Every 7 seconds someone gets bitten by a dog in the US; National Dog Bite Prevention week begins Sunday

HOUSTON - We are a nation of dog lovers. Americans share their homes with 86 million pet dogs and nearly half of all U.S. homes have at least one dog.

"We love our dogs, our dogs are part of the family," said Dr. Lori Teller, President of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

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Like the rest of us, dogs can get cranky, agitated, scared, or just want to be left alone.

"Over four and a half million dog bites happen every year. That's one bite every seven seconds in the United States," Teller said. "And over 800,000 of those require medical attention."

All dogs, even cute fuzzy ones, can bite.

"If a dog is sleeping, and you wake it up or somehow startle it, or scare it, or if it feels threatened by something. Some dogs are protective of their food or their bed," said Teller. "It could be a mom dog with puppies."

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Best way to keep your dog from biting is to socialize it.

"Expose it to a wide variety of people, so kids, adults, older people different colors different races all of that," Teller said.

Nearly half of all dog bite victims are children.

"Make sure they know how to approach a dog, and they know not to wake a dog up, not startle the dog, not try to steal the dog's toy, not approach strange dogs," said Teller.

According to the AVMA, in 2021, Texas was one of the top 10 states with reported dog bites.

The group seeing the biggest jump in dog bite cases, delivery workers.

"My own son is a delivery person, and got bit a couple of weeks ago while on the job," Teller said. "That results in a lot of trips to the ER Urgent Care Centers, a lot of workman comp claims, so everybody's insurance goes up when somebody gets bit by a dog."

The average cost for dog bite insurance claims in 2021 was almost $50,000.