Why Dogs Bite

I often hear dog owners say "oh, my dog would never bite anyone" and I always have to correct them. Unfortunately, no one can predict whether or not their dog will ever bite. It's like saying that you'll never put your hands out to catch yourself while falling. For dogs, biting is a natural behaviour in many situations as they use their mouths the same way we use our hands. If something comes too close to us, we use our hands to put distance between us; dogs will use their mouths. If something reaches out and pinches us, we use our hands to bat them away; dogs will again, use their mouths.

Dogs will bite for a variety of reasons, but the most common is fear. For that reason, our greatest responsibility is to socialize our dogs well from an early age, with different people, dogs, noises, sights and smells. A well-socialized dog will always be less fearful. At the first sign of fearful behaviour, we should be working with our dog to desensitize or counter condition them (give them a different and positive association with that which they fear). Dogs don't generally "get over it", so to expect this of them is unfair.

When a dog is injured or in pain, they will also likely use their mouth in what we call a "redirected bite". Recently, a dog was electrocuted on a downtown street and the owner was reportedly bitten. This is an excellent example of a redirected bite - the dog was in pain and when the woman touched him to comfort him, he turned and bit her. He did not bite because he's aggressive, or a "bad dog" - he bit because he was in pain and his only instinct is to bite in order to attempt to stop whatever is hurting him. He was not trying to hurt his owner - he likely didn't even realize what he'd done.

Let's translate this to a walk down the street. Fido is minding his own business when a person in a long dark coat comes racing around the corner holding a newspaper in one hand and an umbrella in the other hand. Fido panics, thinking "this crazy man is coming straight for me and he's probably going to hit me with one of those two things! I need to stop him!". So the dog freezes on the spot, pins his ears, lowers his body, and then finally he barks and lunges towards the man as he speeds by, inches away, and happens to catch his leg.

Does this mean the dog is aggressive? Not at all. He was speaking Doglish and few people understand that language. He was trying to give a warning (freezing, pinning ears, lowering his body, barking) and when it was not heeded, he had no choice but to physically make the man back up by giving him a nip – something that is perfectly natural for dogs to do.

Unfortunately, people don't see things the same way. We think that if a dog bites, he must be aggressive. I say that if a dog bites, he was not set up for success and was likely scared or in pain. If we educate ourselves and learn "Doglish", we can recognize the signs of stress and anxiety, therefore enabling us to predict a bite incident. Predicting isn't enough; we need to be able to prevent these incidents and better prepare our dogs - set them up for success.

Another important factor next to socialization, is to ensure that our dogs have good bite inhibition. This means that your dog knows the difference between a soft mouth and a hard mouth (little warning nip vs. a mauling). By working with puppies to teach them proper bite inhibition, you are saving their lives, in a sense. We do this by allowing them to bite at first, delaying our reaction (yelp and walk away), and gradually lowering our threshold for pain until we do not allow any teeth-on-skin contact whatsoever. This is much better than starting off by disallowing any teeth-on-skin contact as the dog will never learn to give a soft nip as a warning - they will jump straight to a hard bite.

Lastly, to coincide with learning "Doglish", we have to be sure not to punish our dogs when they communicate. This goes against everything we humans naturally think, but look at it this way: when you punish growling or barking, you're punishing away your dog's early warning system. Growling and barking are ways that your dog is telling you that she's uncomfortable. If you punish away the signs of discomfort, you're not changing your dog's underlying emotional state; she's still uncomfortable and/or frightened. What will happen is that your dog will stop giving that early warning (growl or bark) when she's afraid and she will skip right to the bite when pushed too far and needs to defend herself. By punishing the warning signs, you've left her with no other option.

Bottom line is: don't punish your dog - teach them. Listen to them. If they are uncomfortable or fearful, put some distance between them and "the scary thing" and enlist the help of a positive trainer who will teach you "Doglish" and alleviate your dog's stress and anxiety.

         

Date: March 5th, 2011
Author: Caryn Charlie Liles
Copyright, Whatta Pup!