Prevent trouble early
What dog owners can do to prevent bites
Bite prevention begins long before a dog growls or snaps. Help your dog feel safe, teach useful everyday skills, and step in early whenever an interaction is becoming uncomfortable.
Make socialization positive
Introduce puppies gradually to different people, friendly dogs, sounds, surfaces, places, and everyday activity. Socialization is not simply exposure: use distance, excellent treats, play, and easy exits so the dog feels safe. Older dogs and rescues can also benefit from carefully planned positive experiences.
Use reward-based training
Teach practical skills such as coming when called, walking on a loose leash, settling, and greeting people with four paws on the floor. Avoid yelling, leash corrections, choke collars, prong collars, and shock collars; added stress can make defensive behaviour worse.
Build comfort with handling
Gradually pair gentle touches to the collar, paws, ears, and body with rewards. Keep sessions brief and stop when the dog is uncomfortable. This preparation can make grooming and veterinary care easier, but children should never test a dog's tolerance with rough or annoying handling.
Protect health and ask for help early
Pain and illness can change behaviour, so contact a veterinarian when aggression appears suddenly or a dog seems physically uncomfortable. If your dog growls, lunges, snaps, guards resources, or appears frightened around people, create distance and seek qualified professional help before someone is hurt.
Choice is part of safety
Do not force a dog to stay in an interaction. Provide a quiet resting place and allow the dog to move away from people, children, other animals, or situations that feel overwhelming.
Active supervision
Give dogs and children space from each other
Children are especially vulnerable to serious dog-bite injuries. An adult should actively supervise young children around dogs and remain close enough to intervene immediately. Give every dog an easy way to leave and a protected place to rest.
- Do not allow children to climb on, hug, corner, chase, tease, or take things from a dog.
- Leave dogs alone while they are sleeping, eating, chewing, or caring for puppies.
- Keep children's faces away from a dog's face and mouth.
- Use gates, doors, pens, or separate rooms whenever active supervision is not possible.
Respect choice
Let the dog decide whether to approach
Ask the handler before greeting a dog. Stand sideways, keep hands low, avoid leaning over the dog, and allow the dog to come closer. If the dog moves away, stiffens, hides, or declines contact, let the interaction end.
Be especially cautious around unfamiliar dogs. Do not reach through fences, into vehicles, or toward a tethered dog, and do not assume that a dog who looks friendly wants to be touched.
Listen before a bite
Never punish a growl
Freezing, a hard stare, turning the head away, lip licking, whale eye, tucked posture, raised hair, growling, snapping, or repeated escape attempts can signal discomfort. Punishing a warning may suppress communication without changing the emotion underneath. Increase distance and seek qualified help.
If a loose dog threatens
Stay still and avoid escalating the chase
- Do not run, scream, stare into the dog's eyes, or make sudden movements.
- Stand sideways and remain quiet; back away slowly when possible.
- Place a bag, jacket, bicycle, or other object between you and the dog.
- If knocked down, curl into a ball, cover your head and neck, and stay still.
After a bite
Get medical care and report the incident
- Move to safety and wash the wound thoroughly with soap and running water.
- Seek medical advice promptly, even when the wound appears minor. A health professional can assess infection, tetanus, and rabies risk.
- Call emergency services for severe injury, uncontrolled bleeding, or immediate danger.
- If the dog has an owner, record the owner's name and contact information, the dog's vaccination information if available, and where the incident occurred.
- If the dog is loose or unknown, note its appearance, location, direction of travel, and any identifying information without putting yourself at further risk.
- Report the incident to the appropriate local authority. Halifax residents can contact 311 for direction on a non-emergency municipal report.
Safety information cannot replace professional assessment
If a dog has threatened, bitten, or suddenly changed behaviour, keep people and animals safely separated and contact a qualified behaviour professional and veterinarian.