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Do you believe in dog? 2016

Showing posts with label dog bite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dog bite. Show all posts

15 August 2017

Breed specific legislation (BSL) is BS when it comes to dog bites: A case study in Ireland

Breed specific legislation (BSL) is BS when it comes to dog bites: A case study in Ireland

Please welcome today's guest contributor, Nanci Creedon, Certified Dog Behaviour Consultant (IAABC), director and dog behaviour tutor at Creedons College and graduate of Newcastle University Animal Behaviour and Welfare masters degree programme. 

Photo by Christopher Ayme on Unsplash
Ah, dog bites! Love dogs or hate them, everyone has an opinion, and dog bites are a highly emotive topic. While everyone is entitled to an opinion, when it comes to dog bites, and dog bite prevention, it is vitally important that we attempt to fully understand the characteristics of dog bites to maximise bite prevention.

 While people may have an opinion on how to minimise dog bites, the buck usually stops with local governments to put legislation in place to protect the general public from the risk of dog bites. 

 Here in Ireland, our government established a ‘restricted breed list’. The Control of Dogs Regulations 1998 impose the below rules in regard to the following breeds (and strains/cross-breeds): American pit bull terrier, English bull terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, Bull mastiff, Dobermann pinscher, German shepherd, Rhodesian ridgeback, Rottweiler, Japanese akita, Japanese tosa and Bandog. 

 The rules state that these dogs (or strains and crosses) must:
  • Be kept on a short strong lead by a person over 16 years who is capable of controlling them.
  • Be muzzled whenever they are in a public place.
  • Wear a collar bearing the name and address of their owner at all times.

 Breed specific legislation (BSL) is becoming more and more of a hot topic. Many claim that assuming one dog is more dangerous than another because of its breed (or appearing to look like a particular breed) is not the appropriate way to prevent bites, and there are numerous alternatives to BSL.

Image via Nanci Creedon

 In Ireland, calls have been made to the Irish government to review and modify the legislation, with the latest call coming from Veterinary Ireland, the representative body for veterinary surgeons in Ireland. 

 However, the government has regularly replied with a similar answer: while they are not claiming that restricted breeds are more likely to bite, if they do bite, the government suggests, these dogs are likely to do significantly more damage than other dogs.

 Until now, this claim has not been supported, or discredited, by peer reviewed data.

In 2015, I conducted a widespread anonymous research survey, calling on victims of dog bites to participate in a voluntary survey about the details of the bite incident (at the time of the research we had not had a recorded dog bite fatality).

As the data was examined, we looked for any significant difference between dog bites by dogs on the restricted list and dog bites by non-restricted breeds. We found no difference in bites between dogs on or off the restricted list for the following categories: bite level (depth and type of bite), medical treatment, relationship with the victim, part of body bitten, or whether or not the dog went on to bite again. Our finding discredits the belief that if a dog from the restricted breed list bites, it would cause significantly more damage than other dogs.

The study did, however, find a significant difference between the two groups when it came to whether or not the dog had been reported for being aggressive prior to the bite incident, and whether or not the bite incident was reported to local authorities. In these instances, a dog on the restricted breed list was significantly more likely to be reported than a dog not on the restricted breed list.

This may be due to the public perceiving that a biting dog on the restricted breed list is a greater threat than a biting dog that is not on the restricted breed list, despite the study showing that there is no difference in the bites between the groups. 

This also suggests that the public perceive a biting dog who is not restricted to be of minimal threat to the general public, allowing that bite to possibly go unreported and allowing that dog to potentially go on to bite again. 

Since this study was conducted, Ireland had the first recorded fatality from a dog bite in June of 2017. The incident occurred on private property where legislation would not have put safety provisions in place, and regardless of the location, the dog breed involved in the incident was not one of the 12 restricted breeds.

 This research supports the review of current legislation to develop appropriate dog bite prevention strategies to minimise the risk of further fatalities.

Reference
Creedon, N., & Ó’Súilleabháin, P.S. (2017). Dog bite injuries to humans and the use of breed-specific legislation: A comparison of bites from legislated and non-legislated dog breeds. Irish Veterinary Journal, 70:23
Open Access: Download PDF of full article here


Image via Nanci Creedon

 Nanci Creedon M.Sc
Graduate of Newcastle University (Animal Behaviour and Welfare) and University College Cork (Zoology)
Tutor at Creedons College
Email: nancicreedon@creedonscollege.ie
Facebook: Nanci Creedon Dog Behaviourist  
Twitter: @NanciCreedon_DB 
Web: http://www.nancicreedon.ie/
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2 June 2013

Dogs in Review: May 2013

Dogs in Review: May 2013

Canine Science! Everywhere! AHHH! (source)

 Hey Mia!
Didn’t May come and go in a flash? Is it possible to ask for an extension? The world of canine science was bopping last month, so here’s a review of things I would have liked to cover in more detail, if I were granted a two-week extension:

 --> Dogs in Research
Dogs rocked peer-reviewed journals last month! As you mentioned, the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab published an article in a recent issue of Learning and Motivation. We looked at the olfactory experience of companion dogs, and I'm sure I'll talk more about our paper later. The issue will include a number of dog-centric, peer-reviewed articles covering a variety of canine cognition topics such as olfaction, memory, physical cognition, and the influence of humans on dog behavior. Here’s a brief overview of a few of the studies:
MAGIC BONES
Pattison et al. The case of the magic bones: Dogs’ memory of the physical properties of objects.
How can I not mention a paper talking about magic bones? “Using a procedure popular with preverbal infant researchers, [the researchers] allowed dogs to initially observe a bone and then to subsequently view the bone changed in either size or color. Dogs gazed longer at a bone changed in either way, compared to a control presentation of an unchanged bone. Dogs apparently encoded and remembered both the size and color of the bone.” *
OLFACTION
Hall et al. Training domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) on a novel discrete trials odor-detection task.
“[Domestic] dogs can be trained to detect a distinct odor (anise) buried in pine shavings. However, it took dogs about 60 trials to reach an average performance level of 80% correct choices, and dogs learned much better when a human experimenter delivered food reward than when the reward was buried with the odor cue.” *
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Pongrácz et al. “We will work for you” – Social influence may suppress individual food preferences in a communicative situation in dogs.
“[Dogs] would repeatedly choose a bowl containing a carrot over a bowl containing preferred sausage if a human pointed to the carrot bowl. In a delayed response test, dogs regularly search at the location where they last saw food disappear.” *
DOGS AND WORDS
Pilley. Border collie comprehends sentences containing a prepositional object, verb, and direct object.
Chaser knows words (source)
A border collie named Chaser initially captured headlines in 2011 as “the smartest dog in the world” when research published in Behavioral Processes reported that she knew the names of over 1,000 different objects.
Pilley’s current article investigated Chaser’s attention to the syntactical relationships between words, like differentiating “to ball take Frisbee” from “to Frisbee take ball.”
What’s going on with “wordy dogs” like Chaser? How did they get this way? And how can we test whether the dogs in our homes understand our words as we intend them?

PUPPY PROBLEMS?
In other canine science news, I was happy to see that the blog Companion Animal Psychology (twitter: @CompAnimalPsych) covered a recent publication by Frank McMillan et al investigating behavioral problems in puppies from pet stores vs puppies from non-commercial breeders. According to the study: What were the behavioral differences between pet store and breeder-obtained dogs? Read on!
YAWNING IN DOGS MEANS...
--> Dog Bite Prevention Week 2013
Apparently, the third full week of May is dog bite prevention week, but in my mind, every day is (or should be) dog bite prevention day. I don’t want to be bitten by a dog, and also I don’t want to give a dog the experience of biting me. So how do we prevent dog bites?
  • I also avoid bites by not interacting with dogs like this: 
Watch Sophia Yin Dog Bite Prevention Video
  • Instead, I ask dogs whether they want to interact, as recommended in a great post by Khris Erickson, the Humane Educator at HAWS, Humane Animal Welfare Society in Wisconsin. 

  • If dogs indicate that they are not into interacting, then we don't interact. It's that simple. What I sometimes find is that owners of "so friendly" dogs want to push an interaction even if the dog is giving "not right now" indications. A dog can still be "uber-friendly" without wanting to interact all the time with everyone. I've been thinking about this a lot recently as NYC enters summer and dogs are looking hotter and hotter, and potentially experiencing some physical discomfort.

  • I also think about context, practicing interventions and what a leash can (and can’t) prevent. Patricia McConnell, CAAB, offers in-depth insights into this topic over at her blog, The Other End of the Leash, in the post 'Dog Bite Prevention 2013.'

  • When it comes to preventing dog bites, I frequently check out The Blue Dog, a website aimed at educating children about dogs. I first learned about The Blue Dog at the 2nd Canine Science Forum. The website houses resources and research on children and dog bites, in addition to providing general dog information:
--> Up next: Some of the leading canine science researchers will be presenting at a Canine Science Conference, SPARCS, June 28-30, 2013. The best part is, anyone in the world can join, either in a conference hall in Redmond, WA, or streaming live to your living room. 
(source)
I recently covered the SPARCS conference on #SciAmBlogs, who will be there & what to expect, at You’re invited to a canine science conference. Take a look!

I know your life is currently heavily focused on The Big W, and I’m not talking about the best movie ever, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Hoping for an update on working dog welfare!

 Cheers!
Julie


* summary by Macpherson K. & Roberts W.A. (2013). Exploring the canine mind: Studies of dog cognition, Learning and Motivation, DOI:

© 2013 Julie Hecht
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11 December 2012

The Science Surrounding Children & Dogs: Part 3 (The Ugly)

The Science Surrounding Children & Dogs: Part 3 (The Ugly)

Cute or feeding an unrealistic fantasy? (source)
Hey Julie,

You raise such an important point! 

In the same way that popular culture can influence our perceptions and interpretations of ‘cute’ in domains like body image and kawaii, photos of babies with dogs can set us up with unrealistic expectations that might lead to ugly situations and devastating outcomes.



 And it’s some of The Ugly side of the science surrounding children and dogs that I want to share with you today. Dogs can hurt children and children can hurt dogs. 

It’s ugly alright.

Dogs biting kids:
As you pointed out in your last post, part of the The Ugly is that dogs can and do bite babies and kids.

(source)
Dog bites are the most frequently reported type of animal bite to humans.

The risk factors for being bitten vary a little from study to study (as you'd expect given each study looks at a different population), but generally, it’s consistent that the kids most at risk were:

  • Aged five years or under (with the 5-10yr age group a close second);
  • Attempting to access the dog’s territory or a resource (toy/food/bone, etc.) sometimes with the dog on lead or chained in a yard, or
  • Provoking the dog (by stepping on; pulling the dog’s hair/ears; hitting or attempting to ‘discipline’ the dog or waking a sleeping dog);
  • At home or in a friend’s/neighbour’s/relative’s house (i.e. a dog known to the child and generally in the dog’s home environment)
  • Not directly supervised by an adult.
    • From Reisner et al., 2007 (source)
  • Boys appear more likely to be bitten by dogs not from their own households, but boys and girls have been shown to be bitten equally by dogs from their own households.
(source)

I emphasise most at risk, as obviously all people are at some risk of being bitten by any dog they encounter.

Dogs involved often have no prior history of biting children, although some have previously bitten adults or other animals.

 We don’t know the full story.
Most figures regarding dog bites coming from hospital reports or other health authorities. It’s been calculated that in the USA, over 900 dog bite injuries are treated in hospital emergency departments each day. The same study estimated that for every dog bite fatality; there are approximately 16,000 dog-bite related emergency department visits. Just staggering figures!
(source)

And yet, dog bites are most likely under-reported. Not all dog bites get treated at hospital and as such, many cases may go unreported. 

 A study from the 1980’s demonstrated that nearly half of 3,000 children (aged 4-18) surveyed reported being bitten by a dog in their lifetime. 
More than 36 times the rate reported to authorities!

Identification of the dog breeds involved is probably inaccurate. Dog breed identification for dogs involved in attacks are usually self-reported to health authorities by the victim or victim’s family. Recent research has demonstrated how hard it is for even dog experts to accurately identify dog breeds, so can you see where there might be an issue in the validity of this data?

Why are young kids at such high risk of being bitten?
(source)
It’s not the full story, but research has shown that the age groups most at risk don’t pay attention to dogs’ body language but focus their attention on the face. Children do misinterpret angry dog facial expressions as smiling and being happy. 
"My, what big teeth you have..."
An eye-tracking research study showed that for some reason, young children’s’ eyes focus in on the angry dogs’ mouth and teeth area instead of following the usual eye-nose-mouth scan pattern that they show for other faces. This information offers an important insight that may be used to develop education strategies for children and their interactions with dogs.

Kids abusing dogs:
The notion of children deliberately inflicting pain or suffering on dogs and other animals is distressing. 
But it happens.

A symptom of other problems
Children who abuse animals are reportedly twice as likely to have experienced sexual or physical abuse themselves compared to children who are not cruel to animals. 

They often come from households of domestic/family violence. 

They often experience parental alcoholism/unavailablility. 
(source)

Violent behaviour is believed to be learned by these children as a viable tool in relationships (i.e. this is how you relate to others) and/or is modelled from adult behaviour they have directly observed. 

Exerting ‘power’ over an animal may also assist children who feel otherwise powerless in such situations of family violence. 
It's incredibly sad. For everyone. The children and the dogs.

(source)
Motivations for animal cruelty by children have been cited as: 

  • displaced hostility against a person to an animal; 
  • expression of aggression; 
  • post-traumatic play; and 
  • to hurt someone else by hurting a animals (using the animal as a vehicle for emotional abuse). 
Younger children tend to fall into the ‘exploratory or curious’ (think ants and magnifying glasses) rather than ‘pathological’ or ‘delinquent’ classification used in describing categories of people engaging in animal abuse.

Animal abuse as a child lead to..?
Research has demonstrated associations between acts of childhood cruelty to animals and acts of serious, recurrent, interpersonal aggression/violence and other generalised anti-social behaviours as adults. 
(source)
Although it is tempting to suggest that animal cruelty exhibited in childhood leads to interpersonal violence in adulthood, it is considered a better conclusion that childhood home environment is a strong predictor of the development of many violent behaviours, often clustered together.

 Childhood experiences into adulthood:
Most fearful adults report their fear of dogs began in childhood. However, being attacked as a child doesn’t necessarily mean you will be fearful of dogs as an adult. 

 Most adults are dog-fearful following a direct experience of dog bite rather than being influenced by an attack event that happened to someone they knew or from verbal information/education passed to them by others. 

 Amazingly, being bitten as a child has not been associated with a dislike of dogs. Positive experiences with dogs prior to being bitten made children less likely to become dog-phobic adults. It’s not fully understood why some children can recover and others retain their fearfulness into adulthood, sometimes even suffering ongoing PTSD.

(source)
Studies that utilised dogs (and other animals) with groups of children deemed 'at risk' of engaging in anti-social behaviours  have found that programs comprising a mix of discussions of interpersonal issues and conflict management along with the proper care and obedience training of dogs (and other animals) have demonstrated decreased fear of dogs/animals and improved attitudes towards self and others – sound familiar? 

 It’s The Good shining through, even in the face of The Ugly!

So there you have it Julie. 
Some of the science surrounding children and dogs: the good, the bad and the ugly.

I’m really hoping you can tell me about something fun and frivolous in your next post!

Mia
What hasn't been in any other image I've used in these three posts? Parental supervision! (source)

Further reading:
Meints K., Allen K. & Watson C. (2011). Atypical face-scan patterns in children misinterpreting dogs facial expressions evidence from eye-tracking, Injury Prevention, 16 (Supplement 1) A173-A173. DOI:

Shewell P.C. & Nancarrow J.D. (1991). Dogs that bite., BMJ, 303 (6816) 1512-1513. DOI:

Reisner I.R., Shofer F.S. & Nance M.L. (2007). Behavioral assessment of child-directed canine aggression, Injury Prevention, 13 (5) 348-351. DOI:

Weiss H.B. Incidence of Dog Bite Injuries Treated in Emergency Departments, JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 279 (1) 51-53. DOI:

Ozanne-Smith J., Ashby K. & Stathakis V.Z. (2001). Dog bite and injury prevention--analysis, critical review, and research agenda., Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, 7 321-326. PMID:

Avner J.R. & Baker M.D. (1991). Dog bites in urban children., Pediatrics, 88 (1) 55-57. PMID:

Ascione F.R. (1993). Children Who are Cruel to Animals: A Review of Research and Implications for Developmental Psychopathology, Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 6 (4) 226-247. Other: Link

 Currie C.L. (2006). Animal cruelty by children exposed to domestic violence, Child Abuse & Neglect, 30 (4) 425-435. DOI:

ARLUKE A., LEVIN J., LUKE C. & ASCIONE F. (1999). The Relationship of Animal Abuse to Violence and Other Forms of Antisocial Behavior, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14 (9) 963-975. DOI:

McPhedran S. (2009). Animal Abuse, Family Violence, and Child Wellbeing: A Review, Journal of Family Violence, 24 (1) 41-52. DOI:

Duncan A. & Miller C. (2002). The impact of an abusive family context on childhood animal cruelty and adult violence, Aggression and Violent Behavior, 7 (4) 365-383. DOI:

Zasloff L.R., Hart L.A. & Weiss J.M. (2003). Dog training as a violence prevention tool for at-risk adolescents, Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 16 (4) 352-359. DOI:

Doogan S. & Thomas G.V. (1992). Origins of fear of dogs in adults and children: The role of conditioning processes and prior familiarity with dogs, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 30 (4) 387-394. DOI:

© Mia Cobb 2012
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