4.04 The Bite Scale and How to Evaluate Aggression

Our perception of dog aggression is easily distorted by fear. That’s why it’s important to evaluate "dog bites" by an objective measure. The Bite Scale provides a consistent way of looking at a dog’s history of aggression by measuring the amount of injury that was inflicted. 95% of “dog bites" result in minimal harm and are not caused by dangerous animals.

Level 1. Obnoxious or aggressive behavior but no skin-contact by teeth. Level 2. Skin-contact by teeth but no skin-puncture. Level 3. One to four punctures from a single bite with no puncture deeper than half the lengthof the dog’s canine teeth Level 4. One to four punctures from a single bite with at least one puncture deeper than half the length of the dog’s canine teeth. Level 5. Multiple-bite incident with at least two Level 4 bites or multiple-attack incident with at least one Level 4 bite in each. Level 6. Victim dead.