Dogs are currently the most popular pet in the UK forming 26% of the pet population. Pet ownership has been associated with health benefits such a reduced blood pressure, increased exercise and reduced feelings of loneliness. However, dog bites are also believed to be on the increase and, over the last five years, Merseyside has become the dog bite capital of the UK with the greatest number of dog related hospital admissions per 100,000 population. Recently reported figures suggest that at least 20 people are hospitalised due to dog bites every day in England and Wales. Dog bites can have a devastating impact on all parties involved. Most obviously, the person bitten is left with a physical injury and, perhaps a lasting fear of dogs. These can lead to personal economic losses through time off work. The dog itself is often euthanised after a serious bite which in turn impacts the owner. Even if the dog isn’t euthanised, it may be confiscated or given up to a shelter since the owner feels they can no longer be trusted. All of these come with a cost to society, for example, the estimated bill for police kennelling of potentially dangerous dogs in 2015 was £5 million pounds. Studying dog bites and how they happen is an important part of developing strategies to prevent them.

Sara Owczarczak-Garstecka is a PhD student at IGH working on a project: “Dog bites; Perception and Prevention”. As part of her studies she looked at YouTube videos that captured dog bites and statistically analysed their characteristics to show how canine and human behaviour changes before a bite. Her results have been published in an article in Nature Scientific Reports entitled ‘Online videos indicate human and dog behaviour preceding dog bites and the context in which bites occur.’ available via this link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-25671-7.