Ive only been actually bitten once.
It was by an alsatian who was an ex security dog recently rehomed to my friends neighbour. I was about 20 at the time & was walking up my friends garden path to her front door when the dog grabbed at my hand over the fence.
I now it wasnt my fault as i didnt even know they had a dog & done nothing to provoke it yet i didnt blame the dog as it was only recently homed to them. Although i did voice my concerns regarding it being only a 3ft fence between gardens & my hand was at the same height as my sons head. I did have to have a tetnus & can still see the scars. Im surprised if im honest it is only the once with me as im always going up to dogs for a stroke,naughty i know but the kids are never with me & i just love dogs.
Tell a lie my Rock bit me the night we adopted him but it was totally 100% my fault, he had been starved before going into rescue so had a few food issues that i had been told about but in the heat of the moment forgot. After i put his bowl down i tried to move it as needed to get into the cupboard & he nipped my thumb right on the nail. He has never ever done it since & i can do what i want with his food & bowl should i need to.

Although they cant vote my son aged 5 has been bitten twice. When he was about 2 he walked past my SIL greyhound who was asleep in my lounge,they dog for no apparent reason (we were all there) bit my son on the top of his head. A while ago as we walked past an elderly lady her ****zu nipped his fingers,no reason except we were walking past it. The lady was horrified but there was no cut skin or anything & it hasnt put my son ofdogs just made him a bit more wary of smaller dogs. My SIL pug cross thing nearly had his face in the summer. It is the dog & owners fault as its treated like a baby. At the time i was stroking it,robbie can over to me, the dog got jealous & jumped up at him snarling but i slapped it away & now the dog is put away if we ever go up there.To be honest they shouldnt have the dog & the husband BIL does wish they hadnt taken it on.

My dad got bitten by his own collie when he was younger,it ripped his top lip off as he was going into their house, my grandad put it down that night.
He also a few years back got severly attacked while walking his greyhound by 2 staffys. Ive posted about that before. Bob was lucky to survive the ambulnce took him to the vets it was that bad & my dad has many scars on his arms,legs & bum from the pair of dogs. The police had the dogs destroyed due to the extent of wounds to both my dad & his dog.

Quite a few variations of dogs there i think

Sorry Brundog: I didn't want to start an argument, I was simply making an observation about collies - the facts speak for themselves.

I am an avid collie fan. I think they are wonderful dogs and was adopted by a gorgeous welsh collie a few years back. He crept into our house and our hearts and was always the perfect gentleman. I was just merely making an observation. I did not appreciate having my head bitten off unfairly.

I'll shut up now. Well done for starting such an interesting thread. I have learned a lot reading through all the posts - and also will appreciate veterinary nurses and kennel maids even more in the future than I have done in the past !

I have never been bitten by a dog, but have a nasty scar across my foot from a cat!

As far as the collies "being nippy" comments are concerned, I have to say that we have a 5 year old boy and a newborn baby. We own 10 border collies who are working sheepdogs. Three live in the house and the rest outdoors. All have fantastic temperaments and are wonderful with children. These are working dogs and I guess the reason they aren't "nippy" is that they are stimulated mentally and physically every day doing what they were bred to do (which actually very rarely requires them to nip sheep, as good working dogs move the sheep with their eye and presence), so I think you may find that the collies that nip are either BCs in pet homes where they aren't mentally and/or physically stimulated or dogs that aren't socialised or trained.

Not having a go at anyone at all, just stating my experience

I have to agree with moobli here, most collies are great when doing what they were ment to do, though they do still nip, strangers or bucket men {the farm collies I deal with anyway} but put them in a house or flat and give them no more than a short walk daily and boom,,,they get all fusssedddd up,

Totally agree with Shona and Moobli, I grew up with Border collies on a farm and they were all great dogs and I lost my elderly collie girl last year, she was rehomed as an adult when I had a young baby, and she lived happily with both my kids, and friends and families kids. She was an absolute star. The only reason i haven't got another one is because losing her was too painful. All dogs can bite.

Very interesting comments re collies ... the concensus of opinion seems to be that if collies are working collies, doing what they are bred for, then there's no problem. I'll go along with that ... all the collies i had in mind were not sheep herding, 1 or 2 were flyball, the rest were just ordinary pets.

I got bitten by a Red Setter for absolutely no reason when i was a teenager-it latched onto my arm while i was cycling on road and it was on pavement with owner.

Hasnt made me any more cautious around Setters though.

Kirsty I agree.
As most people know we lost our Mo in July, our 10 year old collie.
He never once nipped, or even thought about it, he was a beautiful dog, gentle and so keen to please. When my son was born he lay by him and stopped our collie cross who is notoriously stupid, from getting stupid around him. He was my sons shadow and cared for him so much, I trusted him 99.9% (a dog can always be ill and you not know) around him. Whilst he wasn't a working dog, he was a very well stimulated, highly trained and exceptionally well exercised boy...
I appreciate some collies can be nippy...but my experience and that of my oH who has owned and loved farm bred collies (as Mo was) throughout his whole life,is far from that, they are loving,loyal and so keen to please.
Again..just my experience.

We were always brought up with dogs from a very early age, different breeds but we always had a Bearded Collie in the house. Jenny our first, always used to herd my brother and I and if we got too far away from her she used to nip my bum - never drew blood. She also attacked a man climbing over our garden fence once, but he was up to no good after just visiting our neighbours house without an invite. Our neighbour wanted to keep her. She was a fantastic dog and the best pal for us little ones. She always watched over us. She wasn't put too sleep.

Worst bite I had was aged 13 - my own fault. My friends JRT hated for some reason the song from the Allied Carpet advert on at the time (weird I know), so we being stupid kids started singing it to him and he had a go at my arm, lots of blood but no stitches. That taught me to respect dogs.

I have only ever been bitten once

I was four years old

Running past a garden with my cousin and I was screaming at him to wait for me to catch up with him

Yorkshire Terrier shot out of a garden, took one bite (puncture wounds and bruising) and went back in again.

Both my cousin and myself got a severe ticking off for straying too far from my Aunt's garden