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 The idea of being bitten by an aggressive dog is scary for anyone, even dog lovers and dog owners. If you Google ‘dog news’ you will see stories of maulings and bites and attacks. My impression has always been the most dog bites could be attributed to owner negligence or improper training (actually training a dog to be aggressive), victim instigation, or in the case or stray dogs, pack behavior. Dogs can and do bite. Smaller dogs actually dish out the most bites, statistically, but there is seldom much, if any damage, which is why when you hear ‘dog bite news,’ it will most often be larger breeds because the damage they can do is much more significant. Due to a recent study that I read, it looks like I really am not off the mark but there was at least one surprise. Read on for more…
Recently there was a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and published by the Journal of Injury Prevention, looking for the answer to the question, ‘Why do dogs bite?’ They study, encompassing four years of analysis, looked at 111 cases involving 103 dogs that bit children. The data came from a one specific veterinary behavior clinic and looked at bites involving children under the age of 18 and included such data as age, familiarity with the dog and the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Their findings show that what prompts dogs to bite children is generally underlying anxiety, pain and other behavioral or medical problems. This study was not confined to specific breeds, showing that all dog breeds have the potential to bite. The most common triggers, according to the study in the journal Injury Prevention were “guarding of resources and territory.”
Bites to young children tend to occur when the dog feels their possessions; food, toys, etc. are threatened. Even when a dog is familiar with the child, they may get bitten in the case of possession protection, especially when it comes to food. Or you may hear a story of a small child wanting to play with a newly birthed puppy. Mother dogs can be very protective of their offspring.
With older children, bites most often occur when a dog’s territory is threatened. Dogs are naturally territorial animals and if they feel threated, their first response it to protects their territory, whether it be a home, a yard or even their living space. Also, sadly, this is something that you see far too often when a dog has lived its life at the end of a chain.
These dogs have only a very small area, are often unsocialized, and they will protect their territory ferociously! Aside from the cruelty that chaining inflicts on the chained animals, this is yet another reason that dogs should not be chained for life or even long periods of time. It breeds aggression and territorialism. Thankfully, more and more states and passing anti-tethering laws which are aimed at helping the dog’s quality of life as well as helping to cut down on the number of bites by dogs stuck in this kind of a situation.
Another reason for bites is due to fear based aggression. Dogs dealing with separation anxiety or exposed to loud noises which scare them can put a dog into an aggressive mode. Dogs under these circumstances may feel threatened by things they would not normally perceive as threats. A threatened or scared dog when confronted by a noisy and rambunctious child may instinctively strike out.
Most of the dogs, over 80% studied, had never bitten a person before and two-thirds had never bitten a child. Three-quarters of the dogs had exhibited separation or noise anxiety and half also showed some underlying medical situation, most often dealing with the skin or bones but other health issues included growths, eye problems, liver and kidney disease, hormonal problems and infections. so pain may have yet been another underlying factor in why dogs bite.
It seems that the common advise of neutering and training actually have very little impact on the probability of a dog biting when it is in certain situations as outlined above.
Some of the actual statistics are as follows; ....for the complete article click here
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