Dogs bite more on very hot days

A study published on Thursday in Scientific reports found that dogs bite more often (up to 11 percent more) on the hottest and sunniest days, and when the level of air pollution is highest.

Previous research has documented that warmer weather and higher levels of air pollution may be associated with increased aggression in humans, rhesus monkeys, rats and mice.

However, it is not clearand aggressiveness of dogs towards people also follows this trend and, following this study, the authors caution that more data and research is needed to confirm this conclusion.

The study was led by Clas Linnman, a researcher at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Neuroimaging Laboratory in Boston, Massachusetts (United States).

To conduct the research, Linnman and his team examined data on dog bites between 2009 and 2018 in eight US cities: Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Chicago, Louisville, Los Angeles and New York.

According to public data provided by the control authorities animalsin that period, 69,525 dog bites were reported, about three per day for ten years.

The authors examined the relationship between dog bite rates and daily levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone and temperature, as well as levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and precipitation.

Study found that the frequency of dog bites increased by eleven percent on days with higher levels of UV radiationfour percent on days with higher temperatures and three percent on days with higher ozone levels.

In contrast, the frequency of dog bites decreased slightly (by 1%) on days with higher precipitation.

The authors point out that dog bite records did not include information on other factors that may influence a dog’s level of aggression, such as breed, sex, or whether the animal was neutered or neutered.

In addition, they also had no information about previous interactions between the dog and the bite victim, such as whether the person was familiar with the dog.

For this reason, although the authors argue that these results seem to strengthen the association between high temperatures and contamination with dog aggression, they insist that more research is needed to confirm and explore this relationship.