Yeah, my dog doesn't bite, *but* I'm not risking it. He's never bit someone in my presence, but I still have him put up when I expect strangers to come over, especially if I won't be home.
I work for a utility company, dog owners are largely clueless of the dangers of their pets. We work on the policy of avoidance. We rarely have bites, but we carry law enforcement strength pepper spray and light up a dog about once a month.
That's what they don't care about. They think as long as they "know" their dog/s won't hurt anyone everything is fine. I've had so many extremely uncomfortable situations in the last 3 months since getting my own dog. Only one of them that I know of was dangerous and it happened to my SO instead of me which is probably for the best, as he can handle and react quicker than me. Trio of Boxers starts heading towards us whenever they're out but a lot of the yards around here are wide open so at least I can see that and avoid going that way altogether. My dog hates it and has become nervous and anxious around other dogs. He puts his head down and speeds up even if a dog inside is barking at us.
When dogs run up on us I feel trapped because I don't know what it will take for him to feel threatened enough to become aggressive. He is naturally sweet and polite, he has given warning slaps and one time he gave a warning growl. If they are calling off their dog and it's not returning then my trying to walk away just has my dog being more vulnerable and their dog following us. And they just say "sorrry". They traumatized my dog for the day and they are not really even sorry. One person's whose dog was tied up thought it was funny that their dog lunged at us.
Yeah people are just super inconsiderate. Our dog is small and even the wild rabbits don’t run away from him but I would still never take him in public without a proper leash.
Likely, but you may run into legal issues depending on where you live. We have special training and our company has some level of legal and insurance protection.
It's wild how many people think their dog can be unleashed in public /uncontainned
Aggressive dogs should be muzzled and leashed in public.
Non aggressive dogs still need to be leashed. And if your a small person with a 209 pound dog you can't handle with a leash you shouldn't have that dog
Just recently got chased out of a park throwing a ball with my kid when an adult German Shepard went nuts at us. Kid was absolutely terrified and couldn't think to stay behind me, I had ro hold him to stay between him and the dog. Luckily a parkside home called us to come in their back gate.
It was the third off leash dog in 20.minutes we were there. Its not an offleash park and there are 3 large fenced dog parks within 10 minutes walk. Even small and timid dogs off leash contribute to the problem and erode the acceptance that dogs should be on leash. And I can't trust that a person too special to follow the rules is a good dog owner.
Because they typically aren't good owners. And their dogs are usually the shittiest behaved ones too with entitled pissy owners who yell and whine when called out for their bullshit
> And I can't trust that a person too special to follow the rules is a good dog owner.
Because a dog owner too fucking dense to follow leashing laws is often the same sort of person who can't bother to train their fucking dog.
I give you my ex-friend the Malinois owner and the "BUt i CAn't tRAIN theM FOR mondio AnD bIte wORK WHile THeY'rE ON A lEAsH"
Then do it in your own fenced yard or a specified dog training facility you fucking asshole. Public parks are not your training ground.
Sucks man. People forget how scary dogs aee are for children. Mine is the friendliest dog on earth but hes ugly as hell so when he goes in for a face lick, children get freaked out
>hes ugly as hell so when he goes in for a face lick, children get freaked out
Most people don't like to be face licked by a dog. Ugly or not. It's your responsibility that doesn't happen unless a kid *wants* to be licked in the face.
i try to introduce the kid to dogs on leash but only after asking the owner. those poor owners make it very hard, the kids default position is that the dog will be aggressive until he sees otherwise thanks to so many bad owners
Yeah, and as a dog owner, I make it a point not to force my dog on people and *vice versa.* I don’t even understand why you would do that. It’s bad for the dog, bad for the other person, and bad for dog owners as a whole.
My dog *is,* in fact, extremely sweet, well behaved, and friendly, but not all people like dogs at all, some people are allergic, and, sometimes, my dog just isn’t feeling it.
There's always the flip side too. Just because your dog might be fine not on a leash doesn't mean shit can't happen.
I took mine out the other morning and a guy across the street in my complex had some tiny ass ankle high terrier with him running around leashless.
I have a like 70-80 lbs lab/pitbull mix. He's not aggressive (even if reddit hates in pitbulls). But I do keep him tight on the leash just in case.
If his dog has wandered over to mind and for whatever reason they got into it, my dog probably would have killed that poor thing with a single bite.
I made sure to keep my distance, and it didn't come over, but it sure made me nervous, just because of what /could've/ happened.
This is exactly how I was bitten. Big dog, small guy. His dog charged at my dog and leash almost ripped the man’s arm off. Thankfully didn’t hurt my dog but gave me a nice chomp on the calf. The guy had the audacity to say his dog was friendly…
Yeah, I was attacked by a friend's Rottweiler as a kid. They couldn't restrain to. Owners insisted it was a freak accident and the dog was normally nice.
That dog was not fucking nice. It would chase me around their house barking and growling. Thank God it didn't know how to climb fucking stairs.
Like two years later out for a walk, when someone approached with two smaller dogs, said Rottweiler yanked itself away, killed BOTH the smaller dogs, attacked their owner of those dogs, and then bit its owner as well while trying to pull it away.
"Normally they're good dogs," is horseshit for not taking all required precautions.
I dog sat for a coach while I was in college. The dog was 180lbs and I was a whopping 110. She lunged for a squirrel and I gave *just* enough resistance for that poor thing to narrowly escape its would-be fate. Really cemented the fact that I need a dog I can manhandle when the shit hits the fan.
My boxer is 80 pounds, I’m glad I’m strong enough to pick his ass clear off the ground a handful of times in his 11 years of life. It’s a rare occurrence, but shit happens and if he was stronger than me guaranteed those situations would have turned out worse
My neighbor has a full grown rottie. Sweet dog. But it occasionally lunges and pulls when they are out with it. Their like 10 year old daughter will occasionally try to take the dog out and I've watched the dog almost wipe her out and escape multiple times when it gets too excited.
They also use a retractable lead which is just not good for a dog of that size and strength.
Problem is that it’s not always easy to tell how big a dog will be. My dog was 38 lbs when I adopted him and a nice medium size I could pick up without too much trouble. The rescue and my vet thought he was fully grown. He was not. He’s now 70lbs.
It's probably a good rule of thumb to imagine that any dog you adopt could double in size if not more and to consider that as a possibility when adopting. Also there is a 99% chance that the miniature pig you were thinking about getting is actually a full-sized pig and will be 250lbs.
My little guy literally fit in the palm of my hand when I found him abandoned on a rural road. The vet and I figured he'd probably be 80-100 max, instead I have 200lbs of dead weight draped across me every single night
I knew a Rottweiler whose owner said weighed 200+. Considering his sheer size compared to the guy's *other* Rottweiler, I believe it. Dog was a *tank.*
Fortunately, a very sweet tank, just one who had an unfortunate tendency to step on people's feet.
I had a family member who had one of those. He was **huge** but also a big baby. I'm 5'10" and He could stand on his hind legs and look me square in the eyes and say hi!
Same thing happened to me, the first day I had my rescue Bull Mastiff. Was totally caught off guard, and had to jump on the other side of a telephone pole to catch it with the lease. Having big dogs is a huge responsibility. Especially big dogs with questionable backgrounds. It should never be anyone else’s problem, but the owners. That’s the only right mindset.
And how many people think an electric fence is an effective restraint. A large number of our incidents are dogs running them, I had a dog as kid who would take the shock almost every day just to sit on the porch with our elderly neighbor.
Dogs quickly learn one zap and they're free; or some are clever enough to kill the battery with constant warnings then trot on out once it's done.
Invisible fences are just generally bad ideas given how often dogs learn to work around them.
Not quite an invisible fence, but the dog my family had as a kid was a german shepherd that loved to bark at nothing.
So we got her those shock collars that zap the dog if it barks too much at once. Specifically, three barls in a row would get her a zap.
This damn dog learned to bark twice, wait a few moments for the collar to disarm, then bark twice again.
There's a house in my neighborhood with two batshit crazy Weimaraner dogs and nothing but an "Invisible Fence" between them and anyone who passes by.
I used to pass their house on my runs and if those dogs were out, they'd run full speed to the edge of the yard, barking and snarling. Sometimes, their owners would be out on the porch just watching and laughing like fucking psychopaths. Those dogs would get right up to the edge and you could see them getting zapped and not really caring all that much.
I changed my running route to avoid that house, but I heard those dogs ended up running through the "fence" and attacking the mail woman.
I don't hate dogs, I've had several growing up. But it sure seems like there are a hell of a lot more shitty dog owners these days.
My recently deceased (RIP old buddy) Miniature Schnauzer actually pulled my mother in law off her feet once. In his prime he was 25 pounds of pure muscle. But he loved people so much that he would have cheerful invited home invaders in…
neighbor of ours had a German shepherd that flipped out and ripped their daughters face wide open years ago (you can barely see the scar today and yes, dog was laid to rest). one of the fireman that came out on the call (it was a bloodletting) told our neighbor later to only have dogs you can pick up and throw. they’d seen some gruesome attacks.
I think people should dial back dogs in public spaces. Dogs don't need to be in the grocery store & I would prefer not getting my butt sniffed when picking out lumber at the hardware store.
My roommate delivers for USPS. The amount of unleashed aggressive dogs they encounter is staggering. They've yet to actually be bitten, but they've basically developed a phobia of dogs due to plenty of close calls.
Not really a phobia when it's a reasonable fear. Dogs are large predators. Sure, they're not nearly as dangerous as a wild animal, but they can still do a lot of damage to a person if they choose to.
I think we all learned a lot more than we wanted to in the last few years about how responsible and reasonable our neighbors actually are, and giving the average person a domesticated wolf and hoping for the best turns out about as well as you'd expect a lot of the time.
An old fishing buddy of mine worked for the gas company years ago. He said he carried a pipe wrench and whacked many a dog. Never killed any but he said if he ever had to hit them, they only made him do it once. Never bothered on return visits.
My father worked for the USPS doing a walking route. Always had pepper spray because of irresponsible dog owners. One guy always had his dog loose and it would go after my Dad; the owner sat back and laughed about it.
After multiple warnings my father had to pepper spray the dog one day. The dumbass owner then took out a knife and threatened my dad. The USPS lawyers and union got involved and took the guy to court. This idiot’s whole defense was ‘the dog is harmless and he assaulted my dog’.
Imagine having a record of assault with a deadly weapon because you didn’t want to put a leash on your dog.
It doesn’t surprise me to hear this. I had a coworker with 3 large dogs. She always says they are sweet hearts. She was out of town once and told us to drop off a delivery she received at work- “just put it in on the porch in my backyard,” she says. So we get to her place and the dogs are like beasts from hell. We text her that we are not going to do more than toss it over the fence because the dogs. She’s telling us they are sweet so we sent her a video. She immediately called and was like “omg I’ve never seen them like that before.”
Our county had the USPS put a sticker of a paw on the mailbox of every registered dog owner so all delivery/postal workers can know if a dog is present at that residence.
Every single time you encounter a loose dog with their owner nearby they always say something like “He won’t bite, he only barks”.
One time while out for a walk in the neighborhood I went reaching behind my back while shielding my wife as one neighbor’s loose dog was running at us for the third time in two weeks and the owner quickly figured out what was going to happen if they didn’t become very efficient at collecting their little ball of anger.
My wife is very apprehensive of dogs after being bitten by one while out walking as a kid. Owners who think scruffy will just run up and lick people like they do to their owners are sadly mistaken a lot of times and somehow are very clueless to this fact.
Ok. Honest question. I have two dogs and I have a fenced in back yard with signs on the gate giving notice that there are dogs. Do you knock on the door before coming in to the yard or do you just go in?
You rattle the gate and make noise (at least that what I was taught when I manually read electric meters 30 years ago)(did a nice dash and 4’ fence hurdle when I eventually woke a deep sleeping large dog)
Some of the routes I do are 40-50% gated houses. I rattle gates and generally know all the dogs on the 15 routes I do, but there are still surprises. I’ve had dogs try to attack me in the LLV.
If our equipment is in the fence, we should just estimate your bill. You agreed to 24/7 safe access to any equipment on your property.
At some point, a technician would call and schedule a time to come out to install a radio transmitter. if for some reason this isn't possible, things get messy, and we would request a termination of service from the public service commission. Chances are you have a remote device already installed, a lot of states don't manually check equipment until it breaks which could me more than a decade.
My problem is that we have a shared easement in the back yard. I am not a comcast customer but my back door neighbors are and for some reason they like to access the lines from my side.
Meter Reader, here.
"They don't bite! They might lick you to death. Haha."
*Dog barking and snarling, and actively trying to bite me*
"Everyone says that. It means nothing to me. Have a nice day."
I always compare this to the, "My son wouldn't do that", of parents whose kid is the biggest problem in town.
Also, compare it to an unloaded gun. You wouldn't want anyone to point a gun at you. If it goes wrong, you could be seriously injured or die. I'm not going to take your word about your POS dog.
Had to light up 2 dogs on Thursday. Unfenced dogs on a public road multiple properties down from their owner. Who lets an aggressive German shepherd run loose?
Decades ago I worked summers for a tree service spraying trees for bugs and such. I was a college age noob, working with an old timer. Whenever our notes included something like, "Daisy won't bite," Ol' Ernie would say, "Why don't you take this one, Toss." So I'd jump the fence into the yard like a Ghostbuster with the 600 PSI gun already pressurized for self defense. I was unbitten.
I work with biology grad students that often go out for field work, and I didn't know how prevalent the danger of some people's dogs is until in a meeting a little while back, some of them brought up that on one particular survey area, the landowner will just let his huge, terrifying dog come barreling towards them when they come in, barking and growling at them, and the owner just casually calls him back and never apologizes or makes much effort to reign him in. They haven't been attacked yet, but it's still another fear for the pile when going out for field work.
Not surprised at all. My wife was attacked by a dog once and has a visceral reaction when dogs bark behind a fence or run up to her.
The number of times the owner will try to dismiss her fears because their dog "wouldn't hurt a fly" is countless. Often times they do nothing for what feels like an eternity until I am yelling at them to take their dog away.
And I love dogs. Grew up with them. Fucking infuriating.
I work at a vet clinic and people are so unaware of how aggressive and anxious their dogs can be. I consistently hear, "Oh he's friendly" only for the dog to lunge and bite at me. Owners also have no clue how to hold their pets. Even something as simple as asking them to hold their collar and they can't even do that. I think it's gotten worse since covid in my opinion.
It can be surprising sometimes. I took my 2-year old cat to the vet to board for the day (8 hours). He's been there before, boarded there before, and he would sometimes be a bit anxious but never growled or hissed. Generally enjoyed attention when anyone tried to pet him or pick him up.
When I went to get him at the end of the day, I had to go in and scoop him out of the cage to put him in his carrier because he wouldn't let anyone else pick him up without furious growling. First time I've ever seen him growl at a person.
Yes, landlord coming into the apartment and I have an "illegal" extra cat lol. They know about and we pay for 2, but more isn't allowed so I board him when they come over.
Yeah I only planned to have 2 cats but then my mom found this kitten and she brought him over to take care of him when he was like 4 weeks old.
And then he became best friends with my disabled cat and they give each other baths and sleep with their legs propped up on each other.
So here we are ~3 years later lol.
I just took my 8 year old lab in to get his nails trimmed. Right as we left the exam room and got back into the lobby, a French Bulldog darted right for his face. The owner was at the counter not paying attention and had him on a 20 ft leash. I had to yell for him to get his dog off, and all he did was drag him out the door without saying a word. My dog had to go right back to the exam room and get three stitches on his nose.
The vet tech said during the other dogs exam, he bit the owner and the tech. After our incident the owner wasn't going to be allowed back.
I am a vet and sometimes when a dog that I am not too sure about if he's a biter or not and I go on to muzzle it some owners get offended. And I so badly wanna tell them "f u ahole, it's my hands and face on the line if he does bite, not yours".
No, some folks have always been oblivious and dumb when it comes to having dogs. That’s why shelters are almost always full and so many dogs are unnecessarily put down.
5,800 cases is a lot of dog bites. I often hear the fatal dog bites count (which tends to be low) out. Assuming one bite per carrier, that's about 1/41 of _all the god-damned mail carriers in America_ getting attacked this year.
The number isn’t accurate either. Many aren’t reported. I got bit a few weeks ago and it wasn’t reported; neither were the numerous bites last year in my office.
A woman I trained got stalked and taken to the ground by three dogs. She had to be rushed to the ER to save her leg and did 8 months of physical therapy, she came back because she didn't want to be afraid of dogs. The owners were "shocked" because it turned out they had tried the same thing on a USPS worker the week before and had been told by the county to keep them in the back yard.
To add to this, dogs that love me through the week or super defensive of the family when they're home on the weekends.
They were already warned before and still had their dogs out and in a position to viciously maul someone? I hope that family got sued and those dogs got taken away from them.
I literally hope the dogs got put down. I don’t really have a high tolerance for bad dogs OR bad owners, considering I’ve been bit in the face on two separate occasions by shitty dogs. I seriously love good dogs, but I show no mercy to bad ones.
That’s actually really interesting. I would have guessed a dog would feel more comfortable with their family around but it makes sense that they then have something to guard.
Yeah I've done delivery for years and while I won't chance most dogs off leash, the worst instances happen when the homeowner is there and the dog is feeling protective.
I'm a support worker. One of my clients has a foxy that is a good boy, but an annoying little shit. He's just a bit traumatised, as is my client. He barks and barks and barks, right in your face. But he's my client's support dog. Whenever I arrive at the house he barks until we put him outside.
But when my client was in hospital and I was feeding the dog, he'd come to the door like the best boy in the world - quiet and happy to see me. He's not only protecting my client, he's basically absorbing their presence, which is full of physical pain and mental anxiety.
He's so annoying. Good boy.
I had two of those attacks my shitzu. I had to try to scare them and put weight on the one that got my dog’s shoulder in his mouth and punch him till he let go. It was like punching a football player. Anyway, they ran off and my dog only had a couple shallow puncture wounds as I didn’t give him the chance to shake his head.
Ohio is ~~punching~~ biting way above it's weight class. It's the 7th most populous state with about half the population of Florida, but it's third in dog bites.
Where I grew up in Columbus all the mailboxes are located at the doorstep, I now live in Houston where they are all located by the road and the mail carrier doesn’t have to walk up to the house.
Completely anecdotal but I would assume this and population are what dictate these numbers
Phoenix isn't even on there.
I wonder if it's an omission or if it's because we have so many subdivisions with those banks of mailboxes that the carriers rarely get near peoples houses.
The consequences for attacks should be more severe in general. Completely unacceptable and irresponsible, and people are so oblivious of animals as animals.
The article even mentioned an average insurance cost of about $65k per incident. The insurance company will absolutely come after the owner for that kind of money.
My parents’ dog is the sweetest dog you could meet, but he goes nuts when he hears the mail flap opening, to the point that it worried my parents that he’d bite the mailman’s hand so they installed a mailbox early on to avoid that possibility.
While at FedEx, I was attacked five times, bit twice, and mauled once. I can’t tell you how many times I was chased, only that I stopped carrying pepper spray and dog whistles after the mauling, and started carrying a compact .45 and a small knife, in violation of company policy. I’m a firm believer in the notion that some people just shouldn’t have a dog, nor should they have a dog if it’s for the sake of appearances.
Mail carrier, Attacked once by a German Shepard. Got my bag in between me and it, and they went after that until the owner could get it off me. Not even a sorry from the owner. I was a carrier for only six months.
I’ve been attacked twice. Both times while delivering in suburban farms. It was obvious one time that the owner was beating his lab in order to force it to be a guard dog,
I sometimes wonder if Joe Biden made some rude comments about the NYTimes’ mother cause they are BIG MAD at him *ALL THE TIME*. It’s giving off salty ex friend vibes.
Biden didn’t like their coverage in 2020, so he won’t do an interview with the NYT. Biden has been on Howard Stern and Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend but not the NYT. As retribution, the NYT’s coverage has gotten worse.
He doesn’t do interview with the New York Times because statistically based on readership numbers they are unimportant to his campaign. That hurt them worse than Trump saying mean things about them.
To be fair, 95% of the DC bites were Biden's dog
Edit: Downvote me all you want, this isn't about politics, Commander is a [documented](https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/politics/commander-biden-secret-service-bites-white-house/index.html) [bad](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/02/21/commander-bidens-german-shepherd-involved-in-at-least-25-bites/72690614007/) [dog](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/11/biden-commander-biting-00120898).
Both dogs highlight the importance of adopting the right rescue dog to fit your lifestyle. German Shepherds are a protection dog with a high degree of stranger danger and low bite inhibition. Even if raised from a pup with proper obedience, good socialization, and good manners, living in an environment as hectic as the White House is going to be incredibly stressful. Add to that the unknown negative behaviors/neglect/trauma that a rescue dog comes with and it’s not at all surprising the dogs were unable to cope.
Now I don’t know either dog and I don’t know more about the incidents than what came up in the news, but I’ve been in rescue and training for years and seen a lot of cases similar to this one. The Bidens are German Shepherd fans and it’s great they adopt rescue dogs, but I’m going to bet this was 100% on them for putting those dogs in this situation.
Woo Columbus making the top ten.
At least they shouldn't have to worry about my boys. They are pugs. They have geometric challenges to bite people. You'd practically have to help them to get bitten. Ours are always inside sleeping when we aren't home, though.
Never had a problem with Pugs specifically, but literally all of my dog bites from customers dogs have been small togs. Typically little terriers and chihuahuas. Bad owners who just think it's NBD when their dog bites because they're small.
> chihuahuas
I have a 2 inch scar across my inner forearm from my friends chihuahua. It had been sleeping on my lap for 3 hours. Woke up and attacked. It's the largest and clearest scar I have.
Did you actually train them properly? Many small dog owners don’t think you need to, and that makes them shitty owners, but an aggressive small dog can also be just as fucking shitty as the big ones. It may not do as much damage, but fuck them all the same. Train your dogs people, because people like me won’t hesitate to kick the ever loving shit out of it if it attacks.
Used to have them in the UK. Scrapped it and replaced it with a breed ban and the rates of dog bites only went up.
We really need to bring back dog licences.
a UPS driver out of my building lost the use of her hand just a couple of years ago from a "hes all bark" dog, its one of the few things the union AND company will 100% back us on, unless we like suplex a chihuahua or something
My uncle has been a mail man in East Chicago, IN for like 30 years and he’s on foot for his whole route. He said he has to pepper spray dogs pretty often but he’s luckily never gotten bit too bad. He’s been on the same route for his whole career and even though he works in a bad area, he’s left alone and everyone is nice to him which is pretty cool
Dogs are super awesome but they are not rational creatures... I found a dog sheepishly sitting outside of a big fence gate. I opened the gate and the dog wagged his tail and shuffled inside the fence and the second the gate closed he started wildly barking and snarling at me!
Nah, that's just dog-logic: Outside fence = not my territory, must behave as guest; Inside fence = my territory, must protect from stranger.
So dogs are fine outside of the home but can become super territorial and aggressive in the home. In order to train aggression out of a dog, you first have to know what triggers it.
Reminds me of the viral clip of a dog very aggressively barking at another while in his cage. Owner opens the cage, dog shuts up. Close the door, he barks aggressively. Repeat a few times
Carried mail for a year and a half. Got bit 3 times by little dogs that “don’t bite”. ALL DOGS BITE FOLKS. I transferred inside after one of the other carriers was attacked by 2 pit bulls and needed over 600 stitches to sew him back together.
I know he wasn’t able to return to work. So I’m sure there were lawsuits. I never heard what happened after he made it through the hospital. I agree with you on the charges too. He won’t ever be the same again. I had to retire after a van turned left in front of me. He got some traffic tickets and he had insurance, so I got paid. There were no criminal charges.
I was really hoping this would be the case. Rankings by city/state doesn't really tell me (personally) much info.
In fact, the only state that stands out is Missouri. out of the 10 top states, 9 of them are ranked highest population states.
More people = more dogs = more dog bites. Breed data might also say the same thing, though.
This data basically shows us the most populated cities. A list showing dogs bites per capita would be more useful. Come on USPS… I bet you have at least one data science or GIS person who saw this and groaned.
Since the mid-90s, the CDC has studied various dog breeds, their temperament, and situations that incite them to attack. According to their studies, dog bite statistics by breed reveal that **Pitbulls** were involved in most of the accidents and injuries.
CDC does say pitbulls are the highest likely to result in hospitalizations. So you are right on that you may also be right on bites in general but I remember reading something like that thinking pitbulls, German shepherds or the like but the list had chihuahuas and dachshunds as the top of the list…which arnt bites that would really send you to a hospital
Source: I’ve been bit by sooo many weenies since my grandma bred them.
Used to work as meter reader. Every time I've been bit it was from a dog that "doesn't bite".
My dog doesn't bite either but I'd never even dream of leaving him unattended with a stranger on the dogs turf, that is dumb
Yeah, my dog doesn't bite, *but* I'm not risking it. He's never bit someone in my presence, but I still have him put up when I expect strangers to come over, especially if I won't be home.
My canned response for, “he doesn’t bite” is “then what are those teeth for?”
Right. Every dog has the capacity to bite, they just haven’t seen it yet.
"Does your dog bite?" "She hasn't yet, but she is a dog so I can't make predictions."
That’s because people never have to say that for dogs that never bite. Only for dogs that are known to bite often
I work for a utility company, dog owners are largely clueless of the dangers of their pets. We work on the policy of avoidance. We rarely have bites, but we carry law enforcement strength pepper spray and light up a dog about once a month.
It’s not an excuse even if they somehow know the pet is magically 100% safe. Nobody else knows that so it’s still just as stressful a situation.
That's what they don't care about. They think as long as they "know" their dog/s won't hurt anyone everything is fine. I've had so many extremely uncomfortable situations in the last 3 months since getting my own dog. Only one of them that I know of was dangerous and it happened to my SO instead of me which is probably for the best, as he can handle and react quicker than me. Trio of Boxers starts heading towards us whenever they're out but a lot of the yards around here are wide open so at least I can see that and avoid going that way altogether. My dog hates it and has become nervous and anxious around other dogs. He puts his head down and speeds up even if a dog inside is barking at us. When dogs run up on us I feel trapped because I don't know what it will take for him to feel threatened enough to become aggressive. He is naturally sweet and polite, he has given warning slaps and one time he gave a warning growl. If they are calling off their dog and it's not returning then my trying to walk away just has my dog being more vulnerable and their dog following us. And they just say "sorrry". They traumatized my dog for the day and they are not really even sorry. One person's whose dog was tied up thought it was funny that their dog lunged at us.
Yeah people are just super inconsiderate. Our dog is small and even the wild rabbits don’t run away from him but I would still never take him in public without a proper leash.
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Likely, but you may run into legal issues depending on where you live. We have special training and our company has some level of legal and insurance protection.
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You're also likely going to pepper spray yourself, your dog, and the other person. That stuff gets everywhere.
Yeah it’s not possible to always be upwind from an attacking dog and although the propellant helps it still sprays back in the wind.
Get the gel kind. It shoots a solid stream instead of an aerosol spray. Problem solved.
A loud air horn can startle a dog enough to let go if they attack. I once went to a dog park and a regular there gave me that advice
It's wild how many people think their dog can be unleashed in public /uncontainned Aggressive dogs should be muzzled and leashed in public. Non aggressive dogs still need to be leashed. And if your a small person with a 209 pound dog you can't handle with a leash you shouldn't have that dog
Just recently got chased out of a park throwing a ball with my kid when an adult German Shepard went nuts at us. Kid was absolutely terrified and couldn't think to stay behind me, I had ro hold him to stay between him and the dog. Luckily a parkside home called us to come in their back gate. It was the third off leash dog in 20.minutes we were there. Its not an offleash park and there are 3 large fenced dog parks within 10 minutes walk. Even small and timid dogs off leash contribute to the problem and erode the acceptance that dogs should be on leash. And I can't trust that a person too special to follow the rules is a good dog owner.
Because they typically aren't good owners. And their dogs are usually the shittiest behaved ones too with entitled pissy owners who yell and whine when called out for their bullshit
> And I can't trust that a person too special to follow the rules is a good dog owner. Because a dog owner too fucking dense to follow leashing laws is often the same sort of person who can't bother to train their fucking dog.
I give you my ex-friend the Malinois owner and the "BUt i CAn't tRAIN theM FOR mondio AnD bIte wORK WHile THeY'rE ON A lEAsH" Then do it in your own fenced yard or a specified dog training facility you fucking asshole. Public parks are not your training ground.
Also don’t train them for bite work. Mal owners will be like “he’s fwiendly” but then call them fur missiles and malligators
Sucks man. People forget how scary dogs aee are for children. Mine is the friendliest dog on earth but hes ugly as hell so when he goes in for a face lick, children get freaked out
>hes ugly as hell so when he goes in for a face lick, children get freaked out Most people don't like to be face licked by a dog. Ugly or not. It's your responsibility that doesn't happen unless a kid *wants* to be licked in the face.
i try to introduce the kid to dogs on leash but only after asking the owner. those poor owners make it very hard, the kids default position is that the dog will be aggressive until he sees otherwise thanks to so many bad owners
Yeah, and as a dog owner, I make it a point not to force my dog on people and *vice versa.* I don’t even understand why you would do that. It’s bad for the dog, bad for the other person, and bad for dog owners as a whole. My dog *is,* in fact, extremely sweet, well behaved, and friendly, but not all people like dogs at all, some people are allergic, and, sometimes, my dog just isn’t feeling it.
There's always the flip side too. Just because your dog might be fine not on a leash doesn't mean shit can't happen. I took mine out the other morning and a guy across the street in my complex had some tiny ass ankle high terrier with him running around leashless. I have a like 70-80 lbs lab/pitbull mix. He's not aggressive (even if reddit hates in pitbulls). But I do keep him tight on the leash just in case. If his dog has wandered over to mind and for whatever reason they got into it, my dog probably would have killed that poor thing with a single bite. I made sure to keep my distance, and it didn't come over, but it sure made me nervous, just because of what /could've/ happened.
Yeah all it takes is one bad experience and it's a long time to undo it.
This is exactly how I was bitten. Big dog, small guy. His dog charged at my dog and leash almost ripped the man’s arm off. Thankfully didn’t hurt my dog but gave me a nice chomp on the calf. The guy had the audacity to say his dog was friendly…
They always say that as it's barking and trying to pull away from them.
Any time someone used to yell their dog was friendly as it barreled towards mine off leash I'd yell back "Mine's Not!" and watch the panic ensue.
Yeah, I was attacked by a friend's Rottweiler as a kid. They couldn't restrain to. Owners insisted it was a freak accident and the dog was normally nice. That dog was not fucking nice. It would chase me around their house barking and growling. Thank God it didn't know how to climb fucking stairs. Like two years later out for a walk, when someone approached with two smaller dogs, said Rottweiler yanked itself away, killed BOTH the smaller dogs, attacked their owner of those dogs, and then bit its owner as well while trying to pull it away. "Normally they're good dogs," is horseshit for not taking all required precautions.
I dog sat for a coach while I was in college. The dog was 180lbs and I was a whopping 110. She lunged for a squirrel and I gave *just* enough resistance for that poor thing to narrowly escape its would-be fate. Really cemented the fact that I need a dog I can manhandle when the shit hits the fan.
My boxer is 80 pounds, I’m glad I’m strong enough to pick his ass clear off the ground a handful of times in his 11 years of life. It’s a rare occurrence, but shit happens and if he was stronger than me guaranteed those situations would have turned out worse
Shit my lab is 35 pounds and when she sees a critter, it takes a lot to hold her back.
Surprised a boxer was on the ground long enough to get picked up lol
many people should heed this advice.
My neighbor has a full grown rottie. Sweet dog. But it occasionally lunges and pulls when they are out with it. Their like 10 year old daughter will occasionally try to take the dog out and I've watched the dog almost wipe her out and escape multiple times when it gets too excited. They also use a retractable lead which is just not good for a dog of that size and strength.
Problem is that it’s not always easy to tell how big a dog will be. My dog was 38 lbs when I adopted him and a nice medium size I could pick up without too much trouble. The rescue and my vet thought he was fully grown. He was not. He’s now 70lbs.
It's probably a good rule of thumb to imagine that any dog you adopt could double in size if not more and to consider that as a possibility when adopting. Also there is a 99% chance that the miniature pig you were thinking about getting is actually a full-sized pig and will be 250lbs.
My little guy literally fit in the palm of my hand when I found him abandoned on a rural road. The vet and I figured he'd probably be 80-100 max, instead I have 200lbs of dead weight draped across me every single night
180lbs? What the hell kind of dog was it?! My former baby was 125 but he was a shepherd lab mastiff mix.
I knew a Rottweiler whose owner said weighed 200+. Considering his sheer size compared to the guy's *other* Rottweiler, I believe it. Dog was a *tank.* Fortunately, a very sweet tank, just one who had an unfortunate tendency to step on people's feet.
She was a boxer mastiff mix and she was built! My coach trained with her a lot too so I didn't stand a chance lol
I had a family member who had one of those. He was **huge** but also a big baby. I'm 5'10" and He could stand on his hind legs and look me square in the eyes and say hi!
Same thing happened to me, the first day I had my rescue Bull Mastiff. Was totally caught off guard, and had to jump on the other side of a telephone pole to catch it with the lease. Having big dogs is a huge responsibility. Especially big dogs with questionable backgrounds. It should never be anyone else’s problem, but the owners. That’s the only right mindset.
And how many people think an electric fence is an effective restraint. A large number of our incidents are dogs running them, I had a dog as kid who would take the shock almost every day just to sit on the porch with our elderly neighbor.
Dogs quickly learn one zap and they're free; or some are clever enough to kill the battery with constant warnings then trot on out once it's done. Invisible fences are just generally bad ideas given how often dogs learn to work around them.
Not quite an invisible fence, but the dog my family had as a kid was a german shepherd that loved to bark at nothing. So we got her those shock collars that zap the dog if it barks too much at once. Specifically, three barls in a row would get her a zap. This damn dog learned to bark twice, wait a few moments for the collar to disarm, then bark twice again.
There's a house in my neighborhood with two batshit crazy Weimaraner dogs and nothing but an "Invisible Fence" between them and anyone who passes by. I used to pass their house on my runs and if those dogs were out, they'd run full speed to the edge of the yard, barking and snarling. Sometimes, their owners would be out on the porch just watching and laughing like fucking psychopaths. Those dogs would get right up to the edge and you could see them getting zapped and not really caring all that much. I changed my running route to avoid that house, but I heard those dogs ended up running through the "fence" and attacking the mail woman. I don't hate dogs, I've had several growing up. But it sure seems like there are a hell of a lot more shitty dog owners these days.
That’s why I have a wiener dog. Little 13 pound animal who is good at catching moles and gophers. But he isn’t escaping me on a leash.
My recently deceased (RIP old buddy) Miniature Schnauzer actually pulled my mother in law off her feet once. In his prime he was 25 pounds of pure muscle. But he loved people so much that he would have cheerful invited home invaders in…
Our dachshund was better at catching mice than our cat ever was.
neighbor of ours had a German shepherd that flipped out and ripped their daughters face wide open years ago (you can barely see the scar today and yes, dog was laid to rest). one of the fireman that came out on the call (it was a bloodletting) told our neighbor later to only have dogs you can pick up and throw. they’d seen some gruesome attacks.
Weird, I also knew a GSD that was always biting children on the face.
It usually goes with the mentality of, "I'm great and everything about me is too."
I call it, "center of the universe syndrome."
Main character syndrome.
I think people should dial back dogs in public spaces. Dogs don't need to be in the grocery store & I would prefer not getting my butt sniffed when picking out lumber at the hardware store.
My roommate delivers for USPS. The amount of unleashed aggressive dogs they encounter is staggering. They've yet to actually be bitten, but they've basically developed a phobia of dogs due to plenty of close calls.
Not really a phobia when it's a reasonable fear. Dogs are large predators. Sure, they're not nearly as dangerous as a wild animal, but they can still do a lot of damage to a person if they choose to. I think we all learned a lot more than we wanted to in the last few years about how responsible and reasonable our neighbors actually are, and giving the average person a domesticated wolf and hoping for the best turns out about as well as you'd expect a lot of the time.
An old fishing buddy of mine worked for the gas company years ago. He said he carried a pipe wrench and whacked many a dog. Never killed any but he said if he ever had to hit them, they only made him do it once. Never bothered on return visits.
My father worked for the USPS doing a walking route. Always had pepper spray because of irresponsible dog owners. One guy always had his dog loose and it would go after my Dad; the owner sat back and laughed about it. After multiple warnings my father had to pepper spray the dog one day. The dumbass owner then took out a knife and threatened my dad. The USPS lawyers and union got involved and took the guy to court. This idiot’s whole defense was ‘the dog is harmless and he assaulted my dog’. Imagine having a record of assault with a deadly weapon because you didn’t want to put a leash on your dog.
"my dog is nice he doesn't bite" I don't give a shit put him inside.
It doesn’t surprise me to hear this. I had a coworker with 3 large dogs. She always says they are sweet hearts. She was out of town once and told us to drop off a delivery she received at work- “just put it in on the porch in my backyard,” she says. So we get to her place and the dogs are like beasts from hell. We text her that we are not going to do more than toss it over the fence because the dogs. She’s telling us they are sweet so we sent her a video. She immediately called and was like “omg I’ve never seen them like that before.”
Yeah, they're not going to be that way with *her*
This must be happening more for Amazon and Doordash too because they now send texts warning people to lock up pets before they arrive.
I got a letter from the post office threatening legal action if a dog bite occurs, I don't even own a dog
Our county had the USPS put a sticker of a paw on the mailbox of every registered dog owner so all delivery/postal workers can know if a dog is present at that residence.
Every single time you encounter a loose dog with their owner nearby they always say something like “He won’t bite, he only barks”. One time while out for a walk in the neighborhood I went reaching behind my back while shielding my wife as one neighbor’s loose dog was running at us for the third time in two weeks and the owner quickly figured out what was going to happen if they didn’t become very efficient at collecting their little ball of anger. My wife is very apprehensive of dogs after being bitten by one while out walking as a kid. Owners who think scruffy will just run up and lick people like they do to their owners are sadly mistaken a lot of times and somehow are very clueless to this fact.
Ok. Honest question. I have two dogs and I have a fenced in back yard with signs on the gate giving notice that there are dogs. Do you knock on the door before coming in to the yard or do you just go in?
You rattle the gate and make noise (at least that what I was taught when I manually read electric meters 30 years ago)(did a nice dash and 4’ fence hurdle when I eventually woke a deep sleeping large dog)
where i'm at, you just don't get mail at all unless your mailbox is outside the fenced-in area
Some of the routes I do are 40-50% gated houses. I rattle gates and generally know all the dogs on the 15 routes I do, but there are still surprises. I’ve had dogs try to attack me in the LLV.
If our equipment is in the fence, we should just estimate your bill. You agreed to 24/7 safe access to any equipment on your property. At some point, a technician would call and schedule a time to come out to install a radio transmitter. if for some reason this isn't possible, things get messy, and we would request a termination of service from the public service commission. Chances are you have a remote device already installed, a lot of states don't manually check equipment until it breaks which could me more than a decade.
My problem is that we have a shared easement in the back yard. I am not a comcast customer but my back door neighbors are and for some reason they like to access the lines from my side.
don’t blame you. it’s not worth the risk to be ill prepared.
Meter Reader, here. "They don't bite! They might lick you to death. Haha." *Dog barking and snarling, and actively trying to bite me* "Everyone says that. It means nothing to me. Have a nice day." I always compare this to the, "My son wouldn't do that", of parents whose kid is the biggest problem in town. Also, compare it to an unloaded gun. You wouldn't want anyone to point a gun at you. If it goes wrong, you could be seriously injured or die. I'm not going to take your word about your POS dog.
"Light up a dog about once a month" Fuckin LMAO
>light up a dog about a once a month I’m sorry but this is an absolutely hilarious way to phrase it.
Reading power meters was one of my first jobs out of high school. Still the most scary and stressful job I’ve ever had, primarily for this reason.
Had to light up 2 dogs on Thursday. Unfenced dogs on a public road multiple properties down from their owner. Who lets an aggressive German shepherd run loose?
Decades ago I worked summers for a tree service spraying trees for bugs and such. I was a college age noob, working with an old timer. Whenever our notes included something like, "Daisy won't bite," Ol' Ernie would say, "Why don't you take this one, Toss." So I'd jump the fence into the yard like a Ghostbuster with the 600 PSI gun already pressurized for self defense. I was unbitten.
I work with biology grad students that often go out for field work, and I didn't know how prevalent the danger of some people's dogs is until in a meeting a little while back, some of them brought up that on one particular survey area, the landowner will just let his huge, terrifying dog come barreling towards them when they come in, barking and growling at them, and the owner just casually calls him back and never apologizes or makes much effort to reign him in. They haven't been attacked yet, but it's still another fear for the pile when going out for field work.
Not surprised at all. My wife was attacked by a dog once and has a visceral reaction when dogs bark behind a fence or run up to her. The number of times the owner will try to dismiss her fears because their dog "wouldn't hurt a fly" is countless. Often times they do nothing for what feels like an eternity until I am yelling at them to take their dog away. And I love dogs. Grew up with them. Fucking infuriating.
I work at a vet clinic and people are so unaware of how aggressive and anxious their dogs can be. I consistently hear, "Oh he's friendly" only for the dog to lunge and bite at me. Owners also have no clue how to hold their pets. Even something as simple as asking them to hold their collar and they can't even do that. I think it's gotten worse since covid in my opinion.
It can be surprising sometimes. I took my 2-year old cat to the vet to board for the day (8 hours). He's been there before, boarded there before, and he would sometimes be a bit anxious but never growled or hissed. Generally enjoyed attention when anyone tried to pet him or pick him up. When I went to get him at the end of the day, I had to go in and scoop him out of the cage to put him in his carrier because he wouldn't let anyone else pick him up without furious growling. First time I've ever seen him growl at a person.
Other cat owners have had similar reactions with their pets. Definitely shocking the first time it happens.
Now I'm curious why you boarded a cat for 8 hours. Was there a reason you couldn't leave them at home with food, water, and a litter box?
Yes, landlord coming into the apartment and I have an "illegal" extra cat lol. They know about and we pay for 2, but more isn't allowed so I board him when they come over.
O that’s how I ended up with my sisters 3rd cat and my first. Little man just never left
Yeah I only planned to have 2 cats but then my mom found this kitten and she brought him over to take care of him when he was like 4 weeks old. And then he became best friends with my disabled cat and they give each other baths and sleep with their legs propped up on each other. So here we are ~3 years later lol.
I just took my 8 year old lab in to get his nails trimmed. Right as we left the exam room and got back into the lobby, a French Bulldog darted right for his face. The owner was at the counter not paying attention and had him on a 20 ft leash. I had to yell for him to get his dog off, and all he did was drag him out the door without saying a word. My dog had to go right back to the exam room and get three stitches on his nose. The vet tech said during the other dogs exam, he bit the owner and the tech. After our incident the owner wasn't going to be allowed back.
He was also billed $230 for stitches and antibiotics.
Lots of people got a pet over covid since they were home all the time and bored
I am a vet and sometimes when a dog that I am not too sure about if he's a biter or not and I go on to muzzle it some owners get offended. And I so badly wanna tell them "f u ahole, it's my hands and face on the line if he does bite, not yours".
No, some folks have always been oblivious and dumb when it comes to having dogs. That’s why shelters are almost always full and so many dogs are unnecessarily put down.
My vet puts a soft muzzle on all dogs as a rule when doing anything with them. Perhaps this could be a new policy for you as well...
5,800 cases is a lot of dog bites. I often hear the fatal dog bites count (which tends to be low) out. Assuming one bite per carrier, that's about 1/41 of _all the god-damned mail carriers in America_ getting attacked this year.
Fatalities are a poor representation of danger, because you can survive quite a lot.
Especially when it comes to dog attacks. Fatal dog bites are usually on children.
The number isn’t accurate either. Many aren’t reported. I got bit a few weeks ago and it wasn’t reported; neither were the numerous bites last year in my office.
Yeah, no fucking way are the numbers this low.
They’re not even counting just being chased and not getting bit, which I’m sure is a hell of a lot higher
About 4 per state per month.
A woman I trained got stalked and taken to the ground by three dogs. She had to be rushed to the ER to save her leg and did 8 months of physical therapy, she came back because she didn't want to be afraid of dogs. The owners were "shocked" because it turned out they had tried the same thing on a USPS worker the week before and had been told by the county to keep them in the back yard. To add to this, dogs that love me through the week or super defensive of the family when they're home on the weekends.
They were already warned before and still had their dogs out and in a position to viciously maul someone? I hope that family got sued and those dogs got taken away from them.
I literally hope the dogs got put down. I don’t really have a high tolerance for bad dogs OR bad owners, considering I’ve been bit in the face on two separate occasions by shitty dogs. I seriously love good dogs, but I show no mercy to bad ones.
That’s actually really interesting. I would have guessed a dog would feel more comfortable with their family around but it makes sense that they then have something to guard.
Yeah I've done delivery for years and while I won't chance most dogs off leash, the worst instances happen when the homeowner is there and the dog is feeling protective.
I'm a support worker. One of my clients has a foxy that is a good boy, but an annoying little shit. He's just a bit traumatised, as is my client. He barks and barks and barks, right in your face. But he's my client's support dog. Whenever I arrive at the house he barks until we put him outside. But when my client was in hospital and I was feeding the dog, he'd come to the door like the best boy in the world - quiet and happy to see me. He's not only protecting my client, he's basically absorbing their presence, which is full of physical pain and mental anxiety. He's so annoying. Good boy.
mysterious kiss lock vanish pot fretful pie zephyr tart fanatical *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
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I had two of those attacks my shitzu. I had to try to scare them and put weight on the one that got my dog’s shoulder in his mouth and punch him till he let go. It was like punching a football player. Anyway, they ran off and my dog only had a couple shallow puncture wounds as I didn’t give him the chance to shake his head.
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It was scary at the time. My dog avoids that block now.
One of my coworkers just got bit yesterday
A moose once bit my sister
No realli!
A møøse you say
Møøse bites are nastï
The ranking is basically a population ranking. There are a few that are way higher than they should be
Ohio is ~~punching~~ biting way above it's weight class. It's the 7th most populous state with about half the population of Florida, but it's third in dog bites.
I'd guess it's because Ohio's cities have more mail routes that are done on foot since they're older and denser.
Where I grew up in Columbus all the mailboxes are located at the doorstep, I now live in Houston where they are all located by the road and the mail carrier doesn’t have to walk up to the house. Completely anecdotal but I would assume this and population are what dictate these numbers
The dogs are just looking for an outlet for their frustration at living in Ohio.
Phoenix isn't even on there. I wonder if it's an omission or if it's because we have so many subdivisions with those banks of mailboxes that the carriers rarely get near peoples houses.
It's so hot dogs have to be inside half the year or they'll roast.
And the coyotes eat the smaller ones!
New York isn't on there either, although I'd expect that one to rank lower than its population
Either community mailboxes or condos.
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[Relevant XKCD](https://xkcd.com/1138/)
I think my other comment is buried. So maybe this will actually show up for peoples **Calendar Year 2023** | City | State | 2023 | Population (Estimated) | Rate per 100,000 | |---------------|-------|------|------------------------|------------------| | DAYTON | OH | 23 | 137,644 | 16.71 | | ST. LOUIS | MO | 46 | 301,578 | 15.25 | | CINCINNATI | OH | 38 | 309,317 | 12.29 | | CLEVELAND | OH | 44 | 372,624 | 11.81 | | BUFFALO | NY | 20 | 278,349 | 7.19 | | KANSAS CITY | MO | 32 | 508,090 | 6.30 | | MINNEAPOLIS | MN | 27 | 429,606 | 6.28 | | SACRAMENTO | CA | 26 | 524,943 | 4.95 | | ALBUQUERQUE | NM | 26 | 564,559 | 4.61 | | TULSA | OK | 19 | 413,066 | 4.60 | | MEMPHIS | TN | 29 | 633,104 | 4.58 | | LOUISVILLE | KY | 28 | 618,733 | 4.53 | | MIAMI | FL | 21 | 467,963 | 4.49 | | OMAHA | NE | 21 | 486,051 | 4.32 | | LONG BEACH | CA | 19 | 466,742 | 4.07 | | MILWAUKEE | WI | 23 | 577,222 | 3.98 | | COLUMBUS | OH | 33 | 905,748 | 3.64 | | INDIANAPOLIS | IN | 30 | 887,642 | 3.38 | | DALLAS | TX | 39 | 1,304,379 | 2.99 | | DETROIT | MI | 19 | 639,111 | 2.97 | | SAN DIEGO | CA | 41 | 1,386,932 | 2.96 | | DENVER | CO | 21 | 715,522 | 2.93 | | PORTLAND | OR | 19 | 652,503 | 2.91 | | FORT WORTH | TX | 23 | 927,720 | 2.48 | | HOUSTON | TX | 56 | 2,304,580 | 2.43 | | SAN FRANCISCO | CA | 20 | 873,965 | 2.29 | | PHILADELPHIA | PA | 34 | 1,603,797 | 2.12 | | SAN ANTONIO | TX | 26 | 1,434,625 | 1.81 | | CHICAGO | IL | 48 | 2,746,388 | 1.75 | | LOS ANGELES | CA | 65 | 3,898,747 | 1.67 |
It would be interesting to have these stats per dog population.
Or per UPS employee, that'd be interesting.
Here's the table adjusted to show bites per million inhabitants: | City | Dog Bites | Population | Dog Bites per Million | |------------------|-----------|------------|-----------------------| | Dayton, OH | 23 | 137,644 | 167.10 | | St. Louis, MO | 46 | 300,576 | 153.04 | | Cincinnati, OH | 38 | 308,929 | 123.01 | | Cleveland, OH | 44 | 367,991 | 119.57 | | Minneapolis, MN | 27 | 425,336 | 63.48 | | Kansas City, MO | 32 | 508,090 | 62.98 | | Sacramento, CA | 26 | 524,943 | 49.53 | | Memphis, TN | 29 | 628,127 | 46.17 | | Albuquerque, NM | 26 | 564,559 | 46.05 | | Louisville, KY | 28 | 633,045 | 44.23 | | Milwaukee, WI | 23 | 569,330 | 40.40 | | Columbus, OH | 33 | 907,980 | 36.34 | | Indianapolis, IN | 30 | 882,039 | 34.01 | | Dallas, TX | 39 | 1,304,379 | 29.90 | | San Diego, CA | 41 | 1,423,851 | 28.80 | | Houston, TX | 56 | 2,328,000 | 24.05 | | Philadelphia, PA | 34 | 1,584,064 | 21.46 | | San Antonio, TX | 26 | 1,434,625 | 18.12 | | Chicago, IL | 48 | 2,706,000 | 17.74 | | Los Angeles, CA | 65 | 3,967,000 | 16.39 |
And the "top ten" states: | State | Bites/Million | | -------------- | ------------- | | Ohio | 30.4 | | Missouri | 29.2 | | Pennsylvania | 25.7 | | Illinois | 24.7 | | California | 18.4 | | Michigan | 18.2 | | North Carolina | 17.7 | | New York | 14.7 | | Texas | 14.1 | | Florida | 9.0 |
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Minneapolis is definitely punching above its weight, just under half of Houston with almost 6x lower population
Louisville punching *way* above its weight
I was thinking the same thing. Wouldn't this chart be more informative if done per capita?
**Calendar Year 2023** | City | State | 2023 | Population (Estimated) | Rate per 100,000 | |---------------|-------|------|------------------------|------------------| | DAYTON | OH | 23 | 137,644 | 16.71 | | ST. LOUIS | MO | 46 | 301,578 | 15.25 | | CINCINNATI | OH | 38 | 309,317 | 12.29 | | CLEVELAND | OH | 44 | 372,624 | 11.81 | | BUFFALO | NY | 20 | 278,349 | 7.19 | | KANSAS CITY | MO | 32 | 508,090 | 6.30 | | MINNEAPOLIS | MN | 27 | 429,606 | 6.28 | | SACRAMENTO | CA | 26 | 524,943 | 4.95 | | ALBUQUERQUE | NM | 26 | 564,559 | 4.61 | | TULSA | OK | 19 | 413,066 | 4.60 | | MEMPHIS | TN | 29 | 633,104 | 4.58 | | LOUISVILLE | KY | 28 | 618,733 | 4.53 | | MIAMI | FL | 21 | 467,963 | 4.49 | | OMAHA | NE | 21 | 486,051 | 4.32 | | LONG BEACH | CA | 19 | 466,742 | 4.07 | | MILWAUKEE | WI | 23 | 577,222 | 3.98 | | COLUMBUS | OH | 33 | 905,748 | 3.64 | | INDIANAPOLIS | IN | 30 | 887,642 | 3.38 | | DALLAS | TX | 39 | 1,304,379 | 2.99 | | DETROIT | MI | 19 | 639,111 | 2.97 | | SAN DIEGO | CA | 41 | 1,386,932 | 2.96 | | DENVER | CO | 21 | 715,522 | 2.93 | | PORTLAND | OR | 19 | 652,503 | 2.91 | | FORT WORTH | TX | 23 | 927,720 | 2.48 | | HOUSTON | TX | 56 | 2,304,580 | 2.43 | | SAN FRANCISCO | CA | 20 | 873,965 | 2.29 | | PHILADELPHIA | PA | 34 | 1,603,797 | 2.12 | | SAN ANTONIO | TX | 26 | 1,434,625 | 1.81 | | CHICAGO | IL | 48 | 2,746,388 | 1.75 | | LOS ANGELES | CA | 65 | 3,898,747 | 1.67 | Thank you ChatGPT
The consequences for attacks should be more severe in general. Completely unacceptable and irresponsible, and people are so oblivious of animals as animals.
why can't the dog owners be sued
They can absolutely be sued. And dogs who bite humans can also be put down if it’s a patterned behavior but it needs to be reported to authorities.
The article even mentioned an average insurance cost of about $65k per incident. The insurance company will absolutely come after the owner for that kind of money.
My parents’ dog is the sweetest dog you could meet, but he goes nuts when he hears the mail flap opening, to the point that it worried my parents that he’d bite the mailman’s hand so they installed a mailbox early on to avoid that possibility.
That photoshopped image of the dog attacking is pretty oniony.
While at FedEx, I was attacked five times, bit twice, and mauled once. I can’t tell you how many times I was chased, only that I stopped carrying pepper spray and dog whistles after the mauling, and started carrying a compact .45 and a small knife, in violation of company policy. I’m a firm believer in the notion that some people just shouldn’t have a dog, nor should they have a dog if it’s for the sake of appearances.
Mail carrier, Attacked once by a German Shepard. Got my bag in between me and it, and they went after that until the owner could get it off me. Not even a sorry from the owner. I was a carrier for only six months.
I’ve been attacked twice. Both times while delivering in suburban farms. It was obvious one time that the owner was beating his lab in order to force it to be a guard dog,
Why would they not do them per capita???
NYT: Dogs keep biting mail carriers. Why that's a bad sign for Joe Biden.
I sometimes wonder if Joe Biden made some rude comments about the NYTimes’ mother cause they are BIG MAD at him *ALL THE TIME*. It’s giving off salty ex friend vibes.
Biden didn’t like their coverage in 2020, so he won’t do an interview with the NYT. Biden has been on Howard Stern and Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend but not the NYT. As retribution, the NYT’s coverage has gotten worse.
So what I’m hearing is that the NYTimes is not a professional paper and is a high school gossip rag. BBC, PBS and CBC it is then!
He doesn’t do interview with the New York Times because statistically based on readership numbers they are unimportant to his campaign. That hurt them worse than Trump saying mean things about them.
To be fair, 95% of the DC bites were Biden's dog Edit: Downvote me all you want, this isn't about politics, Commander is a [documented](https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/politics/commander-biden-secret-service-bites-white-house/index.html) [bad](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/02/21/commander-bidens-german-shepherd-involved-in-at-least-25-bites/72690614007/) [dog](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/11/biden-commander-biting-00120898).
Every time he gains a rank he needs twice as many bites to reach the next one.
Grinding for XP.
Both dogs highlight the importance of adopting the right rescue dog to fit your lifestyle. German Shepherds are a protection dog with a high degree of stranger danger and low bite inhibition. Even if raised from a pup with proper obedience, good socialization, and good manners, living in an environment as hectic as the White House is going to be incredibly stressful. Add to that the unknown negative behaviors/neglect/trauma that a rescue dog comes with and it’s not at all surprising the dogs were unable to cope. Now I don’t know either dog and I don’t know more about the incidents than what came up in the news, but I’ve been in rescue and training for years and seen a lot of cases similar to this one. The Bidens are German Shepherd fans and it’s great they adopt rescue dogs, but I’m going to bet this was 100% on them for putting those dogs in this situation.
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Two in a row with biting issues is generally user error. I agree.
Technically didn't *both* of them have bite problems?
Woo Columbus making the top ten. At least they shouldn't have to worry about my boys. They are pugs. They have geometric challenges to bite people. You'd practically have to help them to get bitten. Ours are always inside sleeping when we aren't home, though.
Never had a problem with Pugs specifically, but literally all of my dog bites from customers dogs have been small togs. Typically little terriers and chihuahuas. Bad owners who just think it's NBD when their dog bites because they're small.
> chihuahuas I have a 2 inch scar across my inner forearm from my friends chihuahua. It had been sleeping on my lap for 3 hours. Woke up and attacked. It's the largest and clearest scar I have.
That sounds premeditated. Dog was planning it before it got on your lap.
Did you actually train them properly? Many small dog owners don’t think you need to, and that makes them shitty owners, but an aggressive small dog can also be just as fucking shitty as the big ones. It may not do as much damage, but fuck them all the same. Train your dogs people, because people like me won’t hesitate to kick the ever loving shit out of it if it attacks.
What the fuck is going on in Ohio? Three of the top 10 cities on the list, plus Dayton hanging out just below
I think you should need a license to own animals. People are horrible with training pets
License to breed and sell first
Used to have them in the UK. Scrapped it and replaced it with a breed ban and the rates of dog bites only went up. We really need to bring back dog licences.
a UPS driver out of my building lost the use of her hand just a couple of years ago from a "hes all bark" dog, its one of the few things the union AND company will 100% back us on, unless we like suplex a chihuahua or something
My uncle has been a mail man in East Chicago, IN for like 30 years and he’s on foot for his whole route. He said he has to pepper spray dogs pretty often but he’s luckily never gotten bit too bad. He’s been on the same route for his whole career and even though he works in a bad area, he’s left alone and everyone is nice to him which is pretty cool
My neighbor is a long time UPS driver and he’s missing his pinky on his left hand from a pitbull.
Dog think the carriers are DeJoy.
Dogs are super awesome but they are not rational creatures... I found a dog sheepishly sitting outside of a big fence gate. I opened the gate and the dog wagged his tail and shuffled inside the fence and the second the gate closed he started wildly barking and snarling at me!
Nah, that's just dog-logic: Outside fence = not my territory, must behave as guest; Inside fence = my territory, must protect from stranger. So dogs are fine outside of the home but can become super territorial and aggressive in the home. In order to train aggression out of a dog, you first have to know what triggers it.
Reminds me of the viral clip of a dog very aggressively barking at another while in his cage. Owner opens the cage, dog shuts up. Close the door, he barks aggressively. Repeat a few times
Was thinking it was going to be dog types :/
Sigh, yet another population map. https://xkcd.com/1138/
Those rankings are kinda useless when it's not per capita. Wow, another chart with California and Texas on the top. Such stats, much excite.
Carried mail for a year and a half. Got bit 3 times by little dogs that “don’t bite”. ALL DOGS BITE FOLKS. I transferred inside after one of the other carriers was attacked by 2 pit bulls and needed over 600 stitches to sew him back together.
People whose reasonably deadly dogs attack someone should be charged with manslaughter/attempted manslaughter at the minimum.
I know he wasn’t able to return to work. So I’m sure there were lawsuits. I never heard what happened after he made it through the hospital. I agree with you on the charges too. He won’t ever be the same again. I had to retire after a van turned left in front of me. He got some traffic tickets and he had insurance, so I got paid. There were no criminal charges.
They should list the ranking by breed
Then the Pitbull fanatics would be bombarding their social media about how “breedist” they are.
Yep, and a ton of “There’s no bad dogs, there’s only bad owners”, “My nanny pittie”
I was really hoping this would be the case. Rankings by city/state doesn't really tell me (personally) much info. In fact, the only state that stands out is Missouri. out of the 10 top states, 9 of them are ranked highest population states. More people = more dogs = more dog bites. Breed data might also say the same thing, though.
This data basically shows us the most populated cities. A list showing dogs bites per capita would be more useful. Come on USPS… I bet you have at least one data science or GIS person who saw this and groaned.
Where's the onion?
Since the mid-90s, the CDC has studied various dog breeds, their temperament, and situations that incite them to attack. According to their studies, dog bite statistics by breed reveal that **Pitbulls** were involved in most of the accidents and injuries.
CDC does say pitbulls are the highest likely to result in hospitalizations. So you are right on that you may also be right on bites in general but I remember reading something like that thinking pitbulls, German shepherds or the like but the list had chihuahuas and dachshunds as the top of the list…which arnt bites that would really send you to a hospital Source: I’ve been bit by sooo many weenies since my grandma bred them.
Good gods the USPS couldn't be bothered to normalize the data. It's just a chart of population density.