Staying Safe and Sound with Hounds Pt 1.

A few weeks ago with shared with you our WALT safety message of how to meet and greet a dog safely when he's with his owner.

W= Walk up calmly to the owner

A = Ask the owner if you can pet their dog

L = Let the dog sniff your safe hand

T = Touch the dog, where he likes to be rubbed

 

REMEMBER: If there's no owner with the dog, we should leave him alone.

 

Today we're continuing the safety theme and talking about a couple of times at home when we should leave our dogs in peace.

 

1: When a dog is eating or drinking.

We should never approach or try to rub our dogs when they're eating or drinking, after all, you wouldn't like it if you were having lunch and someone started petting you on the head would you?! You'd probably find that a little annoying, and dogs have feelings just like we do so they may find it annoying too!

Om nom nom nom nom - dinner is the best part of my day!- Meg

As well as that, your dog may think that you're actually going to take away his food and eat it! He has no idea that you don't eat dog food (we hope!) and so if your dog is having his dinner, or chowing down on a tasty treat, we should leave him alone, and wait for him to finish.

 

2: When a dog is in his bed.

A dog's bed, or sleeping area, is a little bit like our bedroom. We use our rooms when we need to go to sleep, and also sometimes when we just want some peace and quiet from the rest of the house. Dog's beds are similar. A dog may use his bed to sleep, or if he wants to have some 'me' time and feel safe and secure.

Jake is a BIG fan of his bed- and Fiona never disturbs him while he's snoozing!

So if a dog is in his bed, we should never approach the bed and disturb him. We certainly shouldn't poke and pull at him to get him out of bed, how would you feel if someone did that to you? Not too happy we're sure! We should also never get into a dog's bed/sleeping area with him, apart from the obvious- being covered in dog hair- a dog's bed is his safe place and he may not like you taking it over, just like you wouldn't like having someone invade your room and take it over! So if he's in his bed, we leave him alone.

If you want your pooch to get up, you can call him, squeak a toy, get some tasty treats or whistle! Then he can get up himself without you going near him.

 

 

Remember, the times we should leave dogs alone are:

When they're eating or drinking

When they're in their bed

and

When they're on their own without their owner