Why is my dog a Biting Dog?

Dogs bark and bite for many reasons, sometimes during play and other times when nervous and afraid. But for whatever reason, dogs bite for a reason.  

It may be hard for a human to understand a dog that bites because of fear.  When a dog is fearful, a combination of emotional, physical, and physiological reactions stir and surface, in order to protect itself. Dogs often become afraid of sensory stimulants, such as sounds, sights, smells, and manners of touch. Although these 5 sensory categories make sense to humans, they don’t make sense to dogs.    

A generalized fear response in a dog is often provoked by more than one sensory stimulus at the same time. The dog associates a number of stimuli with the fear. Yet, humans may not recognize the combination of numerous stimuli creating the dog’s fear response, and actually view the fear and biting as irrational behavior.  People and dogs have built in responses to fear as well as learned responses to fear. A dog initially reacts to a generalized fear by seeking human comfort, urination, pacing, running, and aggression. Often a dog will bite out of fear because it feels cornered or trapped.  

Because dogs function on the same level as a two or three year old, they are unable to reason naturally, so breaking a dog free of an ingrained fear requires desensitization training, patience, and time. In fact if dogs could reason they would be able to reason their way through the fearful situation, and probably would not be biting out of fear.