Have you ever challenged yourselves if you really know your pet? Can you understand your dog's behavior and what it wants to say to you?
“Dogs are man’s best friend,” the old saying goes. Yet, there are times when we just don't get it why our pet behaves in a certain way. You have to know your dog, if you want to have a good relationship with him.
Hence, it is essential to understand dog behavior. It is important to know the reasons why dogs sometimes act differently.
You can teach your dog proper behavior. Experts say that dog behaviors can be managed by appropriate training.
What are dog behaviors? They are actually responses to environmental and social factors, responses mostly triggered by those factors. Therefore, to control these responses, you should teach the proper way to respond to those elements.
Let’s investigate a few of the methods:
Why dogs bite
Almost 5 million people in the United States are victims of dog bites every year. This is nearly 2% of the total population in the U.S. What’s more, one-fifth of dog bites end up needing medical attention, and those cases rank as a second most common case of emergencies in the hospitals. Most of those dog bites happen while interacting with familiar dogs to us.
So, the question is: Why dog bites happen?
According to the experts, the main reasons behind why dogs bite are among the following:
1) Protection
Dogs are territorial animals, and they can be very possessive. When someone threatens to take away something that the dog owns, the dog wants to protect it. And he will defend it by biting.
Hence, when you get near the dog’s property, the dog tends to bite to make you leave his property alone.
Same way, when he is guarding something, like protecting people, he wants you to leave and may act defensive or bite.
2) Excitement
Your dog tends to get excited when you play with him. Don’t let your dog get overexcited, as they then begin to forget their manners. Stop and calm down at the stage when your dog starts grabbing you with their teeth.
Even correctly trained dogs may bite in play without understanding that they are doing harm.
Since dogs foot are quite useless when playing and trying to grasp things, they use their mouth. When that happens, there is a possibility that the dog might unintentionally hurt people without meaning to do anything harmful.
3) Fear
Dogs are sometimes afraid just like humans. They might feel threatened, cornered, intimidated or frightened.
The dog’s only protection for itself is to bite back if somebody startles him. This defensive aggression rarely happens without various warning signs being presented by the dog first.
The best way to bypass these situations is to leave the dog alone. Fear is particularly the case with shy or nervous dogs and those who have been mistreated. And many people want to always play around with dogs without learning when the dogs should be left alone.
4) Pain
When we are feeling ill, we can be quite grumpy. Same happens with dogs.
When he is not feeling well, he does not understand why he is feeling that way. And he can't explain it to you.
Therefore, when you touch him, he may think that it’s the touch that causes the pain. So he tends to fight back by snapping or biting.
Dogs have feelings like humans. When these feelings are confused, their only protection for themselves is to snap or bite. Dogs cannot read the situation logically. Therefore, you should know that to avoid such circumstances.
Remember that every form of dog training is tied to the type of dog, the breed, and most of all its everyday life.
As you have seen from these examples, dogs can reflect different moods. Now it is up to you to know your dog. Spend as much time as possible with it to examine its behavior!
