It is summer and the dog parks throughout the region are busy. Folks walking their dogs are everywhere — hopefully on a leash.

Does your dog bite? Not my dog!

Wait. Not so fast. Connecticut law makes the owner or keeper of a dog liable for any damage it causes to the body or property of anyone. The law even sets liability upon a parent or guardian if the dog is owned by a minor.

Under the law, a “keeper” is any person, other than the owner, harboring or having in possession any dog. To determine who is a keeper of a dog, the analysis relies on the degree of control exerted over the dog. Courts look to such factors as whether a person assumed responsibility to feed, water, walk, groom and provide shelter for the dog in his or her home. One who treats a dog as living at his or her house and undertakes to control the dog’s actions is a “keeper” under the law.

In Connecticut, just about the only defense against a dog bite claim is if the victim was teasing or tormenting the animal or if the individual was trespassing on the dog-owner’s property. Even then, trying to shift blame to the victim can be to no avail as juries will end to sympathize with the victim, especially if the injuries are severe.

So, to use an example from a movie, when Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau gets bitten by a dog in the lobby of a French hotel, the fact that the front desk attendant claims that he did not own the dog (“zat is not meh dawg”), would not necessarily absolve him of liability for biting the chief inspector. If the attendant were determined to be the “keeper” of the dog, he may indeed be liable for the damage it caused.

Most responsible dog owners make sure their dogs are up to date on rabies shots and generally train and control their dogs so that they do not bite or cause damage to others. Because of the nature of the species, dog bites are, however, inevitable. Dog owners and keepers should therefore protect themselves by buying a homeowners or renters insurance policy that covers damage caused by their dogs.

But buyers beware!

Not all insurance policies insure all breeds and the list of excluded breeds grows every year. High-risk dogs such as pit bulls, Doberman pinschers, German shepherds, rottweilers and Siberian huskies typically are excluded from coverage. Owners of these breeds often say they are sweet, harmless and loving and won’t bite unless provoked. Nevertheless, if you own one of these dogs and it bites someone — for whatever reason — you will have to pay for the damage, even if you have a homeowner’s or renter’s policy.

So, if the chief inspector decides to sue the front desk attendant, and can show he’s the dog’s “keeper,” he may be out of luck if the insurance policy purchased bought excludes the breed that bit the dogged inspector.

John F. Wynne Jr. is a partner at the New Haven-based firm of Buckley Wynne & Parese. He can be reached at 203-776-2278 or [email protected].

This article was featured in the following news publications:

• The New Haven Register
• CT Insider