Should I make a dog bite claim

[DB1100]

We had a potentially serious incident this week. A chap I work with quite often knocked on a bloke's door with a signed-for. The bloke opened the door and one of his two dogs leapt at my colleague, trying to bite his upper body/face. He raised his arm and it bit his forearm instead before the bloke dragged the f*cker away. He went to hospital to have it cleaned and the tetanus etc. We had a meeting the next day and the manager told us all the usual spiel about dogs, and I asked if the Police had been informed given the new legislation, a question which he bypassed to much snickering and eye-rolling.
The bloke was very apologetic. This attack was unexpected and unpredictable, so how would clairvoyants like DB100 respond to that?? The owner was there, the dogs inside. The only way to avoid this totally is to simply not deliver to ANY house with a dog UNLESS there is an external mailbox, and don't attempt to deliver ANY signed-for/packets, automatically leaving a P739.
Ultimately it comes down to judgement, and it doesn't help on the few occasions a postie gets it slightly wrong when posters like DB100 start quoting chapter and verse at the injured party.

Completely different,the homeowner should have made sure his dogs were secure before opening the door,the postie was not to blame in anyway for that,what makes you think I am clairvoyant.Postie gets it slightly wrong!! what is slightly wrong about going in a garden where there are dog's visible and we have been told numerous times not to go in.do you need it tattooing on your hand?.I do feel sorry for that postie for getting bit going in that garden,but it could have been avoided,the incident you described is the fault of the homeowner and is solely down to him.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

We had a potentially serious incident this week. A chap I work with quite often knocked on a bloke's door with a signed-for. The bloke opened the door and one of his two dogs leapt at my colleague, trying to bite his upper body/face. He raised his arm and it bit his forearm instead before the bloke dragged the f*cker away. He went to hospital to have it cleaned and the tetanus etc. We had a meeting the next day and the manager told us all the usual spiel about dogs, and I asked if the Police had been informed given the new legislation, a question which he bypassed to much snickering and eye-rolling.
The bloke was very apologetic. This attack was unexpected and unpredictable, so how would clairvoyants like DB100 respond to that?? The owner was there, the dogs inside. The only way to avoid this totally is to simply not deliver to ANY house with a dog UNLESS there is an external mailbox, and don't attempt to deliver ANY signed-for/packets, automatically leaving a P739.
Ultimately it comes down to judgement, and it doesn't help on the few occasions a postie gets it slightly wrong when posters like DB100 start quoting chapter and verse at the injured party.

Completely different,the homeowner should have made sure his dogs were secure before opening the door,the postie was not to blame in anyway for that,what makes you think I am clairvoyant.Postie gets it slightly wrong!! what is slightly wrong about going in a garden where there are dog's visible and we have been told numerous times not to go in.do you need it tattooing on your hand?.I do feel sorry for that postie for getting bit going in that garden,but it could have been avoided,the incident you described is the fault of the homeowner and is solely down to him.

not only visible, that the postie knew they were there and loose and decided to chance it

[DB1100]

We had a potentially serious incident this week. A chap I work with quite often knocked on a bloke's door with a signed-for. The bloke opened the door and one of his two dogs leapt at my colleague, trying to bite his upper body/face. He raised his arm and it bit his forearm instead before the bloke dragged the f*cker away. He went to hospital to have it cleaned and the tetanus etc. We had a meeting the next day and the manager told us all the usual spiel about dogs, and I asked if the Police had been informed given the new legislation, a question which he bypassed to much snickering and eye-rolling.
The bloke was very apologetic. This attack was unexpected and unpredictable, so how would clairvoyants like DB100 respond to that?? The owner was there, the dogs inside. The only way to avoid this totally is to simply not deliver to ANY house with a dog UNLESS there is an external mailbox, and don't attempt to deliver ANY signed-for/packets, automatically leaving a P739.
Ultimately it comes down to judgement, and it doesn't help on the few occasions a postie gets it slightly wrong when posters like DB100 start quoting chapter and verse at the injured party.

Completely different,the homeowner should have made sure his dogs were secure before opening the door,the postie was not to blame in anyway for that,what makes you think I am clairvoyant.Postie gets it slightly wrong!! what is slightly wrong about going in a garden where there are dog's visible and we have been told numerous times not to go in.do you need it tattooing on your hand?.I do feel sorry for that postie for getting bit going in that garden,but it could have been avoided,the incident you described is the fault of the homeowner and is solely down to him.

not only visible, that the postie knew they were there and loose and decided to chance it

That's what I'm saying

[Surreypostie]

In our office we are told if the door is open do not enter the garden, rattle the gate etc. Many new estates have no fences, gates orvanything else. If the door is open any dog has access to the whole street. What do you do? Say I didn't deliver the road as I saw a door open and they might have a dog?

[DB1100]

In our office we are told if the door is open do not enter the garden, rattle the gate etc. Many new estates have no fences, gates orvanything else. If the door is open any dog has access to the whole street. What do you do? Say I didn't deliver the road as I saw a door open and they might have a dog?

Using the same rationale a dog has legs and can walk so if a door is open in London postie's in Wales will have to stay indoors then,maybe Scotland as well to be safe,get real fella

[TrueBlueTerrier]

In our office we are told if the door is open do not enter the garden, rattle the gate etc. Many new estates have no fences, gates orvanything else. If the door is open any dog has access to the whole street. What do you do? Say I didn't deliver the road as I saw a door open and they might have a dog?

Using the same rationale a dog has legs and can walk so if a door is open in London postie's in Wales will have to stay indoors then,maybe Scotland as well to be safe,get real fella

The use of "Reductio ad Absurdum" does not work in this case and the "get real fella" is unwarranted. Okay Mick took it to a maximum level, however, the underlying point of his argument is still valid. If an address has a known aggressive dog, that is hopefully in the WRAP, and their door is open and he has carried out a live risk assessment, then he has every right to abandon the delivery of mail on that street but he should inform the manager immediately. The extreme case you mention and used "Reductio ad Absurdum" for fails because dogs tend to be territorial so once you are outside of their territory the risk of attack is reduced. I certainly don't know any dog that has a 78,772 sq mile territory, even wolf packs its only about 1,000 miles square

[DB1100]

In our office we are told if the door is open do not enter the garden, rattle the gate etc. Many new estates have no fences, gates orvanything else. If the door is open any dog has access to the whole street. What do you do? Say I didn't deliver the road as I saw a door open and they might have a dog?

Using the same rationale a dog has legs and can walk so if a door is open in London postie's in Wales will have to stay indoors then,maybe Scotland as well to be safe,get real fella

The use of "Reductio ad Absurdum" does not work in this case and the "get real fella" is unwarranted. Okay Mick took it to a maximum level, however, the underlying point of his argument is still valid. If an address has a known aggressive dog, that is hopefully in the WRAP, and their door is open and he has carried out a live risk assessment, then he has every right to abandon the delivery of mail on that street but he should inform the manager immediately. The extreme case you mention and used "Reductio ad Absurdum" for fails because dogs tend to be territorial so once you are outside of their territory the risk of attack is reduced. I certainly don't know any dog that has a 78,772 sq mile territory, even wolf packs its only about 1,000 miles square

Fine,but his post didn't mention anything about a known dog issue,dog's will stray for a couple of miles if they are intact and get a whiff of a bitch that is in use,certainly more than one street,however other things will be on the dogs mind.You could take any issue to an extreme.Had he mentioned that a door on a particular house that had a known dog issue was open he could bring back as much mail as he thought necessary,I don't dispute that.But you would find it hard to justify bringing a whole estate back.

[bustedflush]

In our office we are told if the door is open do not enter the garden, rattle the gate etc. Many new estates have no fences, gates orvanything else. If the door is open any dog has access to the whole street. What do you do? Say I didn't deliver the road as I saw a door open and they might have a dog?

Using the same rationale a dog has legs and can walk so if a door is open in London postie's in Wales will have to stay indoors then,maybe Scotland as well to be safe,get real fella

The use of "Reductio ad Absurdum" does not work in this case and the "get real fella" is unwarranted. Okay Mick took it to a maximum level, however, the underlying point of his argument is still valid. If an address has a known aggressive dog, that is hopefully in the WRAP, and their door is open and he has carried out a live risk assessment, then he has every right to abandon the delivery of mail on that street but he should inform the manager immediately. The extreme case you mention and used "Reductio ad Absurdum" for fails because dogs tend to be territorial so once you are outside of their territory the risk of attack is reduced. I certainly don't know any dog that has a 78,772 sq mile territory, even wolf packs its only about 1,000 miles square

Well you ain't seen my missus, wherever I am in the country I am always getting yapped at...

[bustedflush]

Another thing which concerns me here is the lack of compulsory insurance for dog owners. OK, if I get attacked on a nice middle-class estate when I sue them via the Union the chances are they will have legal cover on their home insurance which goes with the territory of those that have something worth insuring. If not they will have equity in the property if not rented, which can be secured against a legal claim. So, if you get attacked on a scummer estate in benefits street say, what chance of recompense have you got? A sequestration order on the proportion of their benefits not spent on supermarket lager and Mayfair cigarettes, of say £1 a week?
It's time the government legislated in order to have these yapping, snarling sh!t-machines compulsorily insured so as well as the innocent postie/passer-by getting paid out, the NHS can claim off the idiots too for costs of treating the injured.

[betty_boop]

I seem to have caused a lots of mixed reviews here. I'm not saying it wasn't a daft thing to do by entering the garden but hindsight is a wonderful science. By the sheer nature of the owner claiming that the dog was merely trying to get to my shoelaces then it says to me that it's clearly not the first time the dog has gone for someone! There was no warning card in the frame and I have other duties where there is the same breed in the garden and I've never had a problem with them which adds weight to why I didn't think twice.

What worries me the most is that it could have been a child selling cookies or raising money for a local brownies group for example. The owner clearly thinks there is no issue with his dogs and it needs to strongly be brought to his attention that he's in denial and there very much is a problem.

I have very distressed by what happened and not to mention a lot of pain so in my opinion the owner needs to be held accountable for the actions of his pet.

[Surreypostie]

In our office we are told if the door is open do not enter the garden, rattle the gate etc. Many new estates have no fences, gates orvanything else. If the door is open any dog has access to the whole street. What do you do? Say I didn't deliver the road as I saw a door open and they might have a dog?

Using the same rationale a dog has legs and can walk so if a door is open in London postie's in Wales will have to stay indoors then,maybe Scotland as well to be safe,get real fella

The use of "Reductio ad Absurdum" does not work in this case and the "get real fella" is unwarranted. Okay Mick took it to a maximum level, however, the underlying point of his argument is still valid. If an address has a known aggressive dog, that is hopefully in the WRAP, and their door is open and he has carried out a live risk assessment, then he has every right to abandon the delivery of mail on that street but he should inform the manager immediately. The extreme case you mention and used "Reductio ad Absurdum" for fails because dogs tend to be territorial so once you are outside of their territory the risk of attack is reduced. I certainly don't know any dog that has a 78,772 sq mile territory, even wolf packs its only about 1,000 miles square

One case in particular which was resolved to a point with a visit from my manager was to a cul-de-sac. Only about 20 houses but once you were in you had to go past this particular house to get out again, they were always opening the door if they come out and allowing the dog to do as it pleased. I had to use my trolley more than once to fend it of until they got it under control.I used to brick myself everyday walking into that street. Like I say, no paths, no gates to stand behind, just idiots that ownded a dog.