When I was seven, I was alone with our very gentle and well behaved boxer. I was petting her face and put my face close to hers and she aggressively nipped my face. It scared the shit out of me. At that moment, I sat up and said “okay a lesson was learned here, not doing that again.” My parents always taught me about respecting animals’ space and I never told them what happened cuz I didn’t want them to be mad at Emma. But yeah, domesticated, trained animals are still animals that need to feel safe and comfortable.
My friends are having babies.
And putting their babies very close to their dogs. Too close.
Their babies are being babies - screaming at things, grabbing, touching anything near them.
Including the dog.
And then they are putting photos and videos of these interactions on social media and getting hundreds of likes because of how cute it is.
It's not cute. It's dangerous.
Young children to a certain age don't understand boundaries or body language in people, let alone dogs.
Dog attacks in young children continue to occur because these kinds of interactions are promoted as cute and "clickbait".
If you have a kid and young children, educate yourself on signs of stress in dogs. Constantly supervise children. Don't let small children interact too closely with dogs. Educate children on respectful ways to interact with dogs.
Don't feed this massive pile of misinformation that's currently trending on social media.
A shepherd who is also a werewolf. Growls at a wolf stalking a lamb. Shorn sheep wearing werewolf fleece to keep predators away. The herd howls with the shepherd on full moons. Awoo baaaaa AWOOO BAAAAA