Mariah Goes To School

Today was a great day!

Mariah and I took some time today to stop in a visit the McNab PS Grade 1 class. We talked about some very important issues like dog safety and how to De-Code the dogs secret language... ie body language. Kids quite often get bit by dogs and contrary to what you might hear in the news, it is almost never by a wildly aggressive pitbull like dog that broke free and went on a rampage in the suburbs. No the truth of the matter is that most bites are from the family pet or a dog the child already knows. And why is that? We teach our children not to go up to strange dogs, ask permission before petting someone elses dog, and maybe utter to them, "hey don't tease the dog!" But do we ever actually teach our kids, to listen to what our dogs are saying to us. Dogs speak to us every day. They let us in on how they are feeling and they are always honest and true. And not unlike humans dogs can be "off" sometimes. Perhaps they are not feeling well, perhaps they are in a bit of pain. Regardless of the reason, our dogs will let us know if it is a good time to play and they will certainly let us know when it is not... long before the bite.

So today we learned some body language and we also took some time to learn the "doggie handshake" The kids got to practice with Mariah the right way to approach a dog, and more importantly when to leave your dog alone.

It was great fun today. To top off the experience we got the chance to bring a little friend with us. Little Ivy, a Siberian Husky puppy from Ancient Moon Kennels also joined us in the fun. And wouldn't you know it? When the puppy came out, all the rules went out the door. Ahh who could blame them. She was pretty cute!