Teaching your children how to behave around dogs is incredibly important

I have a toddler so I know teaching very young children how to treat dogs is definitely a process, but this is really important for their own safety.I'm also a dog owner and live in an urban area which means that I'm taking my dogs out in a heavily populated area several times a day, often to multi-use parks. Some of the behavior I've seen from kids around my dogs is super dangerous.The incident that sticks out the most in my mind and really bothers me happened a few months ago. I was crossing the very busy street I live on and there was a father and his young son (maybe 3 years old?) on the sidewalk I was approaching. As we got to the sidewalk the kid totally flipped out screaming in terror and ran into the damn street with cars coming. The dad was able to grab him and pull him back in time and in reality it wasn't that close a call, but only because the timing was right.Behaviors that kids (and even some adults) exhibit when they're scared of dogs actually increases the likelihood of getting hurt. That kid could have been hit by a car, but running and screaming could also trigger a dog to chase and possibly nip/bite.Now, I can just hear someone saying "But it's the responsibility of the dog owner to ensure that their dog can behave in public or if it can't, to restrain it properly!" Well yeah, obviously that's true, but you can't be sure every dog owner you encounter has done so and that sentiment will provide no solace when you're sitting with your kid in the ER because they were bit on the rear end.There are lots of online resources for learning the correct ways for children to interact (or not interact) with dogs; give one a look through and start a conversation with your kid today! via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2vrt9cj