Mad Dog Cycles

There may be mad dog cycles. Dogs are much more vicious in June than in the so-called “dog-days” season of July and August.

The tiny poodle and the pekingese share with the big German police dog and the Italian bull rank among the 10 most vicious of domestic canines. These are some of the conclusions reached by Dr. Robert Oleson of the U. S. Public Health Service on the basis of data about dogs in the metropolitan New York area for 27 years.

During this period, Dr. Oleson’s study shows there were two 5-year peaks in rabies, from 1911 to 1915, inclusive, and from 1926 to 1930. During the first period the annual average of bites diagnosed as made by rabies-infected animals was 233, compared with only an average of 78 for the previous three years for which records were available. There followed a period of 10 years during which the number of rabies cases diagnosed in biting dogs averaged only 43 a year. Starting with 1926 the curve leaped up again and in the next five years there was an average of 288 cases a year. Then came another rapid decline.

Apparently the number of rabies cases has no relation to the number of bites. These remained practically stationary at an average of about 3,500 from 1908 to 1926. There was a sudden jump to more than 7,000 cases in 1925, just before the start of the second rabies peak. But since 1930 the number of bites reported has continued to go up, in the face of rigid muzzling restrictions, until it has reached the alarming figure of 20,000. At the same time the number of rabies cases rapidly has gone down.

The same tendency toward the mad dog cycle has been noted in several European countries. It may be due to an inexplicable waxing and waning of the virulency of the rabies virus. During the peak years extraordinary efforts were made to impound all unlicensed dogs, and the decline of the waves may have been due to the lessening of the number of potential rabies carriers by this means.

Contrary to general belief, dogs are getting better tempered rapidly during dog days. The high peak of the year in bites is reached about the middle of June. Then comes a very sharp drop, which continues steadily as colder weather comes on.

No breed of dogs is entirely free from the biting tendency, but some are much more prone to it than others. The mongrel doesn’t rank among the really vicious dogs and pedigree counts for nothing. The 10 breeds, in the order of frequency of their reported bites, are: German police, chow, poodle, Italian bull, fox terrier, crossed chow, airedale, pekingese and crossed German police dog.