Dog bites are extremely serious and being able to assess whether or not your dog is at risk of biting someone or something, is a vital skill for you as a pet parent. Because biting can be difficult to predict, especially when you’re just getting to know your dog, we recommend muzzle conditioning if your dog has bitten before or exhibits aggressive behavior. Lastly, if your dog has aggressive tendencies, we recommend talking to your vet or a vet behaviorist about how to manage bite risk. Find a behaviorist near you here.
The things to consider when assessing the future bite risk of your dog:
(1) Your dog has bitten before
If your dog has bitten a person or animal before, we strongly recommend muzzle conditioning. There are great muzzle options that protect your dog and those around them, but still give flexibility for eating and drinking. The Baskerville Ultra muzzle and Italian Basket Muzzle are our favorites.
(2) The severity of your dog’s previous bite(s)
When your dog bit, what level of bite was it and how much damage was done? This is important as there is evidence to suggest that if that same dog is pushed to bite again, they will likely bite at the same level.
- Level 1. The bite has no skin-contact by teeth. This can also be identified as air-snapping.
- Level 2. The skin is contacted by teeth, but no skin-puncture. Can be skin nicks (less than one tenth of an inch deep) and slight bleeding caused by forward or lateral movement of teeth against skin, but no vertical punctures.
- Level 3. One to four punctures from a single bite with no puncture deeper than half the length of the dog’s canine teeth. There may be lacerations in a single direction, caused by victim pulling hand away, owner pulling dog away, or gravity (little dog jumps, bites and drops to floor).
- Level 4. One to four punctures from a single bite with at least one puncture deeper than half the length of the dog’s canine teeth. There may also be deep bruising around the wound (if the dog held on for several seconds and bore down) or lacerations in both directions (dog held on and shook its head from side to side).
- Level 5. Multiple-bite incident with at least two Level 4 bites or multiple-attack incident with at least one Level 4 bite in each.
(3) Identifying triggers for biting
Understanding what triggers, or has triggered, your dog to bite, will help you stop a future bite from happening. If the trigger is clear and preventable, you can train your dog with counter conditioning methods and help change your dog’s negative association to a neutral or good one.
(4) Identifying warning signs of a bite
A dog who warns before biting is less of a bite risk because they give you signs that their stress levels are escalating. This gives you the opportunity to remove your dog from the situation before a bite happens. Some common warning signs include: growling, lip curling and others outlined in body language lesson.
It’s very important that you learn the signs your dog makes before biting, and to take note of the trigger and any other distractions in the moment that adds to the stress.
(5) Log your dog’s behavior
To start to understand your dog’s behavior, and best position yourself to prevent a future bite, keep a log of your dog’s behavior. This will enable you to start to recognize patterns and triggers that you can counter your dog to feel better about over time.