Dog Bites: Unveiling the Different Types and What They Indicate About a Dog’s Aggression

Ever wonder why some dog bites are more dangerous than others? We've got you covered in this episode. In this intriguing exploration, Scott Sheaffer takes a deep dive into the world of canine aggression and bite analysis. We unravel the layers of the Ian Dunbar dog bite scale, a tool used by behavior professionals to understand the severity of dog bites—from harmless air biting or growling to the most severe types of bites.

This understanding is crucial for anyone dealing with dogs, as it guides us in shaping the right behavior modification approach and fosters effective communication among dog professionals.

We further step into the disturbing realm of increasing canine aggression, moving from the initial levels to the more dangerous levels of bites. Level four, five and six bites normally indicate a pattern of intentionally aggressive behavior - meant to harm the victim instead of just warn. These involve deep punctures, potential lacerations, and signify not just a loss of bite inhibition but a clear intent to harm. At times, these can even lead to behavioral euthanasia.

By the end of our discussion, we leave no stone unturned in making you aware of the seriousness of dog bites, especially those scaling higher levels. So, join us for this insightful episode and transform the way you understand, analyze and manage dog bites.

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About Scott Sheaffer
Scott Sheaffer, CCBC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA, is a certified dog behavior consultant who has worked with thousands of dog owners and their aggressive dogs. Scott specializes in the assessment and treatment of fear, anxiety, aggression, and phobias in dogs six months and older.

Disclaimer
If you have a dog who is aggressive and dangerous to humans, it is important that you immediately consult directly with an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Take proper measures to ensure that your dog is never in a position to injure anyone. The information presented in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is neither intended nor implied to replace the need for the direct involvement of an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Scott Sheaffer, the Grumpy Dogs podcast and USA Dog Behavior, LLC, are not liable for any incidents or outcomes resulting from following the advice given in this podcast.

Transcript

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 0:00

We're diving into a topic in this episode of dog aggression answers that's both important and often misunderstood in dog aggression Dog bites.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 0:12

Whether you're an owner of an aggressive dog, you're a dog trainer, you're a rescue worker, veterinary office employee, veterinarian, pet sitter or groomer, this episode is one that is important in your understanding of dog bites and interpreting their meaning. In my opinion, the information in this episode should be required learning for anyone who handles a lot of dogs in their profession. I found that most people outside of dog behaviors don't understand dog bites very well and they also don't know that dog bites are classified into important categories. These categories tell us a lot about the type and severity of a dog's aggression. By the end of this episode, you'll better understand basic dog bites and how we use dog bite analysis and classification in our approach to behavior modification for dogs who are biting. Stay tuned, welcome to the dog aggression answers podcast.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 1:22

I'm Scott Sheaffer, your host and a certified expert in dog behavior. With the background of helping thousands of aggressive dogs and their owners, I'm here to share humane science, face solutions for your dog's aggression. Stay tuned. In my experience, understanding dog bites is vital for three main reasons. One, it helps in determining the severity of a bite in order to implement the right behavior modification approach. Next, it's essential for communicating to other behaviorists and other dog professionals. We have to have a common lingo or vernacular to talk about dog bites. And finally, this nonch allows me to communicate objectively and empirically with a dog's owner as to the level of aggression their dog is expressing and what we might be able to do about it. Let's go ahead and get into the details of how we analyze dog bites and the language that we use.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 2:27

Ian Dunbar for those of you who may not know who he is and everyone in my business does is a renowned animal behaviorist and is well known for his innovative approaches to dog training and behavior. He is probably and I don't even know, we need to say the word probably he is the best known animal behaviorist alive today, or really that's ever lived. To be honest with you, I mentioned him because of his Dunbar dog bite scale that he created in the 1970s. The Ian Dunbar dog bite scale is the de facto standard used among dog behaviors when assessing dog bites. Though it's not the best dog bite analysis tool, in my opinion it's the accepted standard for all dog behavior professionals and, as a result. It's simply the one we all use, with its blemishes and so forth. We still all use it. Let me walk you through this scale. This is going to be something that's really important to understanding dog bites and it's just a great way of getting a grip on the different types of dog bites and I'll give you additional insights as to each of the levels on the scale. This is by far the most important tool we use to communicate dog bite information inside and outside the dog behavior field. There are six levels to the Dunbar bite scale and I'm going to go through these six and give you some insights as to what they mean, how often we see them and so forth.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 4:00

Level one aggressive behavior without biting. Now I know I said earlier the six types of dog bites or the six levels. Well, aggressive behavior without biting tells me that's not really a dog bite. Well, that's true. Levels two through six do involve biting. Level one is kind of a pre-bite and Ian Dunbar thought we should throw that in.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 4:24

This first level is the least aggressive. It involves no teeth to skin or clothing contact and is frequently manifested as air biting. Let me give you an example of what a level one quote unquote. Bite might look like. Imagine a dog that's uncomfortable with someone approaching their space. The growling, or air snapping, is their way of saying I'm not okay with this. So it could be air snapping, it could be growling. We're gonna call that a level one bite. It's just kind of a non-biting type of aggression.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 5:04

It's crucial, of course, to respect these kinds of signals, even though it's not biting, and not push the dog further, as it could escalate to a higher level of aggression, which is starting in our next one, level two, which is a bite. What does this mean? Well, many dog owners don't think this kind of aggression is aggression because their dog is not making contact with a trigger, in other words, not biting them. No teeth to human skin or clothing. But the truth is it is aggression just the first stage. One can see how this can easily escalate to the more significant forms of bites we're about to detail. I guess the thing I wanna leave you with on this level one is even though a dog hasn't bitten you, it doesn't mean the dog is not acting aggressively, air snapping and growling and barking at you. That is aggression. It's just the first stage. All right, let's move on to level two of six Tooth to skin contact without penetration.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 6:13

The second of the six levels is characterized by one or more of the dog's teeth just touching skin or clothing no penetration or puncturing of skin. Please note that just because the dog's teeth come in contact with clothing instead of skin and there is no penetration does not mean that there would not have been penetration if there was no clothing. So a lot of times with my clients I hear things like well, the dog bit the person but it didn't penetrate their clothing, in which I asked them well, if it had been the summer months and there was no pants on that had been wearing shorts, there's probably a good chance the teeth would have gone through the skin and it'd been more serious. So we have to always look at what the person that's being bitten, what they're wearing.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 7:04

Let me give you an example of a level two bite. This might occur if a dog is guarding their food. The dog is making contact with a human but is consciously avoiding significantly injuring the human. The dog is intentionally inhibiting their bite. And while the dog might be inhibiting their bite, the dog is looking over and is biting the hand that's coming toward them or the leg of the human that's getting near and it doesn't penetrate or puncture the skin, but it is a bite. That would be a good example of a level two bite. What does all this mean? It's a sign that the dog is exercising some level of restraint in the bite. It's not a full on bite, but it's also a clear signal that the dog's comfort limits like that's kind of a funny way to put it are being tested and the aggression has escalated past level one. In other words, I'm willing to put my teeth on your skin to make the point, but I'm not gonna put a lot of pressure on and penetrate through your skin.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 8:09

Let's talk about level three shallow tooth punctures. So level one and level two were really not all that worried about. Level two, yeah, a little bit, but at level three, that's when the red flag start to come out. And again it's level three shallow tooth punctures and this is where the Ian Dunbar bite scale starts to get a little confusing. Levels one and two are pretty clear, but this level starts to get a little confusing and I'm gonna hopefully help explain it to you. This is unfortunate because this is where things begin to get serious and represents the vast majority of dog bites involved in more serious dog aggression cases, and I'm talking, of course, about level three bites.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 8:59

Let me read you the official description of a level three Bite according to the Dunbar bite skill one to four punctures from a single bite With no puncture deeper than half the length of the dogs k9 teeth. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of confusing. Let me read again one of four punctures From a single bite, that would be tooth punctures with no puncture deeper than half the length of the dogs k9 teeth. You see what I mean. We can fairly easily assess the number of tooth punctures, of course, in a dog bite by counting the holes in the skin and they typically just Look like little red dots. However, how do you measure a puncture that is no deeper than half the length of the dogs k9 teeth? That's just not really a realistic thing that we can do in practice. When we're talking about a level three, we're really just looking for one of four tooth marks on the skin that don't puncture the skin very seriously. So that's kind of the real world way of using that level three just one of four tooth marks without much penetration.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 10:07

For example, a dog that has a Significant territorial aggression, that's a dog that doesn't like people coming in the owner's home May bite someone on the back of their legs as they are walking out of the dog owner's home. This is real typical behavior. Happy to see you leave. Let me help you out. I'll bite you on the way out. These types of bites are frequently level three bites again I'm in the calf Two, three teeth kind of go through the skin and then and then they let off. It's called an inhibited bite. The dog's not going full on, but is definitely putting some meat behind it. What does this mean? Here's where we start seeing a more concerning pattern when it comes to bites. The dog has now decided to use its bite To communicate that it doesn't like what's going on in their environment. It's a significant escalation from the previous levels and often a red flag for potential future aggression if not address quickly and Properly.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 11:08

Okay, we're talking about the Ian Dunbar dog bite scale and the six levels. We're now going to talk about level four and this is where things start to get pretty serious. Level one and two yeah, we're pretty concerned. We need to act on those, you know, especially level two, level three, and now we've got yellow flags coming up and we need to get real serious about behavior modification Level four now we have to start thinking about things like behavioral euthanasia. How dangerous is this dog? That kind of stuff? Let's go ahead and start our discussion about the level four, deeper punctures and potential lacerations.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 11:53

If you think the Dunbar scale is a little harder to interpret for level three bites, as I had mentioned, it really gets more difficult here at level four. However, as I keep saying, it is the accepted standard and we just have to make it work. This level of bite and beyond at level four is where the aggression has become very serious. Here is the official description, and I quote one to four punctures from a single bite, with at least one puncture deeper than half the length of the dog's canine teeth may also have deep bruising around the wound or lacerations in both directions. The difference between this and a level three bite is the depth of the tooth penetration really. But just like with the level three, how do you accurately measure one half of a tooth or less, which is a level three, versus more than one half of a tooth, which is a level four? That's kind of difficult.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 12:52

However, there is one very meaningful aspect of the level four bite description, that being and I'm quoting again lacerations in both directions. That's something that I use all the time when it comes to dog aggression analysis and dog bites. What this means is that the dog shook their head during the bite, which indicates the dog is trying to do damage to the victim instead of just warning them. This would be a very typical bite that you would see in a dog that is going after a prey animal like a rabbit, possum, squirrel, and would shake their head back and forth. The intent is to harm and maybe even kill the animal.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 13:39

The comment in the description about may also have deep bruising is also a bit complicated, so it talks about more than half the canine length. It talks about the head shaking back and forth, but we also have this issue of may also have deep bruising. This might and I'm putting quotes around the word might be beneficial in some cases. Here are the problems when you start looking at bruising around bites. Bruising frequently occurs hours and even days after a bite. It's not really that useful in the immediate aftermath of a serious bite. The second thing this bruising issue brings up is people all bruise at different rates. My wife Barbara, for instance, bruises if she just thinks about bruising, while I have to be hit fairly hard before anything shows up.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 14:34

So in practice, when it comes to level four, we're just looking for a more serious level three bite with indications of head shaking during the bite. That's really, in practice, what we're looking for In all of my dog bite analysis in legal cases. As an expert witness, I normally don't put that much weight in the bruising aspect, for the reasons I just mentioned. Let me give you an example of what a level four bite might look like. Or this scenario Delivery person is standing at the front door. When the door is opened by the homeowner, the family dog lurches out at the delivery person and bites them on their stomach and doesn't let go, while at the same time shaking your head back and forth. That's a clear level four bite. What does all this mean for level four? This seriousness of this level can't be overstated. Not only does it show an intent to harm not just a warning but it also indicates a loss of bite inhibition. The dog is not really holding back on its bite strength. This level of bite is often a turning point in how we approach behavior modification. There are some behaviorists who routinely recommend behavioral euthanasia for a dog that has inflicted a level four bite to a human. The prognosis is typically rather poor for dogs that are biting at this level. All right now.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 16:05

Level five multiple serious bytes. Well, you probably won't be surprised to know that in my opinion, this level is a little ambiguous as well. However, this isn't all that critical for this byte level, because we don't see very many bytes like this. It just doesn't come up very often. We don't have to interpret what a level five byte is very frequently. Here's the official description Multiple byte incident with at least two level four bytes. Or multiple attack incident with at least one level four byte in each, it says. To just interpret this, it says the dog used multiple level four bytes when it bit, in other words, two or more with past half the length of the canine teeth, or there were multiple incidents with at least one level four byte in each of them, meaning the dog is biting at level four levels but is doing them kind of one at a time in multiple incidents. What does all this mean? This level is particularly distressing. It shows a pattern of deliberate aggressive behavior that is repeated, meant to harm and intense. It's often in these cases that we need to consider not just behavioral interventions, but also a thorough evaluation of the dog's environment, health and history, with an emphasis on evaluating the dog's health. Most behavior consultants would recommend behavioral euthanasia for a dog that bites like this if there are no physical issues causing it, such as blood chemistry issues, maybe partial seizures, things like that that could possibly be addressed with medication or some kind of veterinary involvement.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 17:56

And finally, level six, the fatal bite. In this level, the victim has died as a result of the biting. In fact, the official description says victim died. I'm fortunate to have never been involved with a dog that has killed a human. I had one case where I was an expert witness where the victim was a whisker away from being killed by three dogs that were attacking her. This case was bone chilling, to say the least, and the evidence was just horrifying. It really was, but she did live and I think she had a pretty good recovery after a lot of operations and plastic surgery and all that. So what does this mean about level six or fatal bite? This is the most obviously tragic outcome and one that we as behavior consultants strive to prevent. And you prevent it by addressing it at level one or two, not at level six, obviously Understanding the progression of aggression levels can help us intervene very early and potentially prevent these kinds of outcomes.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 19:03

In 100% of these cases with bites at this level, the dog is euthanized without question, and the decision to euthanize is a law enforcement decision. Recognizing early signs of aggression and taking proactive steps is crucial With your dog or with whatever dog you're interacting with in your profession. These steps need to be done before a dog bites anyone, and it's important to continue your education about dog aggression. The more you know, the better arms you are and the more proactive you can be. Listening to this podcast series is a great start on that. If you own a dog who is aggressive and dangerous to humans, or if you are dealing with one in the course of your profession as a dog trainer, veterinarian, rescue worker, groomer, so on, it's important that you consult directly with an experienced and certified dog behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans if you find yourself in that situation. Also, as always, ensure that you take measures that the dog is never put in a position to injure anyone, in other words, manage the aggression. We discuss this in some detail in another episode.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 20:20

Understanding dog bites is a complex, multifaceted challenge. Every dog has a story and every bite tells a part of that story. ["bite to Bite"]. Thanks for tuning in today. If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review if this information is helpful. I always appreciate your insights, so visit dogaggressionanswerscom if you'd like to leave me a message Before we wrap up. This podcast offers educational insights, but for serious dog aggression issues, always consult directly with a certified dog behavior consultant. See you next time and stay tuned. ["bite to Bite"].