Any dog can bite. Even dogs with no fighting genes can bite. Research showed that the most dangerous encounter is of dogs and children, especially if they do not know each other. Under most risk are children between age of five and nine. There are many reasons why a dog would bite a human. Most common are:
1. Improper upbringing of the dog
2. Genetic predisposition to hunt and attack
3. Fear – as a defence mechanism
4. Aggressiveness during heat or mating period
5. Guarding the territory – dogs are territorial beings, as we are and as many other animals
6. Defence of cubs, food, toys
7. Surprised dog can bite – if you approach it unexpectedly
Any dog can bite, but non the less, it showed that bites of certain breeds and mix of those breeds leave serious consequences, and their attacks can even be fatal.
Counterargument for reliability of this claim is statistics that show that most popular strong breeds in certain period of time inflicted most fatal bites, since there was more of these breeds, so there was more chance of such outcomes, as supporters of this opinion claim. It was the case with Dobermanns in the 70s, deadly attacks of Pit Bulls in the 80s, Rottweilers in the 90s. Additional argument is there is no reliable statistic for bites that were not fatal, so it cannot be determined how much weaker dogs bite. These counterarguments are more of an argument for the initial claim, since as it was noted, any dog of any breed can bite, but here is the matter of fatal bites that were dominated by strong breeds in all periods, especially with fighting and hunting instincts. On top of that, in these periods of time, they were not the only popular breeds.
Fatal dog attacks statistics in USA
2000–2005
1. Pit Bull or Pit Bull mix 28% (41 deadly outcomes)
2. Rottweiler or Rottweiler mix 16% (23)
3. German Shepherd or German Shepherd mix 8% (11)
4. Chow Chow or Chow Chow mix 5% (7)
5. Labrador Retriever or Labrador Retriever mix 4% (6)
2005–2014
1. Pit Bull 62.3% (203)
2. Rottweiler 11.7% (38)
3. Mastiff/Bullmastiff 4% (13)
4. German Shepherd 3.7% (12)
5. Husky 3.4% (11)
If a dog bites you do not pull the bitten part away since it will encourage it to bite more and harder. Try to place something between yourself and the dog, such as purse, jacket, backpack, so it would leave your body and bite the object.
The smallest wound can get infected so it is necessary to:
1. Clean the wound with soap and water
2. Put 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide on the wound
3. Check if the dog got rabies vaccine
4. Consult a veterinarian