The Academic Impostor Behind the Pit Bull Hysteria

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181. Dangerous dogs or dangerous owners?

For 11 years in the UK I was a utility meter reader, this job involved me visiting between 200 and 300 homes, farms and businesses per day on normal duties or 30 - 50 on special duties. In all that time I was threatened by dogs perhaps 5 times per year, whilst attacks happened about 5 times in total during that whole time - and one "bite".

Dogs that threatened me varied from Great Danes down to Teacup Yorkshire Terriers, none were any form of the bull terrier type. Threats were often my own fault, I went into a garden (yard) not realising that the dog was running free and the dog defended its territory. In other cases the dog was poorly socialised and the owner could not or would not control the dog, Traveller (Gypsy) sites were particularly bad and many of the dogs there were kept for fighting, the fighting dogs were not allowed to run free. In none of these cases was I bitten because the dogs only wanted me to leave, they were not hunting only defending.

The 5 attacks were as follows:

1) A Boxer defending it's owner and garden pounced, crashing into my chest as I opened the gate. There was no warning from either owner or dog and the owner did nothing to control the dog. I did not fall and pushed the dog back inside the yard shutting the gate. This attempt at a push over I have found is normal for mastiff type dogs. I found out from neighbours that the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) were regular visitors to the property because of the animal.

2) An Alsatian owned by an elderly woman which, by all accounts, was confined to the house and not permitted to see humans other than the woman or her son. This poor dog attempted to attack through a glass front door, luckily the glass held. The dog was too strong for the poor lady.

3) The farm with 3 Border Collies and a farmer who did not want visitors. They attacked me as a pack and this was one of the few times I used my "Bite Back" spray. No bites but if I had gone down I would have suffered. The farmer eventually came out but his method of control was to thrash the dogs. As a note; generally all farm dogs were always a problem until the farmer vouched for you but then they would remember you and play.

4) The Teacup Yorkshire Terrier that tried to bite me whilst his owner said "Who's a fluffy little lovey!" The only reason there was no bite was because it could not open its mouth wide enough to nip.

5) A Springer Spaniel defending the youth of the house whilst the owners were away. I was able to get to a place of safety before worse happened.

Note that the only link between these incidents was the owner's failure to control or train the animal.

Oh, the one "bite" was a Parson Jack Russell who saw me on the road an jumped up with its mouth open, a tooth caught me on the way down. Dog bites, because of the danger of infection had to be reported and treated.