Dealing with dog attacks
Dogs are known to develop strong ties with their masters. The reaction of a dog when the master is seen would not fail to give credence to the idea that dogs are man’s best friends. A dog that is eager to see its human friend would not only exhibit a happily wagging tail but also manifest an aura of excitement and happiness.
Human-dog association has developed ever since dogs were domesticated. Dogs not only offer man friendship and protection but empathy as well as dogs are believed to be highly attuned to the emotions of humans. However, statistics tell us that almost five million dog attack incidents occur in US and most of the victims were attacked by their own dogs.
We love our dogs and the last recourse a dog owner would have for an aggressive dog is euthanasia. However between the safety of the family and keeping a ferocious dog, the family’s well being will win hands down. Dogs have been domesticated and have developed into wonderful pets but this is not to say that the prey drive as well as the ferocious and territorial nature inherited from its wolf ancestors were totally forgotten. The latent aggressive nature of the dog will surface once triggered by a situation in the environment especially if the dog was trained by the owners to fight and to be aggressive. What will your actions be if your very own gentle pet has suddenly turned aggressive and attack you?
A dog owner being attacked by the pet has to be calm as presence of mind can be the only way to avoid the injuries that can be inflicted by the dog. Dogs are pack animals and as such they would use aggression to dominate any pack member. The dog may have gone berserk but a well trained pet would still hesitate to attack if the command of the master is heard. An uncontrollable pet would still heed the master’s sit or stay command thus keeping calm and giving the command would mean getting away from the attacking dog unscathed.
You can never out run a dog and running will rouse the dog’s prey drive. Staring into the eyes of the dog would not be a good idea as it can be misconstrued by the dog as a sign of your willingness to fight. Dog attacks are scary but showing fear will just make the dog more determined to sink its teeth on your body. Curl into a ball to protect the face, the eyes and the throat.
What to do if your dog attacks you? More information on this and first aid for dogs can be found at Sarah’s Dogs.
