What to Do If Your Dog Bites Someone

Secure the dog first, then get the person medical care, exchange contact and vaccination information, and expect that the bite will be reported and that your county will order a quarantine period, commonly ten days at home for a currently vaccinated dog. Most first bites do not result in a dog being euthanized. Panicking, hiding the dog, or refusing to give information is what turns a manageable situation into a legal one.

Laws vary enormously by state and by county, so treat everything here as general guidance and call your local animal services to confirm what applies to you. I am a trainer, not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.

The first ten minutes

1. Get the dog completely away and contained. Crate, another room, the car. Not just held by the collar.
2. Get the person somewhere to sit and look at the wound. Wash it with soap and running water for several minutes. That single step does more to prevent infection than anything else.
3. Call for medical help if the bite is on the hand, face, or near a joint, if it is bleeding heavily, if the person is a child or elderly, or if the skin is punctured at all. Hand bites in particular get infected at a very high rate and need to be seen within a few hours.
4. Do not argue about fault and do not say the words it was their fault. Also do not say I knew he would do this, which is the sentence that shows up in every liability case.

What you owe the other person

Your name, phone number, address, and your dog's rabies vaccination certificate with the date and the vet clinic. That last one matters more than anything else, because an unvaccinated or lapsed dog usually faces a much longer and stricter quarantine, sometimes at a facility rather than at home.

Take photos of the wound and the location. Write down what happened while it is fresh: where everyone was standing, what the dog did first, what the person did, whether the dog was leashed or contained. Do it the same day.

Reporting and quarantine

In most of the United States, doctors and urgent care clinics are required to report animal bites to public health. So are vets. Assume it will be reported whether or not you report it yourself, and understand that self reporting generally looks better than being found out.

The standard outcome for a currently vaccinated dog with no history is a ten day rabies observation period, usually served at home. You keep the dog confined, no dog parks, no visitors, no off leash time, and an officer may or may not check. At the end, if the dog is alive and healthy, the rabies question is closed.

A dog can be declared dangerous or potentially dangerous depending on the severity, the circumstances, and local ordinance. That designation typically comes with requirements: muzzle in public, secure fencing, signage, liability insurance, sometimes mandatory sterilization. It is not the end of the world and it is not the same as a euthanasia order.

The severity question

Trainers use a scale to describe bites and it matters here, because a bite is not one thing. A dog who put teeth on skin and left no mark is very different from a dog who punctured deeper than a canine tooth length or shook.

Most bites are at the low end. Skin scrapes, single shallow punctures, quick contact with immediate release. Those dogs have bite inhibition and their prognosis with real training is good.

Deep punctures, multiple punctures in one incident, shaking, or a dog who came back for a second grab is a different conversation, and so is any bite to a child's face. Those cases need a veterinary behaviorist, not a group class.

Insurance and liability

Most homeowners and renters policies cover dog bite liability, and most insurers want to be told. Not telling them and having a claim appear later usually goes badly. Some carriers will drop the dog from coverage or drop the policy after a bite, which is a real risk you should think about before you call, ideally after talking to a lawyer if the injury was serious.

If the person was injured badly, expect the possibility of a claim. Being cooperative, paying the medical bill promptly, and being visibly responsible does more to keep a situation out of court than anything else.

What to change immediately

Muzzle train the dog. Not as punishment. A basket muzzle, properly conditioned over two weeks, lets a dog have a life while you work the problem. It also protects the dog legally, because a muzzled dog cannot bite again while you train.

Identify the trigger and stop rehearsing it. If it was a stranger reaching for the collar, no strangers reach for the collar. If it was a child hugging the dog, no children touch the dog. Management is not a failure, it is the thing that buys you time to train.

Get a vet exam. A meaningful percentage of first bites in previously stable dogs come from pain. Hips, back, ears, teeth, thyroid. Check before you assume it is behavioral.

Get in person help. This is one of the times I will tell you straight that online training is not the answer. Find a qualified professional in your area who can see the dog, and be honest with them about exactly what happened.

The honest outlook

A single bite from a dog with a known trigger, in a predictable situation, with an owner willing to manage and train, is a very workable case. I have seen a lot of them end well.

A dog who bites at a high severity, who bites without warning, whose triggers you cannot identify, or who has bitten more than once at increasing severity is a much harder case and sometimes the honest answer involves options nobody wants to talk about. If you are in that situation, talk to a veterinary behaviorist rather than a blog.

For work on managing a dog who is reactive or unpredictable around triggers, my free reactive dog guide

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Every drill in this article comes from the WorldWide K9 Academy course library. If you want the full step by step system, start with the $5 intro course.