A TEN-year-old scooter rider was bitten in the leg by a dog after being told by its owner that the pet was safe to stroke.

Brandon Dack, had just won third place in his age group at Thornbury’s skating competition on Saturday, May 12, when he noticed a friendly-looking Alsatian Rottweiler cross on a lead and asked his masters, a couple, if he could give it a quick stroke.

The boy, who was with his dad Stephen at the time, touched the animal which suddenly got very excited and bit his right leg, leaving the child screaming in shock and pain.

He was rushed to hospital with three two-centimetre deep punctures and immediately administered a tetanus shot.

His father told the Gazette that in the commotion following the dog’s attack, someone called an ambulance and the police.

"Brandon was on the floor, hysterical," he said. "It was a bit of a shock. I ran to see my wife after the first aider came and she panicked."

When Brandon, who attends Manorbrook Primary School in Thornbury, approached the dog’s owners with his father, they told him they had been taking care of the 13-year-old dog for three months and that it was fine with children but "a bit funny with adults".

Brandon could not get stitches in case of an infection. He is still limping and will have to go back to the hospital for a check-up.

Mr Dack, who had come to cheer on his child along with his wife and six-year-old son Baileigh, who live in Thornbury, said that the skate competition organisers reacted very quickly and were a great help. He added that the Alsatian's owners were mortified by the incident.

"I believe the dog had been there all day and there were so many kids that day it must have got irritable.

"We want to prevent this from happening again. If he had been a smaller child it could have got him in the neck. We have asked the police for the dog to be muzzled."

An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said that when officers arrived on the scene, the dog was on a lead and did not seem out of control.

"It appears the child spooked the dog unintentionally," he said.

"No criminal offence was committed and it was agreed between all parties that the owner would muzzle the dog in future."