Why Does a Dog Bite?

[RufinaShelly]

The joke in the professional circle is that "a dog bites because he has teeth". Not really funny when you own the actual terrorist. My day is filled with either behavioral sessions curving aggressive dog behaviors, or consultations with people about their dog's aggressive tendencies. Dogs with aggression are very popular behavioral issues in the US now days. In my 25 years of experience, I have seen more dog aggression in the last 5 years, than in the first 20 years of my career. 2009 without a doubt reported the highest amount of dog aggression cases per capita. We experienced more bites, more hospitalizations from dog bites, and higher severity in the bites. Scary facts.

I can cite several reasons for the increase in dog bite incidents, but, at the center of this issue lies a human. This issue is less common in other parts of the world, which should give us some clue to the societal impact that Americans have on their dog's behavior.In Germany, where working dogs are common, and the best dog trainers are born and made; the dog aggression issue is much lower than in the US. Do you wonder why this is the case? I am a firm believer that the over humanization of our pets in our lives is a very large contributor to severe behaviors within that same animal in that pack. A dog that is strong in character, solid in nerves, and with strong alpha tendencies will misread that their humans allowing them to sleep with them, or lounge on the couch with them, or eat with them, as a sign of weakness in the pack leadership. Often I find that taking a dog and owner back to the "pack" thinking, actions, and natural instinctive conduct fixes some of these hard to fix issues. Also, removing the dog from the pack (its family) also fixes some severe alpha struggles since that dog is now having to readjust to another pack and their rules.