Six postal workers are bitten each day in England, so find out how to prevent your dog being the culprit. Lots of information about dog bites to postal workers and measures you can take can be found at https://www.royalmail.com/personal/dog-awareness

Royal Mail workers love dogs, and many own dogs themselves. AVOID is the Royal Mail/ CWU campaign which aims to keep postal workers safe, protecting dogs and their owners from bite consequences, such as injuries and legal action. Postal workers are bitten when entering or leaving private properties, or when putting a hand through a letterbox. Aggression in these situations often does not reflect the nature of the dog. Many dogs who have bitten postal workers have no history of aggression or biting.

As a result of a bite, a dog may be seized and even euthanised. Legal action may also be taken against the owner and the experience of your own dog biting someone can be really stressful. Avoiding dogs does not mean that the Royal Mail dislikes dogs or that postal workers don’t want to interact with dogs. This is the only approach that can reliably keep all postal workers, dog owners and dogs safe.

AVOID stands for:

• Avoid – all interactions with dogs.
• Value yourself – It could happen to you!
• Observe – for signs of a dog
• Inform – others about dog presence
• Defend – against dog attacks using equipment

The AVOID message was developed by the University of Liverpool from our research on perceptions of dog bites and effective injury prevention.

Is this approach working? In short- we don’t know yet. We need more time and data to evaluate it. However from existing data, dog related incidents have decreased. In 2013 there were 45 dog related incidents with postal workers in Liverpool postcodes, in 2016 there were 18 and in 2017 there were 15, which is promising!

Do you want to help?

Please take the following steps:

1) I will put the dog in another room when delivery people knock on the door

2) I will not let my dog snatch at mail and leaflets that come through the letterbox and I will consider an external letterbox or letterbox cage.

3) I will understand that my postie is not allowed to pet or feed my dog and I won’t encourage them to do so.

Understanding dog law:

There are several legal documents which outline dog owners’ rights and responsibilities in relation to their dog. The law is changing and it’s good to be familiar with the most up to date legislation. Below you can find a few helpful resources.

• Summary of welfare legislations and Dangerous Dogs Act prepared by Blue Cross: https://www.bluecross.org.uk/pet-advice/laws-all-dog-owners-need-know
• Government’s summary of Dangerous Dogs Act: https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public
• A great source of information about law related to dogs is the website of Solicitor Trevor Cooper https://www.doglaw.co.uk/

For more information on how to keep your dog and delivery workers safe, you may wish to attend a FREE webinar called ‘Protecting your Postie’ ran by Blue Cross https://www.bluecross.org.uk/education