Dog Bite Incident Log

Write this today if you can. Memory degrades quickly, and it degrades confidently — people become more certain of details as those details drift.

Copy the prompts, answer what you can, and put the date at the top. Leave blanks where you do not know; a gap you flagged is worth more than a guess that hardens into a fact.

The basics

Date and time of the incident, as precisely as you can
Exact location — street address, or the nearest cross streets and what you were beside
Weather and light conditions
What you were doing there

The dog

Size, colour, coat, any markings
Was it leashed? Tethered? Behind a fence? Loose?
Was anyone handling it? Did they have hold of it?
Had you seen this dog before?
Did it give any warning — growl, bark, bared teeth — or none at all?

On breed: write what you observed, and say plainly if you are not sure. Breed is not an element of a Florida claim and you do not need to identify it. A confident guess that turns out wrong is worse than “large, short-coated, tan” — it hands the other side something to attack.

What actually happened

Write it as a sequence, in the order it occurred:

Where the dog came from and how much warning you had
What you did as it approached
Whether you had anywhere to retreat to
Where you were bitten or struck, and how many times
How it ended — did the owner intervene, did the dog let go, did someone pull it off
What happened in the minutes afterward

Be specific about what constrained you. A blind corner, a gate already open, a path with no room to move. Fault in Florida is comparative, so what limited your options matters as much as what you did.

The owner or handler

Name, address, phone
What they said at the scene — as close to their exact words as you can manage
Did they admit anything? Apologise? Say the dog had done this before?
Did they give you insurance details?
Have they contacted you since, and how?

Statements made at the scene are often the most useful thing in a file, and they are the first thing to be remembered differently later.

Signs and the property

Was any sign posted? Write its exact wording.
Where was it, and could you see it from where you approached?
How big was it, and what condition was it in?

This matters more in Florida than most places, because the sign provision can bar a claim entirely — and it turns on the specific words, the placement, and the readability on that day.

Witnesses

For each: name, mobile number, where they were standing, and what they saw. Get this now.

Injuries and treatment

Where on your body, and what kind — puncture, tear, crush, fracture
Where you were treated and when
What was done — stitches, antibiotics, tetanus, imaging
What you were told about scarring or follow-up

The days after

Keep adding to this. Date each entry.

Pain levels and how they change
Signs of infection
Sleep, nightmares, anxiety, avoiding places or animals
Work missed
Appointments, costs, mileage
Any contact from the owner or an insurer, with dates and what was said

Why the ongoing log matters

Two reasons.

The psychological effects of a dog attack are real and frequently undercounted, because nobody writes them down. Fear that changes where you walk or whether a child plays outside is part of the claim — but only if it is documented.

And infection, nerve symptoms, and the need for scar revision often appear weeks after the bite. A contemporaneous log is what connects a later problem back to the incident.

Keep this private. It is your own record — not something to post, and not something to hand to the other side’s insurer.