A new report has revealed that 76% of owners are unable to correctly spot the early warning signs that their dog is distressed, which in turn can lead to acts of aggression, including biting. <\/p>
A BBC investigation<\/a> published earlier this year showed that dog attacks recorded by police in England and Wales had risen by 21% in a year. At the same time, dog rehoming centres are seeing an increase in demand for services as owners look to relinquish their pets<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> Now, new research<\/a> from the UK\u2019s largest dog welfare charity, Dogs Trust, has revealed that 76% of owners are unable to correctly read dog body language, misunderstanding the subtle signs that their pets are stressed or worried \u2013 which in turn can lead to acts of aggression, including biting.<\/p> The results, released as part of the charity\u2019s National Dog Survey<\/a>, also show that 71% of owners wrongly believe they are more likely to be bitten by a dog they don\u2019t know than by their own pet. However, according to well-established research, this is not the case, with most dog bites to children occurring by a known dog in the home.\u00a0<\/p> In a bid to reduce the number of dog bites, Dogs Trust is calling on owners to go \u201cBark to School\u201d and learn dog body language.<\/p> \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a huge increase in the UK\u2019s dog population over the last few years, and around a third of all UK households now own a dog,” says Maria Murray, Associate Director Prevention and Community Engagement at Dog\u2019s Trust. <\/p> “Along with the growth in ownership, we have also seen a rise in the number of dog bite incidents and injuries, most of which happen within the home involving known dogs.” <\/p> Most dog bites, and other acts of aggression, happen when dogs feel worried, scared or stressed, according to Dogs Trust, and the charity believes many of these incidents could be prevented if owners can spot the early warning signs that their dogs are distressed \u2013 such as\u202ftheir ears going back, tension in their body, or their tail tucked between their legs.<\/p> Murray says that lessons in body language mean owners can better understand when to “remove their dog from the situation or take steps to prevent things escalating.”<\/p> Here are some of the body language signs and signals missed the most, according to the National Dog Survey:<\/p> \u201cUnfortunately, when these signs are missed, it can have a huge impact on all involved, including the dog,” says Murray.<\/p> “Over the last year, we have received over eight thousand calls from owners looking to relinquish their dog due to problem behaviours, and in cases where the worst happens and someone is injured, owners may have to make the devastating decision to have their dogs euthanised.”<\/p> The National Dog Survey<\/a> is based on insights from over 400,000 of the UK\u2019s dogs and their owners. <\/em><\/p> More about dogs<\/strong><\/p> A new report has revealed that 76% of owners are unable to correctly spot the early warning signs that their dog is distressed, which in turn can lead to acts of aggression, including biting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":40103,"template":"","categories":[1,27],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/09\/as-reports-of-vicious-dog-attacks-increase-experts-say-reading-body-language-is-vital.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/09\/as-reports-of-vicious-dog-attacks-increase-experts-say-reading-body-language-is-vital-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/09\/as-reports-of-vicious-dog-attacks-increase-experts-say-reading-body-language-is-vital-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/09\/as-reports-of-vicious-dog-attacks-increase-experts-say-reading-body-language-is-vital-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/09\/as-reports-of-vicious-dog-attacks-increase-experts-say-reading-body-language-is-vital-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/09\/as-reports-of-vicious-dog-attacks-increase-experts-say-reading-body-language-is-vital-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/09\/as-reports-of-vicious-dog-attacks-increase-experts-say-reading-body-language-is-vital-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A new report has revealed that 76% of owners are unable to correctly spot the early warning signs that their dog is distressed, which in turn can lead to acts of aggression, including biting.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/40102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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