avoidable.

No behaviour happens in a vacuum; all behaviour comes from somewhere. There is always a set of circumstances that work together to either increase or decrease the likelihood of a behaviour occurring. Like the two dogs in the picture: this was a provoked attack caused by one of the dogs getting overly pushy with the other. No injury occurred here, just a lesson in good manners; these dogs are normally the best of friends. But this situation is no place for a child; displaced aggression, picking on someone more vulnerable, is a very common cause of dog attack.

There are dozens of reasons why a dog may attack but generally they fall into four categories:

1. Fear: the dog is afraid and feels he has no alternative but to attack
2. Protection or Resource Guarding: Dogs who are trained or breed to guard stuff, people included, will act instinctively to protect that which they consider is theirs to guard
3. Provocation: the dog is brought to such a high state of arousal, either through circumstances or the behaviour of others, that he stops thinking and just reacts
4. Predation: Dogs chase and kill things that squeak, squeal, squawk, run, flail, waggle or flap

Whatever the reasons were for those dogs attacking the 7-year old we will never know, and there is very little we can do now to rectify the situation – the girl is scarred for life and the dogs have been euthanised, but what we can do is ensure that this situation never happens again by preventing these four antecedent situations ever occurring around children.

Fearful dogs and children don't mix. Children are unpredictable and as such can easily startle a fearful dog into instinctive self-protective behaviours such as barking, lunging or running away. Any dog that is fearful needs positive training to help him better adjust to the world he finds so scary. The owner needs to protect the fearful dog from things that make him afraid until a systematic process of desensitisation through positive reinforcement or counter-conditioning is brought about.

Certainly fearful dogs should never be let loose around strangers of any age even in their own home. For their own safety, and that of others, pop them in another room or in a crate where they will feel secure. If this is not possible keep your fearful dog on leash at your side and use your presence as a calming and reassuring stimulus. Ask your guests to ignore the dog and let the dog decide when and how he will approach, once he feels comfortable enough to do so.

All dogs can develop protective behaviours towards prized items. For some it might be a toy or a favourite chew. For others it might be their food or a particular person. In some cases this resource guarding behaviour is appropriate and even desirable particularly in working dogs: the sheepdog guarding the flock against predators, the police dog protecting his partner, the guard dog protecting private or valuable property. In the case of a family pet though, this type of behaviour is not appropriate. The last thing you want in your pet dog is a strong protective or resource guarding behaviour. Jean Donaldson wrote a brilliant book about this called “Mine!” (see Resources) which gives excellent suggestions and training tips on how to teach your dog to share. Donaldson offers guidance on how to build such a strong relationship with your dog that you can take prized things from him without his reacting at all because he knows he’s going to get them back or get something better.

Many owners are unaware of what their dogs may prize and certainly most handle the situation completely the wrong way when dealing with it. Teaching a dog that you are the boss is definitely not the way to go about it and may indeed cause the suppression of this behaviour with the result that it manifests in some other way like “unprovoked aggression.” I put this in quotes because all aggressive behaviour is provoked in some way, either through past experiences or in the current situation.

Provocation is, in my experience, the most common reason for dog attacks. It is usually a combination of the first two situations with some other additional terror thrown into the mix. Dogs constantly give off warning signs, commonly referred to as calming signals, whenever they feel uncomfortable or under stress or when they are in a situation where they find it difficult to cope. Humans are notoriously bad at reading these signals and often misinterpret them completely with devastating results. Closed mouths, head turns, flat ears, yawning, tongue flicks, turning away…these are all signs that the dog wants to be left alone. When these signals are ignored or provoked further with unwanted touching, pulling on the leash, kicks, taunting, throwing things at the dog, bending over the dog, grabbing the dog, his collar, or the scruff of his neck – it all contributes to a recipe for disaster.

Anybody noticing a dog giving off these calming signals needs to keep children away from the dog. Better yet, train children how to recognize these signs and act in a way to keep themselves "doggone safe".

The prey-drive in dogs is as strong now as it ever was, ask any hunter or farmer. And yet, predation is the one category easy to forget about when living with our dogs in urban environments. Dogs are hunters. Whether it is hunting for a lost ball, food to eat, or a favourite slipper; that’s what they do. Their whole physiology is tailored to hunt: acute hearing, highly developed sense of smell, speed and agility. When dogs get overly excited particularly in a pack environment, their prey-drive can kick into action and they become “aggressive”. Many of the toys we give our dogs to play with are designed to simulate the attack and kill behaviour and so allay that prey-drive. Toys they can chase, shake, rip apart…all help to ease the urge and teach the dog more appropriate behaviours than chasing the cat, shaking your leather jacket, or ripping apart the sheepskin rug.

Ever notice how like prey animals young children are? They run around squealing and waving their arms. They like to be chased. They tumble and fall. They like to get caught and giggle and squirm. A squeal of delight is little different to a squeal of terror – they are both high-pitched sounds and send clear signals to a predator that here is something vulnerable and afraid – easy prey.

Our society has strict rules about how dogs need to behave, and rightly so, but where are the rules governing how people should behave around dogs? Dogs do what dogs are designed to do – they bark, they bite, they hunt, they herd, they play, they run, they chase, they defend, they attack, they kill. They are easily trainable and can be trained to be calm, quiet, obedient canine citizens who learn how to get the most out of living in human society, or they can be left at the mercy of their instinctual behaviours, unruly, out of control. The dog doesn't get a say in this. It is all dependent on the type of owner the dog has. So why is it that the dog is punished when things get out of hand and their owners avoid all responsibility? Should there not be rules for owners as well as the dogs?

How about these for starters:

• No child should ever be left unattended in the presence of a dog.
• No dog should ever be in the company of a child without a responsible adult in supervision.
• If the dog is not able to be watched, the dog needs to be crated, tethered or put some place safe for everybody's sake.
• No child should be in the presence of an off-leash dog without knowing how to keep him or herself safe.
• For every dog off leash in the presence of strangers, there needs to be at least one responsible adult (i.e. one adult per dog).
• No dog should be allowed off leash in an uncontrolled environment unless they have a rock solid recall cue and an equally strong "leave it".
• If owners can't calm their dogs down in arousing situations, their job is to prevent their dogs getting into that situation in the first place.

Consider this: dogs are like guns, harmless until loaded (aroused) and someone pulls the trigger (provoked). You wouldn't leave an unloaded, let alone loaded gun around for children to play with, so why is it people feel that can do that with a dog?

Nothing can be done to turn back time and reset the situation for the little girl and the four dogs who attacked, but plenty can be done to prevent this ever happening again. In the run up to International Dog Bite Prevention week in May of this year, I am offering, free of charge, “Be a Tree” presentations to any school group, community / sports group, or whanau interested in learning how to keep children safe around dogs. Rise to the challenge and help me reach as many kids as I can over the next couple of months.

Contact me through my website contact page, or call me direct on 021 916 124 for more information. Let’s stop dog attacks and keep our children and our dogs’ safe in all situations.