Does your dog bite?

In The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Inspector Clouseau famously asks: “Does your dog bite?” So too, the Fifth Court of Appeals, in Latcher v. Edwards, which rejected a negligence claim against a dog owner

Specifically, the Court held that the evidence of foreseeability was legally insufficient where the dog had never escaped from its enclosed backyard before, the owner did not know the side gate had been opened, and the dog had no history of startling, jumping on, or injuring anyone. Rejecting the plaintiff’s argument that the dog had been “roaming the neighborhood for a week” before the incident, the court found the evidence only showed the dog was at a shelter or with a shelter volunteer—not loose on the streets—during the week it took the owner to retrieve him. No. 05-24-01259-CV (Feb. 11, 2026)