Education key in preventing XL Bully attacks, says Rutland dog expert
There's been a number of recent XL bully attacks in England and Wales
More understanding of when dogs like XL bullies are distressed will reduce the risk of people being bitten, according to an animal behaviourist who teaches children in Rutland how to live with and understand dogs.
In the last few days, a 15-year-old boy was taken to hospital in Wales following an attack from a registered XL bully and a five-year-old in Hull sustained injuries in a separate incident also involving a suspected XL bully type.
Last Tuesday (21 May), a woman died after suffering an attack from her two registered XL bully dogs at her home in East London.
Earlier this year, it became an offence to own a XL bully dog without them being registered.
Among restrictions brought in by the Government, owners had to muzzle and put the dogs on a lead in public, as well as have them neutered and microchipped.
Anna Pollard, from the organisation Kids Around Dogs (KAD), said: "How many people really know canine body language, you know, are we able to see these subtle signs in dogs before they build up to a bite...?
...it's rare that a dog will just bite, there's this whole escalation of trigger stacking - how the dog's ears are positioned, how its tails' positioned..."
She added: "You see dogs have cropped tails and cropped ears, these are the ways that we read a dog's body language, this is how we tell if they're happy, if they're uncomfortable...
...it goes along with other things, lip-licking, there's a whole host of canine body language things".