National Dog Bite Prevention Week is observed annually during the third week of May and this year, Regional Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Center, in conjunction with the South Jersey-based non-profit organization, NJ Aid for Animals, hosted two Dog Aggression Education Seminars led by renowned canine aggression and behavior expert, Jim Crosby.
The seminars, geared toward professionals with direct and daily canine interaction, such as veterinary staff, animal control officers and animal shelter workers, aimed to answer the questions, “Why do dogs bite?” and “How can dog bites be prevented?” Sandi Ryan, Hospital Administrator for Regional Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Center, said that the decision to hold these seminars was made in accordance to the hospital’s mission to offer educational opportunities that help to promote the safety of both animals and the general public.
Over the course of the two seminars, more than 100 attendees gathered in the upper ballroom of Scotland Run Golf Club to hear Jim speak and ask him questions relating to their specific circumstances.
Jim is a Florida native and a retired Police Lieutenant. After 23 years of service, Jim says, he just “found his way” into dogs. His work with dogs has taken him around the country as well as internationally. He’s worked on numerous high-profile cases, including 40 cases with dogs who have caused human deaths, and he spent 6 weeks in New Orleans working with dogs after the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
In his lectures, Jim’s anecdotal narration, raw photos and videos led attendees into the nitty-gritty world of dog bite investigation.
Jim’s many years of experience working with dogs that have been deemed “dangerous” have led him to declare that the reason why dogs bite is much simpler than most people imagine it to be. “Dogs bite”, he says, “because they have teeth.” A dog’s teeth are its primary tools for everything it does — from feeding and exploration to play and communication. Since humans don’t speak the same language as dogs do, when things go bad and a dog bites, the problem can almost always be sourced to a communication failure — not on the part of the dog, but of the human.
Additionally, Jim spoke about the bite scale, which is used to evaluate the severity of a dog bite, behavior evaluation tools used on dogs after a biting incident, the techniques and protocol used in dog bite investigations and possible remedies to help repair communication errors between dogs and humans.
Jim said that his goals for every case he’s called in to investigate, are to definitively prove or disprove a suspect dog’s involvement and to get to the root of where the communication went wrong. By sharing his knowledge and experience through seminars and information sessions such as these, he hopes that others will gain the wisdom and tools they need to help prevent communication errors and, ultimately, dog bites, which in turn, will save more dogs. “Too many dogs are needlessly killed,” he said. “I want to help put an end to that.”
At the conclusion of each seminar, attendees received a certificate of completion and were asked to complete a survey about their experience. The Regional team will use the feedback from this lecture series to guide the development of additional educational opportunities in the future.