About Us

Who are Merseyside Dog Safety Partnership

About

We are a multi-disciplinary partnership launched to help to address the problem of dog bites. Founded in Merseyside, we now work nationally and internationally

Our website shares resources to encourage positive dog interactions, improve human- dog relationships and ultimately, prevent dog bites. We provide information for dog owners and members of the public, as well as organisations and employers whose employees may come into contact with dogs. When see a gap in provision, we work together to create new bespoke resources or interventions.

FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES: If you would like to discuss the topic of dog bites with an expert, please contact us using the form below and we will direct you to the best person given your aims.

MDSP has many partners around the world and will always welcome new organisations who believe they could play a role in improving safety around dogs. As a community we meet online every 1-2 months to discuss needs, intelligence and strategise our response. The partnership is run and coordinated by the University of Liverpool. Some of our regular partners include:

Our history

and what we do

Dog bites take a serious toll on human health in the UK. In just England per year as a result of dog bites, there are on average:

9000 hospital admissions
3 fatalities

Our research showed that Merseyside has the highest number of dog-related injuries and deaths in England, and Swansea in Wales. In addition to physical injury, dog bites also have psychological health impacts.

In 2015, the CWU begun working with the University of Liverpool to strengthen their approach to dog bite prevention, in particular for postal workers bitten whilst delivering to houses.

From this, we identified the need to include more organisations in our collaborative work, gaining different perspectives to tackle the problem of dog related safety.

The Merseyside Dog Safety Partnership was born.

We meet a number of times per year to discuss progress, coordinate activities and give opportunities for partner organisations to work together on community issues, responding to both local and national needs. Our members also conduct academic research into dog bite prevention and share our findings.

Our work has been so successful that many of our collaborations and interventions have spread to other areas of the UK and even internationally. We have also led to spin-off sub-groups such as local area Dog Action Groups and a Welsh Dog Safety Partnership to tackle local specific needs.

Our mission is:

“working together to promote safe interaction with dogs”.

Our aims are:

1. Educating and promoting safe interaction with dogs for all members of the community;

2. Understanding and promoting responsible dog ownership through research and education;

3. Gaining greater understanding of the prevalence and occurrences of dog inflicted injuries across Merseyside;

4. Tackling assumptions and stereotypes of aggressive behaviour in dogs and dog ownership in Merseyside;

5. Empowering, supporting and promoting awareness of community initiatives that aim to reduce dog bites in Merseyside;

6. Providing nationwide and international support and best practice guidance across all of our activity types to inform dog bite prevention initiatives and research.

We recognise that Interactions with dogs can be really enjoyable and improve people’s health and wellbeing. Safe interactions rely on high level of both human wellbeing and dog welfare and we aim to support initiatives that can help to achieve these goals.

One of the greatest concerns to dog welfare is what happens to dogs after they bite. To reduce the severity and frequency of dog bites and number of dogs being humanely euthanised or relinquished to dog shelters for behaviour issues, we need:
• Better clinical and scientific data about aggression and dog bites
• Greater knowledge of the risks and causes of aggression
• Improved human and dog behaviours
• Improved community and workplace knowledge about bite prevention
• Greater cooperation between organisations that play a part in bite prevention

To achieve our aims we are involved in conducting relevant research, collating and sharing dog bite data, and providing education, information and training in communities and workplaces.

Get In Touch

Want to join us or send us a message?