Preventing dog bites when you dont have a hero cat

(source)

Hey Julie!

So much going on I need to take three deep breaths to calm down!

Firstly - we have a winner! Actually - thanks to the awesome crew at SPARCS, we have two! Very excited to meet Marsha P and Kristi M at #SPARCS2014 and want to thank all the excellent people who responded to our giveaway shoutout on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. We hope those of your who werent successful will consider still coming along or joining us on the livestream broadcast.

Secondly - I loved learning about the differences in UK and US shelter workers perceptions of pit bulls and all the associated bits and pieces that went along with that in our latest guest post by Dr Christy Hoffman. Really, really interesting research and I look forward to the next piece of the puzzle (aka new science) in that area.

Thirdly - its dog bite prevention week in the USA right now! We cant all own Tara the Hero Cat (and to be fair, as much as she is worthy of her notoriety and 20million+ hits on the viral video showcasing her ninja skills, she didnt actually prevent the bite - although Im pretty confident she helped prevent it being a whole lot worse). If you somehow missed what on earth Im talking about - check out this clip of amazing Tara (but a warning, it does show security camera footage of a child being attacked by a dog and the subsequent wounds):

Which brings us back to Dog Bite Prevention Week. We dont have a week like this in Australia, so I did some web trawling to check out what you guys have going on over there. 

The AVMA have put up a whole lot of great information and resources about dog bite prevention, including this neat summary infographic:

I was really pleased to see this analysis of information about the role of breed in dog bite risk and prevention, which reminded me of this piece on The Conversation by researcher Dr Rachel Casey from Bristol University in the UK, who has been part of a team investigating aggressive behaviour in dogs.

The broader research in this area (see below for references) highlights similarities across Australia, the UK and the US with most serious dog bites occurring to children by a known dog in a familiar area without direct adult supervision at the time of the attack. But of course - as Hero Cat Tara has shown us this week, not all dogs stick to these trends.

It seems that there are many commonalities to serious dog bites that we can all be aware of to help reduce the risk, given that any dog can bite:

• Supervise children <14yo around dogs, even known dogs
• Dont try to pat a dog you dont know, even if it is on the other side of a fence
• Make sure your dog is well socialised and trained in basic commands
• Keep your dog healthy
• Teach your children to be mindful and careful of their actions around dogs, especially when the dog is tied up, eating or sleeping
• If you are threatened by a dog, remain still and calm with your hands balled by your sides - dont run
• If you are attacked by a dog, curl up in a ball and protect your face

Im off to reinforce messages of safe dog interacting with my pre-school aged daughter now - hope you have a great week. 

Only one month til #SPARCS2014! Squee!

Mia

 

Further reading:

Meints K. & de Keuster T. (2009). Brief Report: Dont Kiss a Sleeping Dog: The First Assessment of "The Blue Dog" Bite Prevention Program, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 34 (10) 1084-1090. DOI: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsp053

Schalamon J., Ainoedhofer H., Singer G., Petnehazy T., Mayr J., Kiss K. & Höllwarth M.E. (2006) Analysis of dog bites in children who are younger than 17 years., Pediatrics, PMID: 16510617 

Keuster T.D., Lamoureux J. & Kahn A. (2006). Epidemiology of dog bites: A Belgian experience of canine behaviour and public health concerns, The Veterinary Journal, 172 (3) 482-487. DOI: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2005.04.024 

Langley R.L. (2009). Human Fatalities Resulting From Dog Attacks in the United States, 1979–2005, Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, 20 (1) 19-25. DOI: 10.1580/08-WEME-OR-213.1 

Ozanne-Smith J. (2001)  Dog bite and injury prevention--analysis, critical review, and research agenda, Injury Prevention, 7 (4) 321-326. DOI: 10.1136/ip.7.4.321

Thompson P. (1997). The public health impact of dog attacks in a major Australian city., The Medical Journal of Australia, 167 (3) 129-132. PMID: 9269266 

© Do You Believe in Dog? 2014

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How the Veterinary Community Can Help Prevent Dog Bites

The coroner’s jury inquest into the 1998 mauling death of 8-year old Ontario resident Courtney Trempe produced a list of recommendations including some relating to the education of the public about safety around dogs and suggesting a role for the veterinary community. According the Canada Safety Council and the Health Canada more than 400,000 people are bitten by dogs each year, most of them children and most of them by the family pet or other familiar dog. Half of all children will be bitten by a dog by the time they are twelve. Veterinarians and veterinary technicians are well positioned to play a leading role in educating dog owners and the community about how to prevent dog bites.

On-Line Learning

Doggone Safe is a non-profit organization dedicated to dog bite prevention through education and it offers a number of resources to help others in this educational effort. One of these resources is an on-line course that teaches about canine body language. This course is beneficial in the following ways to veterinary technologists and other staff that handle dogs:

·     Knowing the subtle signs that indicate a dog is feeling anxious may prevent technologists and other staff from being bitten.

·     The course will give technologists ideas about how to educate clients about dog body language and how to know when their dog may be getting to the point of biting. This may save a child in particular from a bite.

·     Knowing the subtle signs that indicate a dog is feeling anxious will help staff know when to reduce or change their intervention and when to try to calm the animal before proceeding. This could result in a better outcome for the patient and reduced stress for patient, client and technologist.

The course goes from nose to tail, discussing all the body parts and how a dog uses them to communicate. It covers communication signals ranging from the subtle “half moon eye” to the very obvious “propeller tail wag” using many photos and videos to illustrate.

"I have reviewed the on-line Doggone Safe Basic Body Language course and found it both informative and easy to use.  The course would be appropriate for veterinarians, technicians and lay staff that are interested in learning more about fearful dog cues, and appropriate ways to approach unknown dogs." Teresa Hershey, DVM (former president, Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association) 

There is a free demo of the course and a link to the registration page at http://doggonesafe.com/basic_dog_body_language.

Educating Children

Doggone Safe administers the Be a Tree dog bite prevention program that teaches children how to read dog body language and act safely around dogs. More than 700,000 children around the world have attended a Be a Tree session. The program is supported by the Be a Tree teacher kit, which contains everything required to deliver the presentation.

The key messages of the Be a Tree program are:

• Be a Tree (stand still, fold in your branches, watch your roots grow and count to the highest number you know over and over in your head until help comes or the dog goes away) if a strange dog comes near, or any dog is acting too frisky or is bothering you.
• Dogs communicate with body language and we can tell if they are happy and want to meet or interact with us, or they are feeling anxious and want to be left alone.
• Always ask permission from your parent and the dog owner if you want to pet a dog.
• Meet and pet a dog properly. Pet only happy dogs.
• Respect a dog’s toys, resting place and bones.
• Dogs don’t like hugs and kisses.
• Don’t be afraid of dogs.

"Dog behavior is a field with more than its share of junk information, to the great detriment of dogs, their owners and the public at large. What an inspiration to see Doggone Safe do exactly the opposite: disseminate outstanding information. And, not only that, in an accessible manner to that group all of us want better to protect, children. Bravo!"
Jean Donaldson
Founder and Director
The Academy for Dog Trainers

Veterinary Community Support for Be a Tree in Canada

The Be a Tree program is supported by the Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association, the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Veterinary Technologists, other provincial and the national veterinary technician/technologist associations. Dr. Bob Bellamy, former president of the Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association described the Be a Tree program as “a visual, informative, interactive and entertaining presentation that requires a minimal amount of preparation and can be delivered effortlessly” (SVMA News, August, 2007). “The Be a Tree program provides a great topic and loads of materials, making the program an ideal community outreach program which can easily be delivered by veterinarians or their staff” said Nadia Vercillo, the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association Manager of Communications and Public Relations (OVMA Focus, May 2008).

Promote Your Practice

Doggone Safe offers supplementary materials to reinforce its safety messages and promote community education. These in include a postcards, magnets, stickers, coloring books, story books and classroom posters. These materials can be branded with your logo to remind parents and children of the safety messages.

Visits to schools, boy/girl scout groups, church and other groups provide a great way to gain recognition for your practice in the community. Dr. Bob Bellamy, former president of the Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association said, "Dog bite prevention seminars have had an unexpected side effect. Without a doubt, DBP presentations have yielded more new clients than any initiative attempted by our office! In the the past two years new clients have increased by 30%!!!". Read Dr Bellamys article from the SVMA News.

Other Resources

The Doggone Safe website has lots of information, articles and downloads available and encourages the distribution of these. Use or copy any of the information or articles found at the Doggone Safe website as handouts, in newsletters or at websites, with credit given to the source.

Doggone Safe also maintains a website dedicated solely to the Be a Tree program. This is a good place to send teachers or parents who want to know more about the program (www.be-a-tree.com).

More Information

For more information about Doggone Safe, the on-line body language course or to order a Be a Tree teacher kit or other products please visit www.doggonesafe.com. For more information about the Be a Tree program please visit www.be-a-tree.com. 

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Let Sleeping Dogs Lie!

One of the safety tips that we offer for parents and dog owners, is that it is best to leave a dog alone who is sleeping. Dogs can be startled if awoken suddenly and can bite by accident. Teach children to leave the dog in peace if he is sleeping. If it is necessary to wake a dog up, do so by calling to him and not by touching him. Teach children to respect the dogs sleeping place and to snuggle with a stuffed animal if they want to nap.

Watch this video and think twice about allowing your child to sleep with the dog - adorable as that might look!

Warning! Cuteness Alert!

This is a funny video, but it shows clearly that dogs can be very caught up in their dreams. It is not hard to imagine that a dog dreaming about chasing and catching prey or play-fighting with another dog might bite in confusion if wakened suddenly from a vivid dream. If your child were to kiss or hug the sleeping dog, it would be their face in the path of those teeth if the dog bit as part of the dream. The last dog in the video shows this especially well.

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How do dogs and people respond to a crying baby

Guest post by: Min Hooi Yong, PhD

“Does your dog know when you are sad?” Puzzling question, perhaps? 

We get a range of answers from dog owners, from the confident “Yes!” to “Maaaaybe?”, and the hopeful “I like to think so...”. Many dogs are considered to be part of the family, and we expect our family members to empathize with us when we are sad.

A recent study found that dogs showed submissive behavior (licking and nuzzling) when an adult person pretended to cry but not when she is humming¹. Does the licking and nuzzling behavior mean that the dog understand that we are feeling sad? (I hear YES-es). Or can it be that because we are crying, we ignore everyone including our dog, and so, our dog will nuzzle us seeking attention and/or comfort?

(source)

There have been many studies showing that animals (e.g. rodents, birds, chimps) experience distress or concern (empathic response) when observing either kin or non-kin in distress. For example, giving electric shocks to rats and pigeons. The observer experienced a change both behaviourally and physiologically, and these responses are often considered as an experience of emotional contagion, an elementary form of empathy. Emotional contagion is essentially the spreading of all forms of emotion from one person (or animal) to another (like the spreading of joy or distress through a crowd - think of a flash mob dance effect filtering through a crowd)².

Hearing a baby cry can be quite distressing. What happens to us when we, the observers, hear the cry? We respond by getting up and checking on the crying baby, “increased attention”. Our body also releases the stress hormone cortisol when we hear the cry, regardless of age or parenting experience^3,4. Also, we can tell if the crying is urgent or not. We do, sometimes find crying aversive (imagine a baby crying non-stop throughout your long-distance flight).

Flickr/thedalogs

In our study, we wanted to know if dogs and humans show a similar physiological response to a baby crying. We had three questions: 

1. We know that dogs are attached to humans, so would dogs show increased attention to a baby crying and babbling? 
2. Exposure to uncontrollable white noise is considered aversive and elicits submissive behavior. If dogs find crying aversive, would dogs show submissive behavior towards crying as well as white noise? 
3. Do dogs show an increased stress response (measured in their salivary cortisol levels) to a baby crying compared to white noise and a baby babbling, similar to humans?

We had 75 dogs and 74 humans listen to one of three sounds. A human baby crying:

A human baby babbling: 

Or white noise:

Each sound was played at an average volume of 82 decibels – similar to chamber music in a small auditorium (not loud enough to cause hearing damage, but it is loud). We collected saliva before and after listening to one sound from both dogs and humans for their cortisol levels. We also analyzed dogs’ behavior while the sound was played, and collected sound ratings about how aversive people found the sounds.

What did our three questions reveal? First, we found that both dogs and humans showed an increase in cortisol levels only after listening to crying, but no changes to baby babbling and white noise. Second, dogs showed increased attention to both the crying and babbling sounds, but not to white noise. Third, dogs displayed increased submissive behavior (e.g. the dog’s body and head were lowered, the ears were held flat and back, the tail was lowered and sometimes slightly between their legs or wagging rapidly side-to-side, the tongue pro-truded slightly, or the dog raised one leg in a hesitant or placating manner) to the crying and white noise, but not to babbling. Additionally, human participants rated the white noise as more aversive than crying (see table below for a summary). We also analyzed other possible aspects that might have influenced the dogs’ responses such as time of testing, demographic data e.g. neutered status and sex, acoustic features in the sounds (pitch and melody), and even dog owners’ unintentional cuing. We found that the responses shown were a result of distress, evident from crying.

You might ask why submissive behavior was shown during crying and white noise. Let’s start with white noise. Our human participants perceived white noise as more unpleasant compared to crying. Humans tend to cover their ears and animals also show similar avoidance, and what better way than to lower your head? On the other hand, with crying sounds, one is generally more subdued (sympathetic concern) especially when you can hear the distress meaning in the sound. The combined behavioral indicators during these sounds (e.g. lowered posture, shaking, stimulus avoidance) points toward submissive behavior.

In humans, an increase in cortisol and attention is interpreted as a demonstration of
emotional contagion^3,4. This unique pattern of physiological and behavioral responding to crying in our study is most consistent with (a) emotional contagion in dogs, providing first evidence that dogs, like humans, experience a physiological response to human infant crying, and (b) suggests the first clear evidence of cross-species empathy (i.e. canine emotional contagion to human distress). 

Author

Min Hooi Yong has recently completed her PhD under the supervision of Professor Ted Ruffman in the Department of Psychology, University of Otago, New Zealand. You can follow her research, or Prof Ted Ruffman. This study has been published in the journal “Behavioural Processes”:

Yong, M. H., & Ruffman, T. (2014). Emotional contagion: Dogs and humans show a similarphysiological response to human infant crying. Behavioural Processes, 108, 155–165.

Min Hooi Yong

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the dog owners and their dogs who participated in our study, and to Stephanie McConnon, Mary Saxton, and Barbara Lowen for allowing us to use their dog videos. Mia is a female English Setter aged 3, Annie is a female Border Collie aged 9, and Flack is a male mixed breed (Collie/Husky/Heading) aged 4.

References

1. Custance, D. & Mayer, J. Empathic-like responding by domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) to distress in humans: An exploratory study. Anim. Cogn. 15, 851–859 (2012).
2. De Waal, F. B. M. Putting the altruism back into altruism: The evolution of empathy. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 59, 279–300 (2008).
3. Fleming, A. S., Corter, C., Stallings, J. & Steiner, M. Testosterone and prolactin are associated with emotional responses to infant cries in new fathers. Horm. Behav. 42, 399–413 (2002).
4. Giardino, J., Gonzalez, A., Steiner, M. & Fleming, A. S. Effects of motherhood on physiological and subjective responses to infant cries in teenage mothers: A comparison with non-mothers and adult mothers. Horm. Behav. 53, 149–158 (2008).

Thank you, Min, for discussing your research on Do You Believe in Dog? View other guest contributors here ~ Julie & Mia 

©  Do You Believe in Dog? 2015 

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