As the old adage goes, a dog is man's best friend. However, there are times when we humans simply cannot understand why our beloved pets behave in a specific manner. Hence, it is extremely important to know the underlying reasons of what makes our dogs tick when it comes to their aggressive behavior.

You can teach your dog appropriate behavior and many experts maintain that dog behavior can be controlled through the proper training.

Dog behavior is generally an instinctive response triggered by environmental and social factors.

Therefore, to control these responses, it is the owner's responsibility to train their dog to react in a certain way when faced with these day to day events.

Here's an example...

Dog Bite

Statistics show that almost 5 million people (2% of the total population in the U.S.) are victims of dog bites annually. Further more, dog bites rank as the second most common cause of emergencies in hospitals.

So why do dogs bite?

According to animal behavior experts, the main reasons that dogs bite are as follows:

1. Excitement

When somebody plays with his or her dog, naturally the dog becomes excited, and because dogs don't have hands to use when playing, they use their mouth to grasp things. When this happens, there is a risk that the dog might unintentionally hurt you.

2. Protection

A dog will be very protective of their owner (who is essentially their pack leader), other family members (who are the rest of the pack) and their territory. The natural way for a dog to protect is to bite whoever or whatever appears to be a threat to their territory, other members of the pack and the pack order. Hence, when a stranger gets too close to a dog's territory, the dog will attack to protect pack members and maintain the status quo.

3. Pain

If a dog is feeling unwell, they do not understand why they feel this way. Therefore, when a person (even their master) touches them, they may associate that person with the cause of the pain and so the tendency is to fight back by biting.

4. Fear

Dogs sometimes become afraid just like humans. That is why when someone unexpectedly touches or surprises them, the dog's natural reaction is to turn and bite.

What to do?

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 have their own space and be left alone.

Like humans, dogs have feelings too. When these feelings are confused, their instinct is to bite because they cannot understand the situation from a logical (human-like) point of view.