Parents – I generally tell my clients to find one hour long or two half hour long television shows they like and use commercials for training breaks. Average time spent training each day? Fifteen minutes.

If for any reason you are concerned about your children’s safety around your dogs, consult a well-qualified training professional or behaviorist immediately. Need help finding a good trainer or behaviorist? Try the Association for Pet Dog Trainers and the International Association for Animal Behavior Consultants.

Parents – 3 components to safety in dog-child relationships:

1. Educate yourself. Learn about canine body language, stress signals.

2. Manage the situation – do not allow your child to approach unfriendly dogs, be unsupervised with dogs, or approach dogs in the situations listed above.

3. Train your dog – this means socializing them well, training behaviors like “leave it,” “go settle on a mat,” crate training, a recall, and a reliable sit and down.

To learn more, go to www.doggonesafe.com.

Parents – reinforce your dog for looking away from a child who is “being a tree.” Learn the “be a tree” posture and demonstrate it to your children (for more on “be a tree’” check out www.doggonesafe.com).

Parents – Teach your children the appropriate way to interact with dogs and NEVER leave dogs and children together unattended. Children and dogs should never play roughly together. Do not encourage or allow chase games between your children and dogs. Physically intense games like tug are great for dogs, but are best left for adult dog owners and should not be encouraged in children. Hide and seek is a great game for kids and dogs to play and also builds a great recall – it’s a win/win! Kids can also make scavenger hunts for dogs, hiding favorite toys and treats in the yard or home for the dog to find. Many dogs like playing fetch, chasing after bubbles, or even a simple game like “which hand is the treat in?”

Parents – don’t assume any strange dogs are friendly or that they all know how to behave appropriately around children of any size. It is up to you to keep your child safe!

1. Always approach a service dog team from the front.

2. Always respect the working space of a service dog team by not getting too close.

3. Always remember that a service dog is working and should not be petted unless you are given permission.

Some dogs perceive direct eye contact as threatening. That might present a problem since many children are at eye level with them. You’ll want to be close enough to all of them to intervene if there’s a problem.

The interaction between a child and a strange dog can be an endearing moment that hopefully inspires these kids to make a dog a part of their family someday when they grow up. By taking simple precautions, everyone can end up with a smile on their face.

Tips for a child to approach a dog and his owner:

1) Ask the owner if their dog is friendly and if they can pet their dog.

2) Offer a back hand fist or hand out with fingers down.

3) Let the dog approach the child to sniff.

4) Pet a dog gently reaching from the side, not over its head.

5) Ask to offer their dog a treat as dogs remember those who reward them.

6) Refrain from screaming, yelling, running around a stranger’s dog.