A Study of Dog Bites and their Prevention

By Nelly Lakestani N

Previous studies have suggested that children are more at risk of suffering from

serious dog bite injuries than adults. In order to generate an overview of

characteristics of dog bite victims in Europe, different organisations collecting data

on injuries at a national level were contacted in a number of European countries. The

incidence of child victims was found to be higher than that of adults.

A study was undertaken, at European level, to investigate whether the reason why

children are more at risk is due to their poor ability to interpret the behaviour of dogs

and therefore to appropriately interact with them. Children aged 4 - 10 years old

(n=430) and university students (mean age= 21.3 years, n=120) in Milan, Barcelona,

and Edinburgh, were shown videos of dogs performing simple behaviours

(friendliness, fear, aggression) and asked to interpret the state of dogs (happy, sad,

scared, angry). The participants were also asked to describe which features of the

dogs they were attending to in order to interpret the state of the dog. The ability to

correctly interpret the state of dogs was found to increase with age. Moreover, older

children and adults reported looking at the dog features necessary to make a correct

judgement on the dog state more than younger children. There were no differences in

the performances of the participants in the different countries.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 2548806030
• ISBN13: 9782548806030
• Release Date: December 2022
• Publisher: Independent Author
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"