A dog’s eye view of dog bite prevention
In the billions of interactions people in this country have every day with the more than 73 million dogs living among us, very few result in significant injuries on either side – surprisingly fewer than result from our dealings with our own species. It is remarkable, when you think about it, that we’ve chosen to share our lives and homes with sharp-toothed predators — sometimes pretty large ones — and that it has been extremely safe so much of the time.
As we reflect on Dog Bite Prevention Week, recently passed, here’s something that most press releases, websites, and lists of do’s and don’ts may not mention: Dogs will do their part to prevent dog bites. All they need is a little help from us.
That dog in front of you doesn’t want to bite you. Even if the situation pushes him beyond the remarkable scope of his species’ tolerance for human behavior and makes him feel he needs to defend himself, he almost certainly doesn’t want to hurt you and probably won’t.
This is partly because dogs have pretty obvious ways of telling us, “I need you to stop that!” or “You’re freaking me out. Please go away.” And, since dogs have evolved better abilities to read human body language than any other non-human animal, they quickly get it when we meet those requests by changing our behavior. (Of course, the fact that dogs are emotionally inclined to form attachments with people is another basic reason why they don’t generally bite us.)
Just a little instruction can help us recognize a dog’s “Please don’t make me bite you”* messages when he is uneasy with us. We can defuse his tense emotions even in situations that dogs commonly find threatening.
Case in point: A new series of training videos teaches police officers how to interact safely with the dogs they encounter in the performance of their duties, in ten-minute segments that can be incorporated into daily briefing sessions. The trainer who works with police officers on the videos explains, “What [dogs] are telling you is true. . . They’re telling you, ‘I’m uncomfortable.’ That’s what this video is about… how to communicate to a dog – reading what the dog is telling them, and then being able to communicate back to neutralize the situation.”
In just a few minutes of simple video instruction, four officers learn to recognize discomfort in a dog’s expression, and to adjust their own body language so the dog relaxes – they also learn, of course, to recognize the comfortable expression when it occurs.
Obviously, police officers often encounter dogs they don’t know and who don’t know them in potentially volatile situations, where a daunting-looking person (a uniformed officer) is coming into the dog’s space. Yet a few simple techniques can diffuse most of these situations.
Just imagine how well this can work in less intimidating circumstances. It is much less complicated to teach dog owners to recognize signs of comfort and discomfort in their own family pets and to respond appropriately, thereby avoiding confrontations.
Of course, sometimes people are bitten by dogs. The more aware we become of how canines communicate the more rare these incidents will become.
Basic responsible pet ownership practices can do much to mitigate bite risks to other people, a boon to public safety. These practices include humane care (providing proper diet, veterinary care, socialization, and training); humane custody (licensing and permanent ID); and humane control (following leash laws and not allowing dogs to become a threat or a nuisance to the community).
The blossoming field of canine behavioral research is uncovering husbandry issues with strong implications for minimizing canine threat and bite behavior toward humans. Scientists are finding that the dog who is integrated into the family, whose daily life includes opportunities for positive interactions with people, is far less likely to bite than one who is treated as merely a resident and largely isolated on the property.
And this makes you, the dog, and the entire community safer.
* I am indebted to a great trainer, Denise Herman of Empire of the Dog, for this memorable statement.
Janis Bradley is Director of Communications and Publications for the National Canine Research Council, owner and founder of the Dog Training Internship Academy, which prepares students for careers as professional dog trainers, and author of Dogs Bite, But Balloons and Slippers Are More Dangerous. Learn more about her work at dogtraininginternshipacademy.com, or at nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com.
The video series referenced in this article is “Police & Dog Encounters: Tactical Strategies and Effective Tools to Keep Our Communities Safe and Human.”
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Main article photo by: stock.xchange
