The three most common injuries were laceration, soft tissue injury, and dental injury.
A horrific four-dog attack on 7-year-old Japanese girl Sakurako Uehara in Murupara this week has drawn calls for dangerous breeds to be banned.
Sakurako was bitten more than 100 times. She remains in Middlemore Hospital and faces years of surgery.
National dog database figures from 2012 showed Rotorua had 10,657 registered dogs. Of those, 445 were classified as menacing and six as dangerous.
Rotorua District Council regulatory services manager Neven Hill said many complaints responded to by animal-control officers had an element of irresponsible dog ownership.
"[But] sometimes things do happen - such as a dog escaping from a property - even though the owner has in fact taken all reasonable precautions to prevent this happening."
About half of all complaints related to roaming dogs and 22 per cent were for barking dogs.
Only 3 per cent related to attacks on other animals and 5 per cent of the complaints were for rushing or attacking people.
"Any attack is unacceptable to us and to our residents and we take every step possible to minimise any harm in our community."
Having grown up around dogs - training her first puppy as a 2-year-old - Rotorua's Chelsea Marriner has an affinity with working dogs. But still she would not leave them unsupervised with a stranger.
She and her troupe are currently on a tour of schools in the South Island.
"With my dogs you can take the dog from the farm but you can't take the farm from the dog, they would prefer to work sheep," she said.
"It's the same with pit bulls and staffs. You can raise them as well as you can but they still have that streak.
"It's a balance of responsible ownership and parents being aware of their children. You can never be too cautious with dogs - none of mine are ever left unattended with kids or adults they don't know.
"You wouldn't barge up to horses but people do with dogs. It's quite scary how many kids, even with their parents, will bowl straight in and assume dogs are friendly. We've had situations where kids will go under our rope and come straight up to the dogs."
Rotorua Weekender columnist, dog trainer Nadine Steele, has published a book to help improve safety around dogs. Look Like Luke is available from www.copypress.co.nz.
"I've focused on what I felt has been overlooked, subtle body-language signals, by learning about these signals you can choose how to manage situations. Every owner should have enough of a bond to be able to know their dog's subtleties really well."
She said she was horrified to hear of the attack on Sakurako Uehara and said it sounded as if pack mentality took over.
"I'm assuming she was just being a child but unfortunately dogs don't see running and squealing, they see weakness and it turns it into a prey situation. No matter what breed it is, the prey drive exists in every dog.
"No one ever thinks their dog is going to bite or attack until it does."
Rotorua Kennel Association president Ros Mihaka said education was key to improving dog safety. She has a separate safe zone for her own four dogs so that they can be kept away from her children while they are having meals, or while visitors come to her house.
"We never put the kids in a position where they are with multiple dogs by themselves."
