The rise in children being seriously bitten by dogs is down to parents not “teaching their children how to behave”, a pet owner has said. 

Research published by the Irish Medical Journal found there has been a significant increase in hospitalisations due to dog bites over the past decade.

Between 2012 and 2022, 3,158 people went to hospital after they were bitten by a dog, of whom nearly 40% were children.

Speaking to Lunchtime Live, dog owner Emma said people should not blame animals when they get bitten.

“I would say often the parents are not [providing] the responsibility by teaching their children how to behave around dogs,” she said.

“They’re not toys, they’re living creatures, they will react if they’re uncomfortable or in pain or if a child’s pulling at them or something like that.”

Emma said when her brother was younger he blew into a border collie’s face and got a nasty shock afterwards.

“You never blow into a dog’s face,” she said.

“Of course, the dog snapped at him and he needed snitches in his face.

“At that time, it was never considered the dog’s fault, it was my brother’s fault for doing that.

“Nowadays, with a lot of the way that this comes out, it’s assumed that the dog is dangerous.

“It’s not; the child is not interacting in an appropriate way with an animal and they will react.”

Emma currently owns a lurcher who is “amazing with kids” but part of that is down to the fact she has always had good experiences with children.

“If a dog starts associating children with pain and fear, it’s going to start snapping and it’s going to start biting,” she said.

Respect

Certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist Maureen Byrne told Lunchtime Live the relationship between a dog and its owner is a “two way street” and they should always be treated with respect.

“Our expectations of dogs can be very, very high,” she said.

“Often we treat dogs in ways that we wouldn’t treat a cat because we know if we did it to a cat, the cat would give us a scratch.

“So, people tend to be much more respectful of cats than they are with dogs.”

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Main image: A man with his dog.