"More needs be done to teach children how to stay safe around dogs and to reduce the risk of avoidable injuries.

That's the view of MPs who want animal behavioural experts and charities to come up with a canine childhood education plan for schools and parents.

They also want a review into causes of "dog aggression" and training courses for owners whose pets misbehave. Some charities want dog safety to be on the national curriculum but ministers say there are no plans to add it.

The cross-party Commons Environment Committee said it was shocking that children under nine were statistically more likely than any other age group to end up in hospital after being bitten and to suffer serious, often life-changing, injuries."

Full article HERE

Whatever happened to PARENTS taking care of their kids and teaching them to respect animals???

Just what I was thinking mamabas .why do we always drop to the schools doing it? Whatever the subject Put any more on the curriculum and it will burst if it hasn't done already .perhaps parents should hand their kids over until fully grown and educated

Spot on furriefriends! Parents seem to have few responsibilities these days it seems. I know that’s a very sweeping generalisation, and that there are many, many brilliant parents, but every time I hear someone say ‘oh the school should have done this’ or ‘teachers should do that’ it makes me despair. So glad I’ve retired, there just weren’t enough hours in the day.

I know it makes me mad .teachers can't and shouldn't do it all.what's the saying it takes a village to raise a child?

If you read the whole parliamentary debate Controlling dangerous dogs there is acctually much more to this than just getting scheools to help educate children. It makes for very interesting reading. Hope the link works.

Havnt yet read it but I didn't really think that schools was the only bit my response was really backing up mamabas general point .

something different / more does need to be done regarding the sea  .it's was always a flawed law and many dogs wrongly suffered and will.continue to do so unless things change .as to if it's actually protected anyone seems doubtful
Lets hope that  improvements are made for all

Thank you for the link Merlot.

Controlling dangerous dogs

As you say, a very interesting read: Controlling dangerous dogs - Conclusions and recommendations.

I think judging by how clueless most people are about dog body language, it's entirely unreasonable to expect parents to good job of teaching children how to be safe around dogs!

I don't think your average teacher is going to have the knowledge (or the time!) to teach this kind of subject either, it should be the job of some kind of professional. It wouldn't hurt to educate dog owners more if possible too - I've lost count of how many dogs I've seen punished for growling, for example, which just leaves you with a dog that knows not to bother with warnings that don't work and just goes straight into bite mode, and an owner who thinks the attack came "out of nowhere".