Dog Bites

Here is some helpful information to help you when your dog accidentally or intentionally bites another dog or human.

Try to stay calm so that your emotions are not controlling your logic. Tend to whoever needs the care and crate your dog safely in a room, making sure to place water for him or her. Be careful what you tell emergency personnel, especially if you do not know what quite happened. Remember that most emergency personnel are bound by law to call animal control or the appropriate authorities in order to comply with local ordinances so be careful how you phrase your words. If your toddler or a bystander happens to get jumped on, scratched or bitten by another dog, do not use the words “attacked” or “vicious” unless that is truly what happened. Some people call a dog’s lunging toward another dog at play, “aggression”. “Aggression” means teeth on skin. Remember that dog bites, especially with family member, animal control may come by and take your dog for quarantine for up to 10 days, which you will be paying for. Depending on your animal control provider, your dog may act out of fear and cause even more harm away from home. Depending on how serious the bite or damage is, do not make rash decisions including putting the dog to sleep. Do not hit the dog or play the blame game. It is in this very moment that your dog needs you the most.

Think about the first time you noticed that there might be a problem. It might have been a low rumble when your toddler wandered by the dog’s food bowl or toy. You told your toddler not to bother the dog when it was eating or playing with its favorite toy. So, where did you go wrong?

Any time a dog protects what it considers that it owns, it has the right to protect that item or that location. The problem is that since the dog never learned that it owned nothing, it may now try to protect what it perceives it owns. No, you should not encourage your toddler or child to take the dog’s bone from its mouth when it’s growling, but the point is that it never should have gotten to that point. The dog should have learned long before that when a human comes toward him or her, whatever is in the dog’s mouth is dropped on the floor and the dog then walks away.

Children’s high pitched voices and erratic movements can be intimidating to certain dogs. The fact that the dog was cooperative and did not bite your child or someone prior does not guarantee future results. Just like with an investment, people tend to assume that whatever was done previously is a good track record of results to come. We always, as humans, assume that it will not happen to us and that our good dog would never do something bad. Herein lies the potential for disaster.