According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 4.5 million Americans are bitten by dogs annually. Half of those attacks involve children. And according to the U.S. Postal Service, Salt Lake City is listed as one of the top 30 cities in the United States for the most people bitten by dogs.
Linda DeCarlo, director of safety and health for the USPS, said the post office’s main focus is to protect it's 600,500 employees.
“Last year alone, we had 6,500 plus employees bitten by dogs. That was a major increase for us from the year prior," she said. "Even in Utah, we had 36 bites last year compared to 24 the year before. We never want to not deliver mail to every door and every household but we need to get some information out to the public and to our carriers on how to make each other safe.”
DeCarlo says it’s the responsibility of the pet owners to keep guests and public servants safe.
“Salt lake City alone had 16 dog bites last year and that's 16 dog bites that could have been prevented. Most of it is just due to responsible pet ownership. Dogs are doing what they are supposed to do [when] they are protecting their house, protecting their families. We are just asking that pet owners close the door on these attacks by really just putting the dog in the other room, closing the door and then coming out to get your package.”
But dogs aren’t just biting in the home. Recently in Salt lake City, two adult males ordered their dog to bite a cop in a city park. Detective Greg Wilkins of the Salt Lake City Police Department said the situation was a shock to the officer.
“These individuals had given the command for this dog to attack earlier and then while the officer was dealing with them they let the dog go enough so the dog was able to bite the officer. So kind of an unnerving situation for that officer,” he said
So, where do we put the blame for a dog bite, the pet or the pet owner?
“The reason that dogs bite is because the signals that they give are either not picked up or just ignored because people don’t know what they are looking for,” said Dr. Lynne Gilbert-Norton, a well-known dog behaviorist based in Salt Lake City.
Dr. Norton said some of Utah’s dog bites may come from poor training.
“You don’t have to have any qualifications to be a trainer. You could set up and become a trainer tomorrow and no one could tell you otherwise ... Our knowledge has moved on in the last twenty years considerably, yet we are still using sort of outdated, outmoded methods [of training] in many ways.”
Dr. Norton said that some dog owners don’t give their pets enough contact with other animals or humans.
“I think this day and age as well, our dogs are even more than ever being left behind fences or left in crates. They lack that sort of socialization with people or with other dogs. That can escalate aggression or fear.”
Dr. Norton said dogs can be trained to be less aggressive and that pet owners should prepare pets for unplanned guests or civil servants who may approach a home. She said it all comes down to reading signals and helping dogs become more comfortable with a changing environment.
So, how do we help train our dogs to be less aggressive? And how can pet owners become better prepared for guests or civil servants? Dr. Norton said it all comes down to reading signals and helping our dogs become more comfortable with a changing environment.
“For those people that have reactive dogs or those dogs that get really aroused, they need to be looking for training that really helps," she said. "And you can desensitize dogs to those situations. The best way to do it is really through more human-positive reinforcement.”