Dog Bites: What to Do

Its every Singaporean dog parent’s worst nightmare: Your dog bites someone or nips at them.
I’ve been there before with my dog Louie and there is no greater whirlwind of emotions one goes through than when that happens. There’s embarrassment, anger, frustration, and a solid amount of fear, both for yourself and your dog and for the other party as well.
It can be extremely difficult to keep your head about you in the heat of the moment, and all the things you’ve read or learnt go flying out the window as you try to pull your dog away from the person or dog, while trying to minimize the damage to everyone involved.
But as they say, practice makes perfect! While we can’t (and definitely don’t want) to practice dog bite scenarios, knowing what to do and not do, and rehearsing it beforehand will make all the difference should the situation arise.
What to do in the moment:
- Breathe.
Most of us have a bias for action! It’s the primitive fight or flight response that acts up in the moment to protect us. When a dog fight breaks out, we jump into action immediately and while that can work to your advantage in some situations, its best to take a second to breathe and be a bit more deliberate about what to do next.
Your instinct might be to pull on the leash to pull your dog away – but have you noticed whether your dog is latched onto the other dog or vice versa? Pulling on the leash, might just make the injuries worse in that scenario.
So, take a second to breathe before jumping in. It will help you think more clearly for the 2nd step.
- Assess.
In the frenzy of the action, you’ll have to assess what’s going on. Is your dog snapping and lunging at the other party, or are they chomped down them? Are the people around yelling and kicking to try to break them up or is everyone staying back?
Knowing what you’re looking at will inform the action you take to get the best outcome for everyone involved.
- Take Action.
There are specific ways to break up different types of dog fights or dog attacks, which I will be outlining in a future post, but taking the appropriate action is critical in breaking it up.
For a dog bite, where the dog is latched on, no amount of yelling, or kicking or throwing water on them will break that up – in fact you might end up riling them up more!
For the noisier, snapping and lunging bites, there are a series of escalating actions you and people around you can take to separate your dog from their victim.
Know that there will be injuries and some blood, but by keeping a cool head and taking the most appropriate action, you will be saving all parties involved.
What not to do in the moment:
- Don’t lose your sh*t.
You yelling, screaming, kicking the dog isn’t helping anymore, much less the poor victim. Everyone in that situation is going to be losing their minds, that’s why its even more important that you keep your head about you to act swiftly and accurately.
- Avoid using your hands or body as a blocker
In the heat of the moment, stepping in between the dog and victim seems to be the fastest course of action, but this risks severe injury to you too. Trying to pry your dog’s mouth open can also lead the same outcome. Your dog might end up redirecting a bite to you in the heat of the moment.
Try to avoid putting your hands or body between the dog and whoever they are going after. Whenever possible use another object or method to create distance. Its of no use to anyone if you’re injured too!
- Don’t pull a dog away
Can’t say this enough: If a dog is latched on, DO. NOT. PULL. THEM. AWAY. You will end up causing worse injuries to the other party as their skin will rip further if the dog is latched on and being pulled away.
In summary
It can be so difficult to not get riled up yourself when your dog goes for another person or dog. I can feel my own breath getting faster just writing this post, imagining the situation!
However, as the guardian of a dog that is biting, the responsibility to intervene in the situation to minimize damage is on your shoulders. I’ve said this before, and I will repeat it until I am blue in the face: every dog is capable of biting. As responsible dog guardians we need to ensure we prevent these situations from coming up in the first place, but even if there are management failures and a bite incident does happen, its important that you keep your wits about you to minimize the damage.
Stay tuned for my next few posts which will cover the specific actions you can take to break up a dog fight or attack and what you should be doing immediately after to ensure you’re all as safe as possible and covered by the rule and regulations here in Signapore.