02/06/2026
NO FACES NEAR FACES..
I say this lots as I work with families that need help getting their dog used to children in the household. I give this advice as it can prevent bite incidents.
Dogs often don’t like faces right near theirs as it’s not how they communicate and they can find it confrontational and quite intimidating. Also, if we are going to have an incident and a dog snaps, the last thing we want is a bite to the face 😢
To avoid bite incidents children’s faces should NEVER be near a dogs face- no lying down on the sofa with heads together, no leaning over the dog to kiss them, no toddlers popping up to face height of a dog on a sofa, no toddlers crawling towards dogs on dog beds etc.
If a dog gets worried and tries to use distance increasing behavior- a growl, or even an air snap to ask the child to move away, it’s a huge worry of faces are anywhere near the dogs face. It’s a totally avoidable source of risk.
It’s also good advice for adults too! This photo is just a tiny amount of the blood that came out of my head two years ago as I had an accidental injury from my northern inuit.
I feel asleep with my head on her chest (as I often do, completely ignoring my own advice 😳), as she’s really cuddly and likes it. She woke up and did a huge open mouthed sneeze (she’s quite a dramatic sneezer)… and a canine tooth went into the top of my head. She has humongous canines and it caused a wound in my scalp that poured and poured with blood. My house looked like a crime scene.
Totally accidental, it was just a sneeze, but it could have been even worse. Hurt my head (lots) and also hurt her tooth but it could have been my face. It’s made me really remind my kids not to put their faces right next to the dogs (and my dogs LOVE my kids).
We also model for our kids with our own behaviour and it’s no good us telling out kids not to put their head on the dog if we are doing it ourselves!
So really- NO faces near faces and NO faces exceptions (even for me and I’m trying hard to stick to it!)
I also still startle every time Sylvi sneezes and that’s two years later!
Laura McAuliffe 2026 Dog Communication
