Is Any Dog Breed Most Dangerous?

The short answer: there is no reliable answer, because a breed’s bite rate cannot be calculated from the data that exists. The American Veterinary Medical Association is direct about it: “any dog can bite, regardless of its breed”. What decides whether a dog bites, and how badly, is the individual dog’s history and behavior, its size, the number of dogs involved, and how vulnerable the person bitten is. The AVMA opposes laws that target particular breeds.

Why Breed Bite Rates Don’t Work

The AVMA lists the reasons a bite rate for a breed, or a comparison between breeds, is not possible:

• The biting dog’s breed is often unknown or reported inaccurately.
• The number of bites is unknown, especially bites that do not cause serious injury.
• The number of dogs of each breed is unknown, because it is rare for every dog in a community to be licensed.
• One dog can cause several incidents, which statistics often do not separate.
• Breed popularity changes over time, which makes comparisons across years unreliable.

Telling breeds apart by looks is also unreliable. The AVMA cites a Maddie’s Fund study showing that even people very familiar with dog breeds cannot reliably name the main breed of a mixed-breed dog. Dogs are often wrongly labeled “pit bulls”, a general type rather than a breed. Its summary of the research: attempts to link breed to bite risk find the connection “weak or absent”.

What Does Predict Bites

According to the AVMA, dogs are more likely to become aggressive when they are:

• unsupervised,
• unneutered,
• not socialized to live closely with people or other dogs.

Responsible-ownership factors, such as socialization, neutering and proper containment, come out of the research much more strongly as risk factors than breed does.

How Big the Problem Is

The AVMA cites CDC figures: more than 4.5 million people in the United States are bitten by dogs each year, more than 800,000 receive medical attention, and at least half of those are children. That is why the AVMA argues for measures aimed at every dog and owner, rather than at one look.

What the AVMA Recommends Instead

• Dangerous-dog laws that do not name breeds, enforced with an emphasis on chronically irresponsible owners.
• Leash laws and other animal control rules, enforced by trained officers.
• A ban on dog fighting.
• Neutering for dogs not intended for breeding.
• Education in schools and for adults on choosing a pet, caring for it and preventing bites.

For Your Own Household

Any dog, of any size, deserves supervision around children and visitors. If you are choosing a dog, look at the individual’s history and behavior, and plan for socialization and training. Our puppy socialization timeline and the breed profiles cover socialization, temperament, size and training needs. If a dog in your home growls, snaps or bites, the Merck Veterinary Manual says to seek help from a veterinarian as soon as any signs of aggression occur.