How to approach a dog & prevent dog bite

Dogs are sensitive animals which man succeeded to domesticate from the wild for various purposes as security & companionship. In their normal habitat as in human world they have ‘pack leaders’ which can be compared to king in the human world only that their own leaders make the first move to attack intruders unlike in the human world where soldiers are sent out while the king sits back.

A dog respects you by recognizing you as a pack leader or sees you as deserving the title. This means that if a dog has known you right from puppy life as a leader he will respect you and will not attempt an unacceptable behavior depending on the level of training.

Association with a person recognized by the dog as a pack leader will also enhance his level of acceptance of your presence. When u confidently approach a dog even when turning aggressive can give the dog an impression that you should be treated as a pack leader in some cases.

A pack leader is a dominant figure perceived by dogs living in a particular environment as the head or the controller of events among the group (pack). So attaining this height in a mist of dogs living in a particular ‘closed’ environment puts you in control and there for helps you to approach the dog or dogs also preventing attack.

What if you are new to these dogs or dog and there is a need for you to get along with them assuming you’re the veterinarian or a dog trainer, how will you do it?

Allow an introduction to the dog

Introduction from someone already recognized by the dog as a pack leader can be helpful simply by standing confidently side by side the handler and touching the dog when the handler feels you are accepted. This exercise repeated severally will graduate to the handler being irrelevant.

Try an ‘acceptance test’  

As a veterinarian I have worked with over one thousand dogs so I came up with a simple ‘acceptance test’: I simply walk to the cage while the dog is caged ignoring the dog’s response to me, sometimes they will be barking aggressively which I pay no attention to, I just go ahead with whistling and watching the dogs reaction. If the dog will accept me the dog stops barking and start scratching the wire of the cage which shows that he is willing to come out of the cage. The next step is to put the back of my hand closer to the cage while watching the dog. If the dog will accept me he will start sticking out his tongue to lick my hand but if he will not he will simply show his teeth with a growl as if he will attack. In most cases I end up bringing out the dog myself from the cage and do my examination and treatment.

Use a muzzle to guard the mouth

In cases where acceptability is not working, if you must handle that dog then allow the handler to fit the muzzle to the dogs face to prevent bites.  I use this even when the dog accepts me because during treatments I might need to administer a very painful injection which the dog might react aggressively to and might lead to bite injury from the dog.

What if you unexpectedly entered the dog’s territory without knowing that the dog is there?

 The best thing to do is to stand still don’t move allow the dog to sniff your body don’t try to raise your arm nor attempt to run away. Simply stand and watch the dog’s reaction and if the dog accepts you he might start wagging his tail left and right. Watch out if the hair on the back line is standing and the teeth are showing just stand fearlessly and the dog will sniff you and might ignore you later and walk away or the owner or handler might be right on time to save you from turning into a ‘pillar of salt’.