CLINTON, Iowa — The familiar stereotype of a dog biting the mailman has no small amount of truth to it, according to Mary Atwood.

The Clinton postmaster acknowledged that after the U.S. Postal Service released an annual report showing that 6,755 of its employees were attacked by dogs nationwide last year — an increase of more than 200 such cases from the previous year and the highest total in nearly three decades.

A steady rise in internet shopping and ordering and an increased demand for daily package delivery are thought to be key contributors to the higher incident rates, officials say.

“Even good dogs have bad days,” U.S. Postal Service Safety Director Linda DeCarlo said in a press release. “Dog bite prevention training and continuing education are important to keep pet owners, pets and those who visit homes — like letter carriers — happy and healthy.”

In Iowa, Atwood said the USPS arms its mail carriers with a thick satchel that they’re able to use as a shield in the event of a dog attack, as well as pepper spray and a “dog horn,” a loud apparatus designed to fend off unwanted interactions with the animals.

“Those horns are horribly, horribly loud,” Atwood said with a laugh. “Sometimes they accidentally go off here in the office, and they’re just so loud. That’s how they’re designed, to scare off dogs if they start to attack.”

With consistent warmer weather on the horizon, more families may put their dogs outside during the day. The warmer weather also reminds mail carriers to brush up on their safety practices.

“Every time it gets warm out again, our carriers need to be more aware of their surroundings than ever,” Atwood told the Clinton, Iowa Herald. “We know that obviously, the dog thinks that it is there to protect the family, so it may go in to ‘defense mode.’ Here in Clinton, it seems like we have a lot of dogs – a lot of families with dogs. It has put our carriers in some tricky situations.”

If an attack occurs, officials will place the dog owner’s address on hold until “the matter is resolved,” whether that means keeping the dog inside or merely keeping it in a different room of the house, away from the front door, Atwood said.

The Clinton, Iowa Herald contributed details to this story.