What We Should Be Doing About Dog Bites (Because blaming owners is not working)

Dog bite incidents remain a significant public safety concern in Ireland. In 2024, local authorities recorded 1,194 reports of aggressive dog behaviour. Of these incidents, 405 resulted in physical injury to people. Within the same year, 488 hospital treatments were recorded for dog bite injuries, an increase from 343 cases in 2023. These figures reflect not isolated events, but a persistent and growing issue.

Long term data further supports this trend. Over the past decade, hospital admissions for dog bite injuries increased from 5.6 to 8.7 per 100,000 people between 2012 and 2021. During this period, more than 3,000 individuals required hospitalisation following dog bite injuries. Children consistently represent one of the most affected groups, highlighting the broader societal implications of canine aggression.

Current prevention efforts largely focus on owner responsibility, training, and post incident management. While these measures are important, they occur after the dog’s behavioural foundation has already been established. If meaningful reductions in bite risk are to be achieved, prevention must occur much earlier.

Why Breeding Matters

The breeder plays a decisive role in shaping a dog’s long term behavioural profile. Breeders determine the genetic traits passed on to puppies, including baseline fearfulness, impulsivity, arousal levels, and stress recovery. They also influence early neurological development through the environment in which puppies are conceived, born, and raised.

Maternal health and stress during pregnancy, early handling practices, and exposure to everyday stimuli during critical developmental periods all contribute significantly to behavioural outcomes. In addition, health selection directly affects pain risk, which is a well established contributor to aggression and reduced tolerance.

These early factors form the behavioural foundation that a dog carries throughout its life. Training and management can influence behaviour, but they cannot override poor genetic selection or inadequate early development.

What Behavioural Resilience Requires

Dogs with a lower risk of aggressive behaviour typically share several key traits. These include stable emotional regulation, appropriate impulse control, tolerance of frustration, and the ability to recover following stress or startle. Confident but balanced responses to novelty, combined with sound physical health, further reduce the likelihood of fear based or pain related aggression.

These traits do not emerge by chance. They require intentional selection, informed breeding decisions, and consistent observation over multiple generations. Most importantly they need safe socialisation and handling from as early as 3 days old.

Limitations of Commercial Breeding Systems

High volume commercial breeding establishments are not structurally designed to produce behaviourally resilient dogs. These systems typically prioritise output and economic efficiency rather than long term behavioural health.

Common limitations include reduced individual observation of puppies, minimal or inconsistent early handling, poor tracking of temperament outcomes once dogs leave the establishment, and elevated stress levels for breeding females and litters. While regulatory standards may address physical welfare, they do not ensure behavioural soundness.

As a result, such environments cannot reliably produce dogs with predictable, stable temperaments suitable for modern domestic life.

Regulation Must Occur Where Risk Originates

If dogs can be purchased without restriction, screening, or mandatory education, then bite prevention must occur at the breeding level.

This requires compulsory behavioural education for breeders, enforced regulation and supervision of breeding practices, and clear standards for early developmental care. Breeders must also be held accountable for welfare and temperament outcomes, not solely for physical health and housing conditions.

Breed quality and early development matter long before a dog enters a family home.

Regulation Must Also Extend to Training and Behaviour Advice

Breeding regulation alone is not sufficient. The way dogs are trained and the way behavioural problems are addressed also directly influences bite risk.

At present, individuals can offer advice or services for aggressive dog behaviour without any requirement for academic training, scientific understanding, or professional accountability. This creates significant risk, particularly when inappropriate methods increase fear, pain, or emotional suppression rather than addressing underlying causes.

There must be a minimum baseline of academic and professional knowledge required to work with or provide guidance on aggressive behaviour. Regulation of training and behaviour practice would help reduce harm caused by misinformation, unsafe methods, and mismanagement of high risk cases.

Conclusion

Reducing dog bite incidents in Ireland cannot rely solely on owners reacting after problems arise. Effective prevention requires structural change that addresses where behavioural risk originates.

This includes responsible breeding practices grounded in behavioural science, meaningful regulation and supervision of breeding establishments, and professional standards for those advising on canine behaviour.

Dog bite prevention must begin long before the leash is attached. It must include not only those living with dogs, but also those breeding them and those shaping how their behaviour is managed.