EXCERPTS from “An Overview of Canine Apprehension
Methodologies and their Relationship to Bite Ratios”
By Charlie Mesloh
Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies
University of Central Florida
April 17, 2003

Executive Summary

• Bark and Hold (Find and Bark) trained dogs have a higher bite ratio than Bite and Hold dogs.

• Specific breeds such as the Malinois have higher bite ratios than German Shepherds.

• Find and Bark training does not “prevent canines from biting suspects in situations in which such force is not necessary to effect an arrest.” The canine will precipitate the bite by bumping the suspect and causing them to move, thus fulfilling the requirement for the bite.

• Responsibility for suspect injuries lies with the handler and their conscious decision to release the dog. It is unrealistic for the dog to make these decisions.

Distribution of the Survey Instrument

In the first week of October 2002, the survey instrument, an explanatory cover letter, and a postage-paid self-addressed return envelope were sent by first class mail to all 334 dog handlers that comprised a census of the State of Florida.

A follow-up letter, a second survey instrument and a second postage-paid return envelope were mailed to non-respondents in the first week of November 2002. Finally, emails (when available) and letters (to all non-respondents) were sent to both agency administrators and canine handlers in the first week of December as a final reminder to participate. At the conclusion of data collection, a total of 181 survey instruments (52%) had returned.
Analysis of the Data

The key focus of the survey was the examination of the bite ratio. This ratio is determined by comparing the number of bites to the number of apprehensions and can be illustrated in formula as:

Bite Ratios = Apprehensions with Bites
Total Apprehensions

[a/b], where a= the number of apprehensions with bites and b= the total number of apprehensions. For example, if a canine team were to apprehend 50 suspects but during the course of arresting them, 5 suspects were bitten by the dog, it could be shown as [5/50] or a 1/10 (10%) ratio.

The issue of the bite ratio is probed in two sections of the survey. First, the respondent is asked whether their agency monitors bite ratios and if so, to list their bite ratio for the previous calendar year. Later, the total number of yearly deployments is broken down by utilizations (tracking, area search, building search, and fleeing suspect) and the respondent is asked to list the number of apprehensions and bites within each category. This second reporting was made to insure accurate recording of ratios.

Findings

I conducted several simple statistical tests that may be of value. First, I ran an independent sample T-test to determine whether or not there was a significant difference between the bite ratios of dogs trained in bark and hold and those trained in bite and hold. Although there were obvious differences in the mean scores (shown below), there was not a statistically significant difference. However, it appears that bark and hold (find and bark) dogs actually had higher bite ratios.



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