Program Details

Practice Type:	Promising
Program Name:	Dog Bite Prevention
Organization:	Wake County Human Services
Web site:	http://www.wakegov.com
Overview:	The goal of this project is to promote safe interactions between children ages 5-9 and dogs in Wake County by teaching children behaviors that reduce the likelihood of being bitten by a dog, as well as the severity of a potential bite. The classes teach these behaviors, giving children the chance to practice safety measures and materials introducing the concepts to parents for reinforcement at home.
Year Submitted:	2008
Responsiveness and Innovation:	In Wake County, 333 people visited emergency rooms for dog bites in 2006. This under-represents the number of emergency room visits for dog bites because not all emergency rooms were reporting into a single system until recently. As with national data, emergency room visits for dog bites are likely to represent fewer than half of all dog bites in Wake County. Locally available data mirrors national data in that the highest number of emergency room visits were by children in the 5-9 year old age group. Fully 40% of dog bite victims visiting emergency rooms were children 18 and under, with 24% falling into the 9 and under age group. Wake County is legally responsible for investigating and following up on all animal bite reports. Communicable Disease nurses reported that the majority of dog bites in this age group could have been avoided if the children had understood some simple ways to stay safe around dogs. Often, the biting dogs were family pets or otherwise known to the child. Just as children learn to use helmets while riding bikes and to look both ways before crossing the street, children need to be taught appropriate behaviors around dogs. The curriculum addresses four main messages as well as some other ways children can stay safe around dogs. It gives children very specific and easy to remember ways to behave to avoid being bitten by a dog. PAT reviewed many messages for children including: Fido Friend or Foe? www.statefarm.com/kidstuf/dogbite.htm. Materials from NAHEE: www.nahee.org. Materials from the Human Society o+AT33f the US: www.hsus.org Bow Wow Ow, curriculum www.bowwowow.com. Animal Outreach Society Information: www.animaloutreachsociety.org/programs/he/bite_prevention.html. "A Community Approach to Dog Bite Prevention" JAVMA, Vol 218 (11) pgs 1732-1749. Dog Safety: www.geocities.com/jetflair/dogsafetyarticle.html?200631. Dog Scouts of America: www.dogscouts2.com/kids_and_dogs_section.html. While many of these organizations have similar messages, they often had too many messages for young children to remember. The experts that helped to craft our messages included a dog behavior expert, health educators, and people who work with young children, among others. This group was able to reduce the messages down to 4 easy-to-remember messages, and recommended that children practice how they would behave around dogs with a model dog to reinforce the messages. Our approach differs from other dog bite prevention projects in the following ways: 1. Messages were simplified to four main messages that would be easy for the 5-9 year old age group to remember. 2. A volunteer artist was recruited to illustrate the coloring book. 3. Parent messages were added to the coloring book to help parents understand safe behavior around dogs so that parents and children could practice these behaviors together. PAT has found that many adults do not know how to behave safely around dogs either. 4. Children practiced correct behaviors with a life-like model dog to practice the motor skills involved in avoiding dog bites. 5. The coloring book and parent messages were translated into Spanish since Wake County has a large Spanish-speaking population. 6. Children's understanding and retention of the curriculum was evaluated through the use of a pre and post-test. 7. A certificate was added for the children to encourage discussion of the curriculum among children and their parents and to serve as a reminder of what they had learned.
Agency and Community Roles:	Wake County Human Services (the local health department) has acted as the coordinating entity for this project. We began by identifying potential stakeholders and partners, both internal and external, inviting them to the table to discuss the problem and have continued to coordinate meetings, set agendas, convene subcommittees as needed to get the work done, distribute materials, find the funding, train the school based nurses, teach the classes, collect and analyze the data and write up reports as needed. Community partners helped identify potential curriculum, adapt the curriculum to our needs, provide expertise in animal behavior, illustrate the coloring book, craft the simplified messages, provide funding for the coloring books, identify and staff events where the curriculum could be taught outside of the school setting and wrote articles for the NC Veterinary Medical Association’s Newsletter. The group came together to address dog bite prevention first, but has evolved into dealing with other animal/human interactions. The group has named itself People and Animals Together (PAT) and has defined its mission as promoting safe, healthy and positive interactions between people and animals. Besides dog bite prevention, the group has been instrumental in giving the many different partners a chance to network together on a regular basis. Part of each meeting is spent discussing other animal/human issues. The group was responsible for coordinating rabies vaccination efforts in Wake County on the first World Rabies Day in September of 2007.
Costs and Expenditures:	Staff time - in-kind. Printing of evaluations and purchasing videos - $ 374. Purchasing model dogs - $ 784. Printing of 10,000 coloring books – provided by NCVMA and PTAs. Printing of 6,000 Certificates – provided by NCVMA and PTAs. Volunteer artist to illustrate coloring book. Funding Source: North Carolina Veterinary Medical Association Wake County Government School PTAs.
Implementation:	In Wake County, 333 people visited emergency rooms for dog bites in 2006. This under-represents the number of emergency room visits for dog bites because not all emergency rooms were reporting into a single system until recently. As with national data, emergency room visits for dog bites are likely to represent fewer than half of all dog bites in Wake County. Locally available data mirrors national data in that the highest number of emergency room visits were by children in the 5-9 year old age group. Fully 40% of dog bite victims visiting emergency rooms were children 18 and under, with 24% falling into the 9 and under age group. Wake County is legally responsible for investigating and following up on all animal bite reports. Communicable Disease nurses reported that the majority of dog bites in this age group could have been avoided if the children had understood some simple ways to stay safe around dogs. Often, the biting dogs were family pets or otherwise known to the child. Just as children learn to use helmets while riding bikes and to look both ways before crossing the street, children need to be taught appropriate behaviors around dogs. The curriculum addresses four main messages as well as some other ways children can stay safe around dogs. It gives children very specific and easy to remember ways to behave to avoid being bitten by a dog. PAT reviewed many messages for children including: Fido Friend or Foe? www.statefarm.com/kidstuf/dogbite.htm. Materials from NAHEE: www.nahee.org. Materials from the Human Society o+AT33f the US: www.hsus.org Bow Wow Ow, curriculum www.bowwowow.com. Animal Outreach Society Information: www.animaloutreachsociety.org/programs/he/bite_prevention.html. "A Community Approach to Dog Bite Prevention" JAVMA, Vol 218 (11) pgs 1732-1749. Dog Safety: www.geocities.com/jetflair/dogsafetyarticle.html?200631. Dog Scouts of America: www.dogscouts2.com/kids_and_dogs_section.html. While many of these organizations have similar messages, they often had too many messages for young children to remember. The experts that helped to craft our messages included a dog behavior expert, health educators, and people who work with young children, among others. This group was able to reduce the messages down to 4 easy-to-remember messages, and recommended that children practice how they would behave around dogs with a model dog to reinforce the messages. Our approach differs from other dog bite prevention projects in the following ways: 1. Messages were simplified to four main messages that would be easy for the 5-9 year old age group to remember. 2. A volunteer artist was recruited to illustrate the coloring book. 3. Parent messages were added to the coloring book to help parents understand safe behavior around dogs so that parents and children could practice these behaviors together. PAT has found that many adults do not know how to behave safely around dogs either. 4. Children practiced correct behaviors with a life-like model dog to practice the motor skills involved in avoiding dog bites. 5. The coloring book and parent messages were translated into Spanish since Wake County has a large Spanish-speaking population. 6. Children's understanding and retention of the curriculum was evaluated through the use of a pre and post-test. 7. A certificate was added for the children to encourage discussion of the curriculum among children and their parents and to serve as a reminder of what they had learned.
Sustainability:	Stakeholders and partners are still fully committed to the project as evidenced by their attendance at meetings and finding alternative venues for teaching the curriculum to children. Many of the PTAs across the county have been willing to contribute toward the printing costs for materials and we are hoping to get them more involved by training them to teach the classes in schools where school nurses may not have the time to do so. We are trying to expand both our trainer base and our target population outside of the school setting by inviting local Boys and Girls Clubs, Boy and Girl Scouts, 4H youth clubs, the NCSU School of Veterinary Medicine, the YMCA, the Museum of Natural History, the local Parks and Recreation departments among others, to participate in the program. The different agencies that become involved will be able to check out or purchase model dogs and videos as needed. They will also be asked to contribute toward the printing costs of the written materials.
Lessons Learned:

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