samoyedman Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 (edited) http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/scooby-dooby-doo-can-still-bite-you-and-children-need-to-understand-that-study-finds/story-e6freuy9-1226469107754 CHILDREN are becoming more vulnerable to dog attacks because fictional dog characters lead them to thinking dogs are like people, a study has found.The UniSA study, published in the journal Children Australia, watched and interviewed hundreds of children during dog safety training and found they treated dogs like people rather than territorial hunting animals. Report co-author Sue Nichols, a senior lecturer in education at UniSA, said fictional cartoon characters could be useful in teaching children about dog safety but not if they portrayed them with human-like emotions. She said dog safety educators should teach children that "cultural representations" of dogs being similar to people were not real and a poor guide on how to respond to the animals. "Cartoon dogs are mainly there to entertain children and so they don't help the children understand why dogs will react in a different way to humans in certain circumstances," Ms Nichols said. "What children don't learn from fictional cartoon dog characters is that dogs are territorial animals, they are hunting animals and they have hunting instincts which cause them to react in a particular way." Ms Nichols said the study found one in four students, aged five and six, wrongly believed dogs liked being patted on their heads and one in six had not overcome their intuitive reaction to run from a threatening dog. Many children mistakenly projected their own human emotions on to dogs and treated them like human babies, it found. For example, children described some dogs as "sad" and wanted to offer them physical comfort rather than leave the dogs alone. "Children need to understand that while a dog may seem to be like a member of your family it is still a dog," she said. "It still has dog instincts and dog behaviour which can be dangerous, and children need to know how to interpret that behaviour and how to act around dogs." Harriett Hampton, 9, of North Adelaide, said she loved playing with her pugalier, Ned, and her friend's greyhound, Rocky, but has had dog awareness lessons at school. "They teach us don't go up to them (dogs), and if the owners say it's OK, you can put your hand in a fist and put it up to their nose so they can sniff you," she said. Edited September 9, 2012 by samoyedman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 And they wonder why they loose support for funding for their crazy costly studies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milly2 Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 So what is your opinion Samoyedman? I can't recall dogs being as agressive as they are today, compared to when I was a child. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 I can't recall dogs being as agressive as they are today, compared to when I was a child. No. When I was a kid.. a lot of dogs used to roam the neighbourhood ..and attach themselves to groups of kids playing on vacant blocks etc .... with not an adult or book of rules in sight :p many bitches had puppies in the backyard .... ergo . Kids interacted regularly with all sorts of dogs ..and if bitten (NOT 'mauled) it was usually their fault for being near pups/food etc. We all knew how to behave ..and most of us did so naturally . Kids do not have those freedoms anymore..dogs are terribly restricted , and often singletons ..and the learning by 'osmosis'/experience just doesn't happen. "It still has dog instincts and dog behaviour which can be dangerous, and children need to know how to interpret that behaviour and how to act around dogs." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy21 Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 I agree that anthropomorphism is rife in movies, children's television, advertising and digital media. Look at the movie Cats and Dogs, where dogs 'pretend' to do dog things like sniffing each other to hide their human like activities from humans. Many more advertisements portray animals in human situations, and we laugh when we ascribe human emotions to animals in things like lolcatz. Really it is no wonder that children are confused about how to approach animals. It comes down to the number and quality of experiences they have had too. People tell their children to keep away from the dogs, shut dogs outside their whole lives, deliberately seek dogs that look like soft toys for their children, and don't make the effort to teach their kids about dog body language, or to socialise their children with dogs.....that too has become someone else's responsibility. And schools and dog education programs don't have ability to provide practice and experience in this area. Dogs are the same as they have always been. Society's expectations have changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Dogs are the same as they have always been. Society's expectations have changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgrubber Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 The problem isn't Scooby Doo, it's the absence of more realistic models. It's the fact that kids get 20 hours of Scooby Doo for every hour of realistic training they get about dogs. It's the puppy pajamas they are given before they can walk or talk. It's all the media hype about puppies, that gets kids to nag parents to get a puppy, even if their family setup isn't right for a puppy. Sometimes the problem isn't kids treating dogs like humans, it's kids being mean to dogs and using them to take out all their emotions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheridan Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Yes, PJs are to blame for the rise in dog attacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris the Rebel Wolf Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 "Children need to understand that while a dog may seem to be like a member of your family it is still a dog," she said. Adults need to understand this as much as children if not moreso. Why are schools having to teach these things? Why aren't parents doing it themselves? Ignorance is bliss as they say... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra777 Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 "Children need to understand that while a dog may seem to be like a member of your family it is still a dog," she said. Adults need to understand this as much as children if not moreso. Why are schools having to teach these things? Why aren't parents doing it themselves? Ignorance is bliss as they say... x2 When I was a kid if we bothered the dog or cat and got bitten or scratched we got a smack to go with it. If we went in the paddock and got kicked by the horse we got two smacks because the horse was more valuable than the dog or cat. When we went to our cousins farm we helped muster sheep and when we were old enough we were allowed to go out on the "wild" cattle muster (some of them were genuinely feral, some not so much). If we got in the way of the working dogs, got butted by a ewe or run over by a stock horse we got told to 'get the hell out of the way'. Animals weren't little furry people 30 years ago... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espinay2 Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 (edited) Dogs are the same as they have always been. Society's expectations have changed. This. If the dog snapped at you because it was old and fed up or because you went near it while eating we were told to stop annoying the dog and it was our own fault for disobeying what we had been told. We were taught to respect them for the animals they were and definitely werent taught they were little furry people. Dogs that were too much of a problem were put down. Edited September 11, 2012 by espinay2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clyde Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 When I was a kid if we bothered the dog or cat and got bitten or scratched we got a smack to go with it. If we went in the paddock and got kicked by the horse we got two smacks because the horse was more valuable than the dog or cat. When we went to our cousins farm we helped muster sheep and when we were old enough we were allowed to go out on the "wild" cattle muster (some of them were genuinely feral, some not so much). If we got in the way of the working dogs, got butted by a ewe or run over by a stock horse we got told to 'get the hell out of the way'. Animals weren't little furry people 30 years ago... :laugh: You've just described my childhood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisovar Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 When I was a kid if we bothered the dog or cat and got bitten or scratched we got a smack to go with it. If we went in the paddock and got kicked by the horse we got two smacks because the horse was more valuable than the dog or cat. When we went to our cousins farm we helped muster sheep and when we were old enough we were allowed to go out on the "wild" cattle muster (some of them were genuinely feral, some not so much). If we got in the way of the working dogs, got butted by a ewe or run over by a stock horse we got told to 'get the hell out of the way'. Animals weren't little furry people 30 years ago... :laugh: You've just described my childhood. Exactly :laugh: How times have changed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 When I was a kid if we bothered the dog or cat and got bitten or scratched we got a smack to go with it. If we went in the paddock and got kicked by the horse we got two smacks because the horse was more valuable than the dog or cat. When we went to our cousins farm we helped muster sheep and when we were old enough we were allowed to go out on the "wild" cattle muster (some of them were genuinely feral, some not so much). If we got in the way of the working dogs, got butted by a ewe or run over by a stock horse we got told to 'get the hell out of the way'. <br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(238, 242, 247); "><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(238, 242, 247); ">Animals weren't little furry people 30 years ago... Oh yes!!! Mind you - the cartoon animals were still very popular - and cute , but we knew real ones were different! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgrubber Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 When I was a kid if we bothered the dog or cat and got bitten or scratched we got a smack to go with it. If we went in the paddock and got kicked by the horse we got two smacks because the horse was more valuable than the dog or cat. When we went to our cousins farm we helped muster sheep and when we were old enough we were allowed to go out on the "wild" cattle muster (some of them were genuinely feral, some not so much). If we got in the way of the working dogs, got butted by a ewe or run over by a stock horse we got told to 'get the hell out of the way'. <br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(238, 242, 247); "><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(238, 242, 247); ">Animals weren't little furry people 30 years ago... Oh yes!!! Mind you - the cartoon animals were still very popular - and cute , but we knew real ones were different! :) And you, like me, probably never had to ask for a puppy . . . animals were always there. Your parents were there to yell at you, or smack you if you misbehaved around animals. Modern urban/suburban kids see puppy on cartoons etc., and beg and wheedle until their parents buy them a puppy. Mum now works outside the home, so puppy is left alone for many hours a day. The better ones do 8 weeks of puppy preschool, but don't follow up with later training. The result is poorly trained dogs, adults with few dog-handling skills, and kiddies (especially those whose parents didn't buy them a puppy, and those who ended out with a small dog with soft behaviour) with naive, Scooby-Doo expectations. My parents weren't dog-stupid, just horse-stupid, and nobody in our neighbourhood was much of a horseman. Gene Autry & Trigger . . . Mr. Ed. . . I don't know where kids caught horse mania came from in those days, but my sister caught it bad. She begged until she got a horse. We played around the horses, without supervision. I ended out with a ruptured kidney. My sister was thrown and got a dislocated shoulder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempus Fugit Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 The problem isn't Scooby Doo, it's the absence of more realistic models. It's the fact that kids get 20 hours of Scooby Doo for every hour of realistic training they get about dogs. It's the puppy pajamas they are given before they can walk or talk. It's all the media hype about puppies, that gets kids to nag parents to get a puppy, even if their family setup isn't right for a puppy. Sometimes the problem isn't kids treating dogs like humans, it's kids being mean to dogs and using them to take out all their emotions. Then you have the attack trained police dog allowed to roam the streets of Vienna by himself and even Lassie never seemed to have a problem with leash laws and "no dogs allowed" areas. On a different angle there are the "Road Runner vs Coyote" and similar cartoons, which portray cruelty and sadism as humour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaddleNotIncluded Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 When I was a kid if we bothered the dog or cat and got bitten or scratched we got a smack to go with it. If we went in the paddock and got kicked by the horse we got two smacks because the horse was more valuable than the dog or cat. When we went to our cousins farm we helped muster sheep and when we were old enough we were allowed to go out on the "wild" cattle muster (some of them were genuinely feral, some not so much). If we got in the way of the working dogs, got butted by a ewe or run over by a stock horse we got told to 'get the hell out of the way'. Animals weren't little furry people 30 years ago... Ahhh, sweet memories of childhood. My first introduction to "leave the damn dog alone" was an old Kelpie x German Shep at my grandpa's farm. He was in his kennel, asleep. I was told, leave the dog alone, and expected to listen. I was about 9, so there was no excuse, but I was over there in a flash, reaching in to pat the dog. My parents were the typical suburban idiot dog-owners "Oh, she's seen dogs in the pet store before, she'll be fine. Let her pat the doggy" It turned it's head away, pop said "That's your warning, get out or get bitten" I patted it's head; it turned it's back. I was told again, get out or get bitten, the dog won't say it again. So of course I gave it a playful slap on the rump. Four stitches across the thumb and a lifelong lesson of leaving the damn dog alone. You still meet farm kids with a very healthy respect of dogs, and they never get bitten. It's because they know the language of "get out or get bitten", avoid confrontations and don't expect the dog to play dollies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Four stitches across the thumb and a lifelong lesson of leaving the damn dog alone. yep. Life lessons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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