ALI LIMENTANI ILLUSTRATION
DOG SAFETY PICTURE BOOK
I would love to create a children's picture book about dog safety. I think the fact that picture books are read by several generations and engaging the audience on multiple occasions, makes them the perfect vehicle for teaching both adults and children about safety around their pets and other peoples. I also love the fact that picture books are able to convey information to an array of literacy levels to help people understand key safety concepts.
This project is part of an idea for an educational children's book.
Please contact me if you are interested in learning more.
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Dog safety is a really important issue and one that I feel very strongly about. As a veterinary nurse in an animal shelter I regularly have to euthanise dogs that have bitten. These aren’t random stray dogs, they are family pets. Around 80% of all dog bites to children in the UK are from a familiar dog and unfortunately the majority of them are to the hands or face because of a child’s diminutive height and the way they approach dogs.
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Dogs use a series of subtle signals to communicate to us when they are feeling uncomfortable, these can be as slight as blinking, lip licking or turning their heads away from us but will escalate to growling, snapping and biting if we do not take appropriate action by removing the child from the dog. Repeatedly ignoring this behaviour will force the dog to escalate more quickly towards aggression. In a lot of cases parents will punish dogs for growling at their child, further pushing the animal towards overt aggression without warning.
Unfortunately once these communication behaviours have been inadvertently trained out of the dog by the owner, it is too dangerous to re-home and heartbreakingly has to be put to sleep. I would love to teach people how to read these signals and help them to avoid these situations in the future.
