Teach students how to interact safely with dogs and identify signs of rabies 🐕

While animals can be wonderful friends and a source of love, children need to understand that animals can sometimes act unpredictably. This can happen if they are provoked, startled, or feel threatened. Teaching them to be gentle and cautious around animals helps keep everyone safe.

Make the following recommendations to your students:

• Don't touch a sleeping dog.
• Don't go near a dog that is eating.
• Don't try to take food from a dog.
• Don't throw things at dogs.
• Don't go near a dog guarding a house or animals.
• Don't go near a dog with puppies.
• Don't run past dogs. They might think you're playing and chase you.

Children should be cautious around all dogs, particularly when they display signs of rabies. Some signs that can help us guess if a dog has rabies:

• Acting strangely and being aggressive (barking, biting) without a reason.
• Looking weak and sleepy, not interested in anything.
• Not able to stand or walk normally.
• Having foam around its mouth.
• Barking in a strange way, different from usual.

However, please note that it is not always easy to tell if a dog has rabies just by looking at it. Sometimes, we only know for sure after it dies. For example, a dog with rabies usually gets very sick and dies within 7-10 days. If a dog looks very sick but doesn't die within 10 days, it probably doesn't have rabies.

Click NEXT so we can go through how to teach children what to do if they are bitten or scratched by a dog and access some helpful teaching resources.