Each year, 4.5 million Americans are bitten by dogs and one in five dog bites results in more serious injuries that require medical attention. Children are particularly at high risk for being bitten.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is again teaming up with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Postal Service to sponsor the 15th annual National Dog Bite Prevention Week.

Visit the AVMA website to learn more about how best to prevent dog bites. The Center for Disease Control also has great information about staying safe around dogs and provides parents excellent tips for child safety.

Here are a few quick tips:

• Start training puppies early about proper social behavior. The best age for socialization is up to 14 weeks. Don’t punish bad behavior at this age–praise the good or desired behavior and it will stick!
• Don’t allow play biting from your puppy
• Adult dogs that are not socialized properly as puppies are more likely to be aggressive or fearful around strangers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Dr Donna Spector. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.