3 Ways People End Up Getting Bit by Dogs

As you can guess, breed plays a big role in the likelihood of a bite and severity. It’s no surprise that pit bulls have the high score when it comes to fatalities, followed by Rottweilers, and then German Shepherds. While there are apologists for all breeds, you’d have to have the smoothest of brains to think that your average pit bull is as safe as your average Labrador Retriever.

Some types of dogs have the not-too-distant echoes in their genes of breeding specifically to produce violent traits. A veterinarian friend of mine once told me he looks at those dogs like he would a gun without a safety. It’s going to go off, and when it does, it’s not going to be good.

While the average pheasant hunter isn’t likely to bring home a pit bull pup to mold into a rooster flusher, that doesn’t mean some of the most popular dog breeds won’t bite. Dogs, being animals and all, can be unpredictable. In the right scenario, a reliably friendly dog might go dark for just long enough to snap at someone. Learning when this is likely to happen, and then avoiding it, is a huge step in the right direction.

Accidental bites happen more often than bites borne of pure aggression. They usually happen when two dogs figure out, in their own way, that they are not going to tolerate being in the presence of one another and throw down.

If you’ve never seen a real dog fight, you might not understand. The play behaviors we often witness are nothing like an actual scrap. It’s nasty, serious, and probably the leading cause of accidental bites to dog owners.

Get your hand between two golden retrievers who have decided to see who is the boss, and that hand is likely to suffer from friendly fire. The worst bite I’ve witnessed in person happened exactly this way, when two female goldens decided to duke it out, and one of the owners reached in to split them up.

If your dog gets into a fight with another dog, separate them by working on their back end, not the front.

Talented dog trainers will teach puppies to accept that their handler is going to mess with their paws, jowls, ears, and pretty much any body part they need to root around in. This is a great idea to condition the pup for later in life when you might need to trim his nails or do a post-hunt checkup after a hard day in the grouse woods.

It’s also important for when your dog is sick or injured and you’re trying to suss out that situation. A dog that is in pain is a dog might feel threatened. And that is a dog that might lash out. Be careful with sick and injured dogs because they don’t know you’re trying to help, and if they are experiencing a high level of discomfort, they might get toothy in an instant.

Thirty percent of fatal dog attacks involve kids ranging from newborns to four years old. But children in the five to nine age range are the likeliest demographic to get attacked. In fact, the seventh leading cause of ER visits in this age range comes from dog attacks.

There are a lot of reasons for this, but the truth is that kids are often much closer to the mouth of a dog than a full-grown adult. They often bring a high level of unpredictable energy, and they often go right for the dog’s head or neck. Some dogs like hugs, or at least tolerate them, but a lot of dogs don’t.

It is a very good idea to be cautious about your dog around all children, but especially children with whom the dog is unfamiliar. It’s also a VERY good idea to keep small children from approaching strange dogs no matter how much they want to.

Now, plenty of dogs will take all of the love they can get from people of any age, but that’s an individual situation type of deal. As a general rule here, caution is warranted because when kids get bit, it tends to be a bigger deal than an adult getting a little nip on the arm.