When the bite is worse than the bark

A mush-inducing face, a pair of oxytocin-infusing eyes, an always-alert brain and satin-like fur — there’s so much to fall for when it comes to our pets’ looks. Often, what we miss noticing are their pearly white teeth hidden behind their lips, lining their strong jaws. Those canines, meant to tear and grind meat, if forced, can sink into our skin and draw blood. Imagine sleeping next to a carnivore who can potentially maul you, but instead chooses to boop you with its nose or lick you with affection! I don’t mean to scare anyone, but that blood-drawing bite is a possibility.

Both dogs and cats can bite. Although a cat’s teeth are sharper than a dog’s, its bite isn’t powerful enough to cause a deep wound or public outrage. A dog’s bite, on the other hand, is almost always contentious and causes much brouhaha. With the highest number of dogs anywhere in the world, India leads in the incidents of dog bites and rabies. Every tragic dog bite incident kicks up a heated discussion around who’s to blame — the dog, the victim, the city or the law? But what drives our furry companions to sink their canines and draw blood?

For starters, dogs don’t bite people at random unless they are rabid. They bite when cornered, as a last resort when they can’t run away and see no other way to defend themselves. Most common triggers include food or resource guarding (dogs will snap at anything they think is a threat to their meal), maternal instincts (a lactating mother will bite if anything threatens the safety of her pets), prey drive (dogs chase and snap at anything that runs, including children) or chronic pain and physical discomfort due to arthritis or the use of pain to ‘correct’ behaviours. 

Fearful dogs that have a ‘short fuse ’— or low tolerance to any stress — can snap into the bite mode with the smallest of triggers, including new environment, certain people, sudden noises, other dogs or minor illnesses like an upset tummy.  

As kids, we were always warned against running around dogs, or approaching them when they were eating, sleeping, nursing or were too old and sick. If we did and got bitten, it was squarely our fault, and the dog would never be blamed for defending itself. We needed to learn how to behave around dogs, my grandma would say. In contrast, a dog bite today has much at stake for the dog and its parents. In countries like the US or UK, one bite, irrespective of what circumstances led to it, could result in city authorities confiscating the dog, rehoming it or euthanising it. If it’s a street dog in India, chances are high it could be beaten to death or poisoned. 

While a bite is traumatic for the victim and the dog, watching for signs that can lead to such incidents can avert it. When dogs feel threatened and can’t find a way out, they show their discomfort in their subtle body language: lip licking, whining, cowering or freezing are all signs. When that is ignored, they bare their teeth by pulling back their lips and growling. Then, they are forced to bite as a last resort in a bid to escape what’s tormenting them. Investing our time in understanding the signs of discomfort, and educating children who are mostly the victims, benefits everyone whose lives involve a dog. 

Keeping our pets’ rabies vaccination up-to-date keeps our dogs and cats safe from the deadly disease. It also spares the unfortunate bite victim the many rounds of painful post-exposure rabies vaccination and a miserable death. The World Health Organisation estimates about 20,000 people die from rabies, which has no known cure, in India. 

When the street dog Pippi adopted us, he had a long history of biting people, although he had never bit any of ‘his’ people — those who fed him or played with him. Over time, we have learnt to recognise that he has a ‘short fuse’ and can get agitated fairly quickly in a stressful environment. To keep him and everyone around him safe, we respect his space, introduce him slowly to our guests and give him a choice to move away instead of feeling forced to fight. So far, that has worked in our favour. 

As a parent of a dog with a biting past, I argue that an act of self-defence shouldn’t be punished with death but should be heard as a cry from our pets for help. It’s unfair always to blame the dog, but that’s the world we live in. 

Tailspin is your monthly column on everything that’s heartwarming and annoying about pet parenting.

(The writer is a science communicator and mom to Pippi, a five-year-old rescued Indie, who is behind her drive to understand dogs better. She posts on X @RamanSpoorthy)