The number of people hospitalised by dog bites has doubled in the last 25 years
Our #TakeTheLead investigation follows the death of 4-year-old Alice Stones in a Milton Keynes back garden
Researchers are trying to work out why the number of people being injured in dog attacks has doubled in the last 25 years.
It comes as we continue to investigate the issue following a number of deaths this year alone.
At the end of January, 4-year-old Alice Stones was killed in a Milton Keynes back garden by a dog not on the banned list.
Figures show hospitals in England treated close to nine thousand people who'd been involved in dog attacks last year.
READ: Hospitals treat three children for dog attacks every day
That's more than twice the rate people were being admitted in 1998 - with the rise driven predominantly by an increase on bites on adults.
Attacks on children remain high - but numbers are more steady.
4/5 of dog bites are happening in the home
Dr John Tulloch from the University of Liverpool is a leading researcher into animal attacks.
He's told our #TakeTheLead investigation more research is needed: "Since 1998 till today, people being admitted to hospital for dog bites has more than doubled.
"We're round about 9000 people getting admitted every year. That increase has predominantly been driven by an increase in adults being admitted into hospital rather than an increase in kids being admitted.
"Most bites are occurring at home. With adults, over 80% of bites are occurring at home, and with children over 90% of bites are occurring at home.
"That suggests the dog involved is either their own dog, a friend's dog or a dog they know rather than a strange dog on the street."
Why are dog bites on the up?
Asked why there's been such a marked increase in incidents over the last quarter of a century, Dr Tulloch says there are no straight-forward answers and more research is needed:
"We need more information - there are more dogs, but the rate of increase in bites is at a faster rate than the growth of the dog population.
"That to me says we're interacting with our dogs in a different way than we may have done 20-30 years ago.
"The group that is seeing the fastest growth in dog bites is middle-aged women. We don't know why that is. These are some of the questions we're actively trying to explore at the moment.
"Once we can get to the bottom of what is causing this increase and why its occuring in certain communities can we actually develop some sort of intervention that's going to be successful."
Solution needs to be community focussed
Dr Tulloch warns against the introduction of a blanket response to the rising numbers of dog bite incidents, hinting any national response would see large amounts of money spent on places like Greater London, which has the lowest rate of dog bites in the country.
He advocates for greater spending in targeted areas would be more effective in reducing incidents where bite numbers are high, like in parts of Merseyside, West Yorkshire and the North East: "It makes sense to put more resources where the problem is, but we need to also understand whether communities in London are owning and interacting with their dogs in a different way than these hotspot communities. Are there other fundamental things about how people are interacting differently with dogs in these different places?
"At the moment we don't have that information to tell us why there are those differences at the moment."
Stay tuned to Greatest Hits Radio through the week for more on our Take the Lead investigation