I grew up terrified of dogs. My earliest memories with dogs are of my cousin being bitten by the neighbor dog and me getting chased down the street by one. Oddly enough, none of my friends had dogs when I was growing up. Since I wasn’t raised around them, the familiarity was not there. I was simply uneducated about the whole concept of dogs. Nowadays it seems like a majority of families have a pet, and most likely a dog. Of course, I believe that pets are family members. As parents, grandparents, older siblings, or whatever family role we play, we need to be teaching children about animals – how to respect them, how to treat them, and how to greet them. If we don’t teach these extremely important life lessons, it could end up in an animal abuse or bite situation. So let’s talk about it…

[Read more…]