The Dopers Dog Bite Thread

Wow. He bit all those people and they never got…“tailed” with a lawsuit? (Sorry!)

That’s too bad…was he close to anyone? Was there anyone who really loved him, or was everyone afraid of him, Lissa?

I work in a vet clinic, so I get bitten about once a week. Last one was a 3 pound Chihuaha with the speed of a striking snake and the personality of a starving piranha. If Chihuahas were the size of Rottweilers, humans would no longer be the dominant species on this planet!

Yes. The dog is territorial. The letter carrier approaches the dog’s territory. The dog behaves aggressively. The letter carrier leaves. The dog doesn’t understand that the letter carrier was going to leave anyway. The dog thinks, “Ah ha, that worked! I’d better repeat it, next time!”

The Better Half finds that cheap Wal-Mart dog biscuits work better than pepper spray 95% of the time. And since most letter carriers keep the pepper spray in the mailbag pocket where they can’t get at it in a hurry, I’ve lost count of the anecdotes I’ve heard from other letter carriers that ended with, “…so I held it off with my mailbag until the owner could get a grip on its collar and drag it away.”

And the received wisdom is, “the smaller the dog, the more likely it is to bite.” They say you want to really watch Yorkies.

Little dogs pack one hell of a punch. Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if all big dogs had the characteristics of little dogs and vice versa…

A couple of years ago, my sister was bitten by a neighbors dog. She was riding her bike in the street past their house, and the dog ran out and jumped on her. Her worst injuries were from crashing the bike rather than the bite itself. She confronted the owners and they just said “It wasn’t our dog, he knows he’s not allowed to leave the yard”. She sued them and got them to pay her medical bills. She also called animal control at the time of the incident, but they wouldn’t take the dog away because the bite didn’t break the skin or something. This is why I now carry pepper spray when I go cycling.

I was maybe 15, doing my paper route. I came to the house with the big black Newfoundland retreiver. BIG bastard.
I had been there many times, always offered my hand to sniff before I approached the house - no problem. Until then. He lunged suddenly for my neck - it was so fast! I put up my arm and he ended up with my elbow in his massive mouth. Only one fang broke through my jacket, leaving an ugly hole that took a couple of stitches to close - I still have a gross scar.

I staggered away from the house - they werent even home, and went to another home of a customer on my route. She got me a wet cloth and told me to go home right away (I was in a bit of shock I think). we went to the hospital and because of the hospital treatment there was supposed to be a report made. Around here if an animal bites twice they must be destroyed. I told them it must have been my fault, I felt guilty, and didnt want any trouble.

I should have reported it.

A couple of months later, I woke up to terrible screaming of a woman at about 130 am, this was followed by the furious yells of a man: “I am gonna kill that f-ing dog!!”, and more sobs.

The people with the big nasty dog lived back to back against my place. The people next to BAD DOG had company staying with them from out of town. The lady staying with them took her tiny poodle out to pee before they turned in for the night. The big monster attacked the poodle. She tried to save it, and the monster turned on her. He tore her arm open - 30+ stitches, and killed the little dog.

I felt so bad. I went to see her and apologise for not doing more when I was bit. She was pale and all bandaged up, but she made me feel better and told me it wasnt my fault etc.


I had the worlds nicest dog when I was a kid, and he bit our papergirl once. He didnt mean to - he had sore ears from mites or something, and she walked up behind him and reached to pet him, she suprised him and touched his ear, hurting him, so he snapped. I dont know who felt worse that day, her or the dog - he looked like he was going to cry!

Any dog can bite one, maybe even twice (not counting vets - the dogs are scared and its more understandable I think) but I really think that a dog that bites must be put down.

The one Lissa described could have disfigured a child. Its bad enough he scared that poor womans breast, think what it could have done to a soft three year old's face!

Yikes Kelli. That sucks. And I thought newfies were supposed to be such sweet dogs. I guess it was the retriever in him coming out…kidding. I know i’d get scared if a dog that size lunged for my throat.

What kind of dog was the one you owned?