December 13th, 2010

 Being bitten by your own dog is both a frightening and frustrating experience. If you've ever been bitten by a dog it completely changes the way you look at that dog or dogs in general. Being bitten generates fear by the person or other animal being bitten. And it should because that is what it is designed to do. As strange as that may sound to you, it is true. Why this is true is because how dogs think and react is very different than the way people think and do things.

If we look at behavior which is the science of how a particular species, in this case dogs and humans, think and act based on their genetic programming, we will see that aggression has a very specific purpose in the dog world. Canine aggression is a communication signal that says, "I am dominant over you and you must listen to me!" And along with that thought comes power. The aggressor is being or trying to be more powerful. And so there is only one place left to go in ranking position for the person or other animal being bitten and that is beneath the aggressor in rank, unless there is a fight to the death. It is unlikely that a person would carry a fight with a dog past being bitten. Usually the person relinquishes power to the dog. And if you experience fear through being bitten your dog will know it. That is because fear is a powerful emotion used to control you and your dog knows this, too. There is a real intelligence to dog behavior and rank establishing.

Knowing the purpose of aggression is the first step towards conquering fear. Part Two will focus on how to conquer fear in relation to aggression and this involves assuming power and achieving alpha status.