Kid nippers have no priors

Most dogs that bite kids haven't chomped on children before, according to research in the journal Injury Prevention. In the study of 111 dog bites from 103 dogs presented at a behavior clinic over a four-year period, 20 percent of the dogs had never bitten anyone, and of those that had, 33 percent had never bitten a child before. Researchers think anxiety or pain may play a part in uncharacteristic aggression. Three-quarters of the biters exhibited anxiety when separated from their owners or exposed to loud noises such as thunderstorms or fireworks. Half of the biting dogs had medical conditions such as skin or bone growths, eye problems, liver problems, kidney disease, hormonal conditions, or infections.