A dog bite, as well as being a very stressful experience for both the victim and the owner, should be acted upon efficiently and in the correct way by both parties. It is often difficult to decide on the best course of action following a dog bite, but how either a victim or owner behaves in this situation  can affect how liable the owner is and whether the victim can make a significant or serious claim against the owner. Of course, every dog bite is different; there are different levels of seriousness which depend on a great number of things, including whether the victim is a child, how lacerated or deep the dog bite injury is, how helpful or unhelpful the owner was at the time of the attack, whether the dog is considered in itself as ‘dangerous’ and whether the owner had treated the dog adequately in the time period leading up to the dog bite. A simple scenario can be used to demonstrate the above points and begin to clear up what can seem like the rather confusing area of dog bite law.

Imagine that a middle-aged woman, Amelia, is taking the family pet, her Yorkshire terrier on a summer weekend stroll in the Cotswold countryside. The Yorkshire terrier, Benny, has never acted in an aggressive way and, judging from Benny’s relatively safe breeding, environment, upbringing and past behaviour, he has given nobody cause to reasonably name him as a ‘dangerous dog’. Amelia releases Benny from his lead when they enter an open clearing and allows Benny to run about the field for a little bit. During this time, a midsummer thunderstorm begins to occur and very loud thunder begins to sound. Amelia notices that the loud and unexpected thundering is making Benny nervous, so she gets ready to put him back on his lead in order to head back home. However, as Amelia is doing this, two teenage girls run into the same opening, presumably attempting to make it home before the showers begin. The combination of the loud claps of thunder and the surprise appearance of the two girls causes Benny to act aggressively in a way he has never done so before. As the girls run past him, Benny bites one of the girls before Amelia can stop him.

Bearing the above dog bite story in mind, there are a number of things that have to be considered. The first is how serious the dog bite injury was. Benny is a Yorkshire terrier – a breed not known at all for causing injuries of any sort. The bite could be a relatively shallow nip – therefore not causing much physical or emotional damage to the victim. Also note that Amelia, the owner, had not intended Benny to attack the teenage girl. However, if the presence of the aggressive or nervous dog, combined with a nip on the leg, had caused the teenage girl to slip over and twist her ankle, there would be grounds for a compensation claim. This would work similarly if the dog bite were a more serious injury (i.e. it drew blood). The teenage girl may have had to miss out on some of her education; she may have been a dancer and been forced to miss a chunk of her training schedule due to the injury caused by the Yorkshire terrier.

Now imagine that the victim of this story is a working adult, perhaps a postman, who has to walk about a lot in order to deliver post; the postman may have to take time off work to recover from the dog bite. If the victim of a dog bite works as a freelancer, they similarly may miss out on a significant amount of pay on account of the dog bite. All of these things may mean that Amelia, though she did not act with intention, would be liable to pay compensation.

Another important factor to consider is how Amelia acted in the time after the dog bite. If she acted disagreeably and immediately began blaming the victim for scaring Benny and therefore causing the dog bite to occur, the victim would be more likely to seek out legal advice against her. Alternatively, she may have offered to take the victim of the dog bite to the nearest hospital, ensuring that her dog had done no life-threatening or serious damage. This type of behaviour would put Amelia in a more favourable light, though victims should remember that even if the dog owner acts compassionately, they are still entitled to making a dog bite compensation claim if necessary.

The above scenarios should demonstrate that a dog bite claim should be made if the victim’s life has been negatively affected in any way by the attack.