Advice please - so upset - dog bit delivery man's fingers

[Mittens]

Thanks all - i just had to do a 250 mile car journey for work tomorrow so too tired and emotional to really comment now. I am aware of the DD act amendments and quite frankly that is what is upsetting me so much. But i have two spaniels and genuinely dont know which one nipped him - nor would he cos it was through a locked door - i guess i have all sorts of questions about the process now in the event of a complaint - but will think more sensibly tomorrow x

[Catty_G]

You have a dog that bites at the mail.  He didn't mean to bite a person, he wanted to get the mail. 

It's a shame that the delivery man has taken it this way and wants to take it further.  I don't think that anyone could think you have a dangerous dog but as a recognition that this could happen again I would purchase a cage to go over your letter slot to prevent any further incidents 

I fully agree with the above ^^ statement.

One thing that does go through my mind is ...How far did he put his fingers through?? I'd thought as a postman he would have known better than to put them right through the letter box, that's begging for trouble.
I'd have assumed as a postman he would have been more far more careful. Many dogs don't like the mail coming into "their" space and tend to bark and nip at it.

I know it is easier said than done but try not to stress too much

[lesley3165]

I had exactly the same thing happen to me with our old border collie and a woman delivering leaflets. Tess caught her finger as she put the leaflet through the letter box. I too, was distraught and offered to help her bathe and wash the cut but she was having none of it. Some nosey passers by said I should do something but I was at a loss what else I could offer to do. I contacted the police as I was terrified something would come of the incident but the police woman just laughed and said she shouldn't have put her fingers through the letterbox! As the letterbox was at the bottom of the door we couldn't put a cage on it so we installed an outdoor letterbox and sealed up the old one. You'd be amazed how many idiots have prized it open though to stuff leaflets in despite the outdoor one being next to it! Try not to worry I'm sure nothing else will come of the incident.

[Mudmagnets]

All excellent advice (as usual) hope you are now feeling a bit better about the incident, I hope when the bloke calms down, he will realise it was an accident. 

[lesley3165]

Just further to my previous post, if it was the postman after our incident I did speak to our post lady and she did tell me our address did have a dog warning on it at the post office in case any new or temp posties were delivering our mail.

[Saffaroo]

I hope that you are feeling just a little bit calmer this morning - things like this can be terribly upsetting.  I would report the incident yourself; that may sound a bit odd, but it will rest your mind.  Mail delivery people who are properly trained - whichever the company,  should not deliver items by putting their hand in your house!  Tell them exactly what happened and what preventative measures you intend to take (i.e. cage on mail flap etc.,) Whilst we hope the guy is OK, some people milk the situation for their own gain.....by getting in there first you have the advantage.   

[ollie nathan's mum]

He put HIS fingers through YOUR letter box. I had my fingers bitten whilst posting leaflets through doors. My thought was it was my fault, I didn't complain to the owners , I now use a spatula to push leaflets through. I wouldn't worry.

[Jaysmumagain]

Mittens....

All you need to remember this is the first incident, you are not sure which dog it was however, you have taken immediate steps to correct the problem and are fitting a suitable guard to stop the dogs jumping at the door.

 

[Mittens]

Thank you everyone. I do feel a little calmer today. I am away for work for three days, which doesn't help, but I haven't had any phone calls from the police or dog warden or indeed his company, as yet, so perhaps as others have said, once he calmed down a bit he reconsidered... I got myself in a right panic the dog(s) would be taken away and destroyed automatically, but I can see now from all your lovely replies and a look at the info elaine posted that even if the authorities did get involved, it would be likely (hopefully) they would take a more measured approach. Letter box guard will be the first thing I do when i get home - and perhaps some behaviour training to try keep them calmer when post comes?

(On a lighter note, I dreamed last night I went on the run with the dogs to evade capture!    )

[Jenn]

One of my dogs did this years ago to a guy delivering leaflets for a political party    we were not home at the time, but the man complained to a neighbour as his finger was bleeding. We phoned the dog warden to ask for advice who told us just to put a 'beware of the dog sign' within sight of the letterbox.

[Archie bean]

If you do a quick google search you will see that this happens ALL the time. I'm quite surprised that any professional delivery person would risk putting their fingers through a letterbox. Whatever you do, don't google images.  Like everyone else has said, try not to worry.
If you can't fix a cage to the inside if the door then you could get a box to mount on the outside of the house. I have one but you'd be surprised how many leaflet droppers don't seem to notice it and use the letterbox instead. It's not a problem with Archie, but if he was a serial post attacker, I might consider getting one of these to seal the box shut.
http://www.safetyletterbox.com/domestic/letterbox-security/index.php

[Mudmagnets]

Yep I sealed my letterbox up too - prevention rather than cure in my case as I had two dogs that would go for anything put in the letterbox, so I put a postbox on the wall outside and sealed the letterbox both inside and out with white tape (the door is white)

 It is surprising the number of folks who will still try to use the letterbox even with a notice on it guiding them to the box on the wall   

[ladylola]

After reading this,I bought one of the letter box covers as some of my dogs go grabbing anything that is put through the letter box. Anyway our postie brought it today, told him what it was and why I got it. He said if he puts his fingers through the letterbox and got bitten it would be his own fault as he would be trespassing. He called another postie over and he said the same thing. I do have a very large post box on my wall, which he uses but despite taping my letterbox up, leaflet delivers ignore the box, tear the tape of the letterbox and stuff things through, seen them trying to do it even when there is a dog going mental behind the door, which they can see as it is part glass. The letterbox cover is good though just pulled the backing off and stuck it over the letterbox, locked it so no dogs can get anyone's fingers now.

[PennyB]

Am pleased you posted re the new amendments Elaine - this is why in Wales we wanted our own law whereby incidents like this can be dealt with reasonably but UK govt refused to let us - in Wales we wanted the act to include dog notices whereby the owner undergoes some sort of modifications either to training or in this case a letter guard to avoid any proceedings taking place within a certain prescribed time period (rather than punishing dog owners Wales wanted to educate dog owners)

At least now you know there is potentially a problem which could've been avoided by both parties and that its now sorted.

[PennyB]

After reading this,I bought one of the letter box covers as some of my dogs go grabbing anything that is put through the letter box. Anyway our postie brought it today, told him what it was and why I got it. He said if he puts his fingers through the letterbox and got bitten it would be his own fault as he would be trespassing. He called another postie over and he said the same thing. I do have a very large post box on my wall, which he uses but despite taping my letterbox up, leaflet delivers ignore the box, tear the tape of the letterbox and stuff things through, seen them trying to do it even when there is a dog going mental behind the door, which they can see as it is part glass. The letterbox cover is good though just pulled the backing off and stuck it over the letterbox, locked it so no dogs can get anyone's fingers now.

The new act supercedes this to be honest now - any incidents on private property with regard to dogs can now be punished by law (it used to be the case whereby an owner couldn't be unless incident happened in a public area)

Posties do have a new gadget to push items through letterboxes though - a simple piece of plastic (I have one here - was invited to a promotional event for the 'bite back' campaign with 2 of my dogs)