Dogs and mail carriers – a rivalry as old as the postal service itself. But this is personal for carrier Wendell Hoggard. He was a rookie in Portsmouth 13 years ago, approaching a delivery at a house on a hill, where he noticed a beagle.
“As this dog's howling at me, I'm backing up away from the dog. And then all of a sudden, another beagle jumped up and bit me in behind,” he said. “I must have looked like a big hot dog or something like that. Took a long moment, but it didn't break any skin.”
Last year, the Postal Service reported 23 dog bites in the state. They're raising additional awareness for their carriers and trying to prevent further bites.
Hoggard was fine after his incident. He even has a dog himself, an American bulldog he says looks just like Pete from Little Rascals. But he’s a little more cautious at work now and carries an air horn on his satchel. Other carriers prefer a dog whistle or dog spray, and are trained in techniques to defend themselves without hurting the dog.
“We hear something about dog bites over training every week,” he said. “We always need to use the tools that we have and be aware of the way that we're supposed to behave around dogs because we can't control their behavior.”
But the best technique is prevention. The postal service has a system that notifies them when they’re close to an address with a known dog. But it’s also helpful if there are warning signs and no unleashed dogs close to a delivery point.
