City-run program educates children on how to avoid dog attacks

Dogs/Shutterstock

Thanks to a partnership between the city of Montreal and Zoothérapie Québec, children are learning more about dogs and how to prevent attacks.

Zoothérapie Québec is a program that helps to improve people’s cognitive, physical, psychological or social problems through the use of dogs. The program has been helping Quebeckers since 1988.

The joint venture, dubbed ‘Fudge au Camp’ aims to reach 100 different workshops around Quebec this summer and plans to educate over 3,000 young kids about the temperament of canines, how to avoid being bitten and what to do if a dog does attack.

The program is offered in the form of a fun and interactive workshop, led by a trainer accompanied by a pet therapy dog. After a successful workshop, each child is given a certificate as proof of proper dog handling.

Zoothérapie Québec/Twitter

These kinds of safety measures have become an important topic in Montreal ever since the fatal mauling of a woman by a pit bull-type dog in her backyard. The attack resulted in an ensuing pit bull ban and a muzzle enforcement, both of which have since been repealed.

According to Zoothérapie Québec, the service wants to help children recognize the body language of dogs and the proper way to handle the potentially dangerous animals, regardless of if they are aggressive or not.

Zoothérapie claim that the majority of dog attacks are a result of people not knowing how to approach and handle dogs and the ‘Fudge au Camp’ program is a way to instill dog-care onto the young citizens of Quebec.

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