Understanding Certain Dog Behaviors

What People Need to Know About Dog Behavior As the old adage goes, "Dogs are man's best friend." However, there are times when people just can't understand why their beloved dogs behave in a different manner. Hence, it is extremely important to know the underlying reasons why dogs sometimes behave differently. You can teach your dog appropriate behavior. Experts say that dog behaviors can be controlled through proper training. Dog behaviors are actually responses that are mostly triggered by environmental and social factors. Hence, to control these responses, the owner should teach his dogs the proper way to respond to such elements. Let's explore a few of the methods: Dog Bite Statistics show that almost 5 million people in the U.S. are victims of dog bites annually. This is almost 2% of the total population in the U.S. What's more, dog bites cases rank as second most common cause of emergencies in the hospitals. So, the question is: Why dogs bite? According to the experts, the main reasons why dogs may bite are the following: 1. Excitement When somebody plays with his or her dog, the tendency of the dog is to get excited, and because dogs don't have hands to use when playing, they use their mouth to grasp things. When this happens, there is the tendency that the dog might accidentally hurt people without intending to do anything harmful. 2. Protection Dogs can be very possessive, so, whenever he wants to protect something that he owns, he will bite whoever threatens to take it away from him. Hence, when people get near the dog's property, the dog's tendency is to bite to make the person leave his property alone. 3. Pain When the dog is not feeling well, he does not understand why he is feeling that way. Therefore, when a person, even if it's his master, touches him, he may think that it's the person who causes the pain and so his tendency is to fight back by biting. 4. Fear Dogs are sometimes afraid just like humans. That is why when somebody startles him, the dog's only known protection for itself is to bite back. The best thing is to avoid these situations and leave the dog alone. The problem with so many people is that they want to always play around with their dog without learning how and when the dogs should be left alone. Like humans, dogs have feelings too. When these feelings are all mixed up, their only known protection for themselves is to bite because they cannot understand the situation logically. Therefore, people should know that in order to avoid such circumstances.