Dog Bites and Children: Who Gets Bitten, and What Prevention Can't Yet Promise
Most bites to young children come from a dog they know, at home. What the research shows, and why no bite-prevention course has proved it works.
Written by thecanineledger
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If a dog bite breaks a child’s skin, or is on the face, head or neck, get medical help today. If the bleeding won’t stop or the wound is large, call emergency services.
“Dog bites are one of the leading causes of non-fatal emergency room visits in children.” That is how a 2022 systematic review of US research begins (Patterson et al., World J Pediatr Surg 2022).
While most parents picture a strange dog in a park, the research points somewhere else: the family dog, at home, often during a moment that looked friendly. It also shows something few bite-prevention programmes admit. No study has yet shown that teaching children about dogs reduces bites.
1. Who gets bitten
The review covered 43 studies of 86,880 children and teenagers. It found that “children <9 years of age suffer the greatest burden of injuries, with children <6 years of age at higher risk of more severe injuries involving the head, neck, and face.”
Small children are at face height with many dogs, which is one reason their injuries are worse.
Our note: The face-height explanation is general knowledge, not from the review.
2. Which dog, and where
For the youngest children, it’s usually a dog they know. The review found that “Younger children (≤5 years old) were more likely to be bitten by their family pet or a dog familiar to them.” Those bites “most often occurred in the home, during positive interactions initiated by the child (petting or playing with the dog), and as a result of resource (food or toys) guarding by the dog.”
Older children were “more often bitten by dogs unfamiliar to them”, often when a dog was guarding its territory.
3. “He’s never bitten anyone”
A dog with no history of biting isn’t proof of safety. One study in the review found that “a majority of the examined dogs had not previously bitten a child and had completed obedience training prior to the bite.”
That doesn’t mean training is useless. It means a well-behaved dog can still bite a child who hugs it, takes its toy, or startles it.
4. What about breed?
Some studies in the review listed breeds, but the authors warn about the data. In bites outside the home, “Often only a fraction of dogs involved in a bite or attack not taking place in the home are identified”, and because a dog’s ancestry is hard to judge, “most are defined as mixed breed”.
The review describes a dog’s tendency to bite as a mix of “genetic predisposition, early socialization to people, training or maltreatment, the quality of supervision, and behavior of the victim.” Breed alone won’t tell you which dog is safe. → Choosing a Breed or a Mix: The Health Data Breeders Don’t Lead With
5. What prevention can’t yet promise
Schools and charities run bite-prevention lessons for children. A Cochrane review, a type of systematic review known for strict methods, looked for trials that tested them. It found only two, and “No study looked at our main outcome: dog bite rates.” Its conclusion: “There is no direct evidence that educational programmes can reduce dog bite rates in children and adolescents” (Duperrex et al., Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2009).
The two trials did find something. After a 30-minute lesson, children behaved more cautiously around a dog, and another programme improved knowledge. The review concluded that teaching children under 10 in school “could improve their knowledge, attitude and behaviour towards dogs.”
The Cochrane searches ran only to July 2008. The 2022 review, which searched to March 2020, still concluded that “Studies analyzing the prevention or psychosocial consequences of dog bites injuries are needed.”
Our note: We haven’t searched beyond these two reviews for trials measuring bite rates after education.
6. What parents can do
None of the following has been tested in a trial that measured bites. It follows from where and how bites happen.
- Supervise young children with any dog, including your own. The bites to under-fives mostly happened at home with a familiar dog.
- Let the dog eat, and keep its toys, in peace. Guarding food and toys was a common trigger.
- Watch the friendly moments. Petting and playing started many bites to young children.
- Give the dog a place to retreat where children don’t follow.
- Teach older children to leave alone dogs they don’t know.
Our note: This list is our reasoning from the review’s findings, not a tested programme.
Our note: Get medical help today for any bite that breaks the skin, or any bite to the face, head or neck.
→ Training That Works, and Why: What the Evidence Says About Methods
7. What we could not verify
| Commonly said | What we found |
|---|---|
| “Strange dogs are the main danger” | Not for young children. Most bites to under-fives came from a familiar dog at home. |
| “A trained dog won’t bite” | Not true. In one study, most of the biting dogs had completed obedience training. |
| “Bite-prevention lessons stop bites” | Not shown. No trial has measured bite rates. |
| “Certain breeds are the problem” | Data too weak to say. Breed is often unknown or misidentified. |
Sources
- Patterson KN, Horvath KZ, Minneci PC, Thakkar R, Wurster L, Noffsinger DL, Bourgeois T, Deans KJ. Pediatric dog bite injuries in the USA: a systematic review (World J Pediatr Surg 2022; US studies only; full text read)
- Duperrex O, Blackhall K, Burri M, Jeannot E. Education of children and adolescents for the prevention of dog bite injuries (Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2009; searches to 18 July 2008; abstract read)
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