BY FRAN JEWELL
I am called so many times being asked to help a family save their dog once it has bitten. There are so many things that go into making a decision about how to handle a dog that has bitten, and there is no easy solution. What I think, however, and that is very rarely addressed, are the liability issues involved once a dog bites.
“My dog would never do that!” or “I can’t believe my dog bit someone! He’s never done that before!” In almost all cases, the situation is that the dog has been screaming for help for a long time and no one noticed. Or maybe the owner continued to seek “socialization” for the dog, thinking that would help the dog’s fearful feelings, never stopping to consider that each “socialization” event brought the dog more and more stress and reason to bite. Socialization is not always the answer to solving the issue of a fearful dog that has threatened to bite.
Many people tell me that the person that got bitten was very understanding.
The reality of the situation is that if your dog bites someone, whether on your property or in public, you are liable for the damages. If someone falls and hits their head because your friendly dog jumped up on them, costing thousands of dollars, you are liable for the medical bill. If your dog bites someone at home, and the person bitten sues you, your insurance company will pay one time. Then, chances are you will never be able to get homeowners insurance again. What might happen then is if you don’t have insurance, your mortgage company may become involved and create even more havoc for you to deal with. Some insurance companies will not even insure you if you own a specific breed of dog. Yes, they can do that.
Your dog can be destroyed if the bite is severe enough.
No one likes to talk about this horrible side of dog bites. Dr. Ian Dunbar has developed a Bite Inhibition Scale to help people determine just how serious a bite is and if the dog can be rehabilitated. A quick Google search will find it for you. Usually, a dog biting at a level 3 is considered very unlikely to be rehabilitated.
While it is noble to claim devotion to your dog and see him through a bite incident, it is critically important that you realize the liability to you financially when you set forth to rehabilitate. And, in my experience, most people are not really willing to put into it all that is necessary to rehabilitate and manage a dog that has bitten. Honestly, it is impossible to assure that a biter can ever be called “safe” again.
If you try to re-home the dog, you may still be held responsible for another bite.
I’ve written many times about preventing bites, but I see so many people that continue to take huge risks with known biters, even taking the dog out in public where the actions of the public cannot be guaranteed.
I could never imagine how I would feel if one of my dogs bit a child in the face, destroying that child’s life. While this may sound uncaring, there is a time when we have to consider the life of a human over the life of a dog, no matter how much we love and are devoted to the dog.
Fran Jewell is an Idaho Press Club award-winning columnist, IAABC-certified dog behavior consultant, NADOI-certified instructor #1096 and the owner of Positive Puppy Dog Training, LLC, in Sun Valley. For more information, visit www.positivepuppy.com or call (208) 578-1565.
