Table 2

Circumstances associated with dog bites to 203 children presenting to an urban trauma centre

Variable		%
Familiarity
Child and dog knew each other	Yes, well	49
	Yes, not very well	23
	No	28
Dog lived in child's household	Yes	36
Owner of dog	Relative, neighbour, friend	54
	Family	35
	Stranger	9
Location^*
Indoor		52
	Dog's home (regardless of child)	92
	Both dog's and child's home	62
	Neither dog's nor child's home	6
Outdoor		48
	In immediate vicinity of dog's home (not child's)	41
	In immediate vicinity of both dog's and child's home	34
	In vicinity of neither dog's not child's home	17
Interaction^*
Dog and child ‘doing something together’		52
Child was petting the dog		46
Interaction inferred from open-ended question of bite incident		47
By age of child	0–2 years old	69
	3–6 years old	63
	7–12 years old	43
	12–17 years old	58
Petting, reaching, hugging, kissing		39
Hitting, kicking, hurting, frightening		12
Initiated by child		63
Initiated by dog		33
Activity preceding bite
Dog	Moving towards child	41
	Sitting/standing	34
	Lying down	24
	Moving away from child	1
Child	Sitting/standing	34
	Somewhat active (eg, walking)	40
	Very active (eg, running/jumping)	27