SAN ANTONIO – It’s a concerning trend that has already cost the lives of several people in San Antonio.
Animal Care Services has reported an uptick in dog attacks after responding to more than 30 incidents in their last fiscal year, which ended in September.
They said the cases all had one commonality — the dogs were all owned animals who were off their property at the time of the attacks.
The rise in dog attacks is a concerning issue, but ACS said there are steps dog owners can take to help prevent future incidents.
“We have to make sure that we are socializing or exposing our animals to different sounds, noises, people, places at the socialization age, which is 8 to 16 weeks,” said Annalise Reagan, a dog trainer at ACS.
ACS said it is an owner’s responsibility to catch warning signs of aggressive behavior and address that behavior as soon as possible.
“One of the biggest things is we view dogs as ‘oh, every dog is social.’ The reality is dogs can actually be dog-selective, people-selective, and so it’s important that we’re understanding the small niches that all of our dogs fall into,” Reagan said.
Reagan said it is up to every dog owner to ensure that we are teaching our animals bite inhibition, which means the ability to control the force or pressure of their bite.
“Anything with a mouth can bite. It is up to us to also provide that safety, making sure our animals are wearing well-fitted collars, making sure they’re always on leash and one of the biggest things is supervision,” said Reagan.
Even if a dog is in its backyard, it’s imperative that the owner is keeping a close eye on it, according to Reagan.
ACS reported the recent dog attacks happened outside of the dog owners’ properties. This means they either jumped the fence, dug under it, or escaped through a hole.
“I’m a big supporter of fence checks. I go out and I do a loop around my fence every single day just because it’s my job to manage my fence quality and make sure that it’s safe for my dogs and safe for my neighborhood as well. And, when we are seeing that reactive behavior, we can remove our dog from that potentially scary situation and give them comfort somewhere else,” said Reagan.
If your dog is known to be reactive or aggressive, Reagan said it is imperative to seek professional help, identify triggers and engage in training.
“It goes back to giving them the knowledge that they need to interact with people appropriately, interact with other dogs appropriately, simply learn how to walk on a leash — all of those things that we can provide for them and help in keeping them safe and secure and that goes for any breed,” said Reagan.
To learn more about how to recognize a dog’s body language and behavior, you can visit ACS’ YouTube page here, or its website.