Americans love their dogs — but not every dog is a ball of fluff just waiting to play. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 1 out of every 69 people will suffer a dog bite — and about 800,000 of those bites will be serious enough to require medical care.

Generally speaking, if a dog bite is serious enough to require medical care, it's serious enough that you'll probably have to pursue a legal claim against the dog's owner. A dog bite can leave you with internal injuries, damage to your muscles or tendons, infections that are difficult to treat, and permanent physical and emotional scars. Knowing how to protect your interests is important, so here are the steps you need to take:

1. Focus on getting treatment and reporting the incident.

Call 911 immediately if you are bitten. If you're injured, that's the quickest way to get help. It's also the quickest way to get the police involved. As much as you may hate to drag the police into the matter, not doing so could potentially leave the animal free to harm someone else. In any case, a police report may help you document your injuries and everything that happened.

2. Get as much information as you can about the dog and its owner.

As soon as possible, write down everything you can recall about the dog attack, including where you were standing or walking, where the dog appeared, what happened before it attacked, and anything you heard the owner say. If witnesses saw what happened, get their names and contact information so that they can be called to testify in your case, if necessary. A diagram of the attack may also be useful — especially if the owner claims the dog was merely defending its territory or was somehow provoked.

3. Keep track of all of your financial losses.

You have a right to claim compensation for all of your losses connected to the dog bite. That may include things like the cost of the ambulance trip to the hospital and emergency room fees, surgery costs, antibiotics, in-patient care expenses, physical therapy bills, and the cost of plastic surgery to make your scars less obvious. You may also miss a significant amount of time from work during your recovery. Your pain and suffering also has a value and isn't something that should be discounted when you make your claim.

Dog bite injuries can be difficult to recover from, and the dog's owner may not want to take responsibility. A dog bite lawyer can help you pursue a claim.