Tiny dogs account for record number of bites

New York - There were a record number of dog bites in New York City last year — with pint-sized Chihuahuas and Shih Tzus surprisingly among the top five culprits. The city’s most vicious dog — measured by the number of bites on humans reported last year — was the pit bull, with 815 reported chompings. That’s nearly a quarter of the 3,609 bites recorded in 2010, the highest annual number in the data provided by the Health Department. The pit was followed by the Rottweiler, Shih Tzu, Chihuahua and standard poodle. ”We call it the ‘poor little rich dog’ effect, where people take their small dogs to department stores and all the sales people touch them. Owners get bitten, and stranger aggression is really a problem in dogs.” Dogs don’t know how big they are,” he said. “Whether they are a 5-pound Chihuahua or a 100-pound Lab, they act out of instinct.”   More…