It's not only mail carriers that get bitten by dogs.
In fact, the old stereotype of a letter carrier running from the family dog was never really true.
However, with all the different breeds of dogs available to the average person these days, there are increasing numbers of lawsuits involving dog bites and personal injuries.
Part of the problem is that there are more aggressive breeds distributed throughout the country.
Canines have been interbred with others from across the world in an effort to establish different, distinct breeds.
Dogs that have traditionally been working farm dogs or served as guards for industrial environments are now serving as family pets, sometimes with tragic results.
The types of dogs that now attack people are not the mutts of fifty years ago.
Some breeds, like the American Staffordshire terrier, commonly known as the pit bull, have jaws so strong that they can break bones and maim a person for the rest of their life.
Others dogs are nearly as large as a small adult and can knock a person down, causing spinal injuries, neck damage, and even internal hemorrhage with their full weight on a person's torso.
Neglecting to secure these dogs is criminal in more ways than one and an injustice to the dog as well as the victim.
Negligence doesn't always happen on the part of the dog's owner.
He or she may think their dog is perfectly secure and safe, not knowing that the fence they use for security was inexpertly installed.
The installer may have used parts that would normally be discarded, cobbling them together to look like a new product that is weak enough to be broken.
The installer could take shortcuts like not properly securing the posts of the fence, allowing it to be toppled by a large, heavy dog.
In such cases you can also bring suit against the provider of the fence or even the manufacturer.
Occasionally you'll read about a large dog that jumps a fence that its owner thought was high enough to contain it.
A good personal injury attorney can investigate whether there have been previous escapes by interviewing neighbors, scanning police records, and accessing the intake records of the local animal control office.
If that is the case, your suit for negligence will hold a lot more weight in the eyes of the judge or the jury.
You may also suffer an injury while you're walking down the street, passing by a dog being walked by its owner.
A dog will sometimes lash out and bite for reasons known only to it; they may be attracted to an odor on your clothing, think that your body language conveys aggression, or just be cranky from the heat of a summer's day.
It is the responsibility of the dog's owner to either muzzle their dog to prevent bites or keep them under control at all times.