There are approximate 4 1/2 million people bitten each year by dogs. Many of these bites could be prevented by a simple understanding of dogs. Unfortunately, many of the victims of these dog bites are children and many of them need medical attention. However, there are ways to avoid the scene to the left, by simply understanding why dogs bite. Here are the top five reasons that dogs bite.

The Five Main Reasons Dogs Bite

One of the main reasons that dogs bite is for protection of something. Whether it is protection of property or protection of their personal property.

This is a large issue when it comes to dogs, especially when children are bitten. Dogs, just like children, are territorial over their things. This such as toys, food, territory, or their human being. Who are then umber one offenders in this situation? Guard dogs and herding breeds.

Another reasons dogs tend to bite out of nowhere, is fear. This fear is typically toward strangers. This is why we should never approach a dog that we do not know.

Dogs bite when they are startled or un-socialized, and this is impossible to tell any of this just by looking at them from a distance.

One of the most un-readable reasons for dogs to bite is pain. Pain is something that we cannot read in dogs. If you are not sure if your dog is feeling pain, you should schedule a vet appointment.

Even the most well trained dog could turn into a spasmatic biter after they have had puppies. This is something that a child should not test under any circumstances, and is very difficult to train away before the mother loses interest in the puppies at the time of weening. The female dog may be willing to bite at anyone in the entire house, no matter how comfortable they may have been previously.

Prey drive can be a huge instinct to compete with. Unfortunately, this can be triggered by anything, such as someone running by or a bicycle going past.

If you dog has been known to have a prey drive of any sort, it is necessary to train them to the full extent. The issue with a strong prey drive is that even a someone passing by that makes eye contact with your dog can trigger it.

By Charlene Little, Contributing Writer

Crate training is seen by most as a cruel act. However, this simple act can keep your dog out of trouble when you are not home and provide many benefits for your dog. After training your dog will find his crate a great place to kick back and relax in his spare time.

Safety

Dogs are curious creatures. They can be extremely nosy at times, even when they are well trained. Crate training your dog will ensure that they do not get into anything poisonous or dangerous while you are not home. Dogs do not know that electrical wires are dangerous, and unfortunately it does happen. An electrical shock can cause serious injury, respiratory problems, cardiac arrest, and death in a dog. Crating your puppy will prevent this from occurring when you are not home.

Damage Prevention
You would be amazed at how much damage a puppy or a dog, can create. The amount can add up, depending on what their favorite things to chew on are. Some dogs like couch cushions, wooden table legs, and some actually will chew through your wall.

Discipline
No, I do not mean to use the crate as discipline. I mean helping your dog develop a schedule. When you are about to go to work, your dog will learn to go into his crate. Dogs thrive on things being typical and understandable

Somewhere To Hang Out
You have your places to hang out, your dog has his. If properly crate trained, your dog will love to hang out in his crate and will enjoy sleeping there. It will become his space, and a place where he is comfortable and happy.

House Breaking
House breaking your dog can be difficult. However, if your puppy is crate trained, chances are, he won't go to the bathroom in his crate. Dogs do not like to go to the bathroom where they sleep and unless he really has to go, he most likely won't.

About the Author

Charlene Little is the mother of three wonderful boys and a volunteer foster mom for her local animal shelter. She enjoys working with various breeds of dogs and cats in learning social behavior, training, and how to be the successful member of a fur-ever family. She enjoys studying animals' behavior and finding solutions to behavior problems that the everyday person can handle. She covers topics from various forms of aggression and small problem behaviors. Every problem behavior has a solution, and the solution is never to give up on your pet! Love, kindness, and small adjustments could be just what you need.

By Charlene Little, Contributing Writer

There are many ways that dogs get free from a fence, and many do it just for fun. Smaller breed dogs like to run free, and it can quickly become a game to them. Here are some fairly inexpensive tricks to reinforce your fence and keep them from running free.

Chicken Wire
Regardless of what type of fence you have, chicken wire makes a great addition to keep your dog in. dig down several inches below the ground surface.
If you have a wooden fence, attach the chicken wire with u shaped nails to the fence. If your fence is chain link, attach it with strips of wire in a twisted fashion. This will not only keep your dog from tearing through your fence, it will keep them from digging under it as well.

Sideways Planking
If you have a wooden fence that your dog keeps pulling at, use the same boards to reinforce the bottom. Turn the boards sideways, this way, even if they pull piece off of the board, they still cannot escape.

Tie Outs
No one wants to resort to using a tie out on their dog. However, after your dog gets out of your yard and goes for their stroll, tie them out the next few times they go outside. After a few times of getting out and then having to be tied out, they may change their mind about going for a stroll alone.

Exercise Your Dog
Your dog may be getting out because he is bored. Take him for a walk at least twice a day, this may cure his taste for freedom and exercise. Give him lots of treats and toys, an under stimulated dog will find plenty of mischief to get into.

Even if you are tired, there are great ways to exercise your dog. Playing fetch does not take much out of you, simply sit in a lawn chair and toss a ball. Your dog will love it, and you can sit back with a cold glass of lemonade.

About the Author

Charlene Little is the mother of three wonderful boys and a volunteer foster mom for her local animal shelter. She enjoys working with various breeds of dogs and cats in learning social behavior, training, and how to be the successful member of a fur-ever family. She enjoys studying animals' behavior and finding solutions to behavior problems that the everyday person can handle. She covers topics from various forms of aggression and small problem behaviors. Every problem behavior has a solution, and the solution is never to give up on your pet! Love, kindness, and small adjustments could be just what you need.

If your dog barks, growls or bites at other animals or people when they have their food in front of them, this is considered food aggression. This is easily remedied and can be solved fairly simple.

What Your Dog Is Thinking

If your dog growls, snarls, bites at or barks at you or other animals, they are saying "this is mine, go away, find your own, because you're not getting it." It is their way of saying that they are dominant and that they run the show. This is not a situation that will just remedy itself, it will take some work and effort on your part.

The Beginning of Food Aggression

Food aggression begins with a little growl or bark at the food bowl. In the beginning, it is cute and adorable and it may just seem like the dog is playing. This is the time to stop it if you haven't let it go beyond this point. This frustration could turn dangerous for you or children in your home.

Why Your Dog Has Developed Food Aggression

An irregular feeding schedule could cause food aggression. Not knowing when they are going to be fed again could cause him to guard this resource. He feels that he must protect it in order to keep it. They would respond the same way in a pack type situation. Remember, dogs have not always been domesticated and they, at one point, had to defend their food. Whether your dog personally has or not, they have it built into their brain. In this case, you will need to proceed with dominance training with your dog.

If your dog has had a dominance problem in the past, this could be attributed to that. The alpha dog eats before the other dogs in the wild, he may be telling you to back off until he gets his fill. In this case, you need to redirect who is who in the situation and teach them who is dominant. Try using the NILIF program to retrain this behavior.

Your dog may not know that what he is doing is wrong. Try correcting this communication problem by saying "no" as a redirection. If your dog responds to the "no" command and the behavior resolves, he simply didn't know that he was out of line in the first place.

Solving Food Aggression

Solving food aggression is not something that happens over night, even though it may have started over night. Realizing that your dog is basically throwing a tantrum over food is necessary to regain control of the situation. Here are some rules to follow for resolving food aggression.

When your dog barks, growls, snarls or acts like a 2-year old over food, backing off is giving him what he wants. If you know for a fact that your dog will not bite you, remove the bowl from him, showing him that you own the food. Have him do something for you before you give it back, such as sit, down, or shake. Move the food to another spot in the room before giving it back to him/her. This will show that you control when and where he gets food and that he doesn't call the shots.

***If you think your dog will bite you, leave the bowl where it is but stay close enough that he can see that you are not a threat to his food.

If your dog is aggressive toward other dog during meal time, don't feed them in the same room. Feed them in separate rooms and slowly move their bowls toward one another at each meal time.

Feed the dog in different places every day, make them do something for you before you give them the food. Examples are sit, down, paw. I recommend using the down command. This is the most submissive position possible for a dog. Having them lay and roll onto their back before they get their food forces them to realize that you are the dominant dog, and that is what you need for a safe and happy home.

Feed your dog after your family eats. This establishes the pack mentality. In the wild, the dominant dog eats first and the submissive dogs eat last. Your family eats first and the dog eating after, shows the dog that he is not the one in control and that the humans are the dominant factor in the house. Your dog will probably understand this at a deeper level than you do.

Do not be mean to your dog. If you intimidate him, this will only make the behavior worse. Responding to your dog's aggressive behavior with aggression will cause a battle of will between the two of you and you could cause them to bite or injure you.

If your dog is just beginning the behavior, begin feeding them out of your hand. This will show them that you give him the food, and have no desire to take it away.

Pet your dog while they are eating at their bowl and talk to them with a soothing voice.

If your dog snarls, bites, or growls when you get near his food bowl, keep your distance. Every once in a while throw a dog treat his way and move a little closer. This will show him that you do not mean him harm and reward him for allowing your closer.

Keep a little of his food in your hand while he is eating. After he is finished eating and he is satisfied that his bowl is clean. Hold your hand out and offer the food, he will see that you mean his food no harm.

Give your dog an empty bowl. Placing an empty bowl on the floor might get you some strange looks from your dog but trust me, it works. As he is sitting there looking at you if you are completely insane, take a little bit of food and place it in the bowl. He will then see that the food came from you. When he is finished, tell him to sit. If he sits, give him a little more. This shows him that you wish to give him food, not take it away and also shows him that you control this resource.

Creating Your Dog's Living Space:
Creating your dog's living space is simple. The best results will be obtained by giving your dog place to call their own, or a den. This area should contain the dogs bed, food bowl, water bowl, and toys. Many people choose to place the den in their living room, so their dog is near them.

Supervision:
Supervision is necessary. You must pay attention to your dog to learn their potty cues. Many dogs spin in a circle a few times before they begin to relieve themselves. If your dog does this, it is their cue that they need to go to the bathroom.

When you cannot be with them at every second for a while, you need to create a smaller den for your dog. This type of area would be a bathroom, with a baby gate on the door so that you can see in, they can see out, but it limits their ability to make a potty mess on your floor.

Another option for supervision is a crate. If your dog is not crate trained, you may want to baby gate them in the bathroom until you do crate train. Simply tossing your dog in a crate without proper training can be traumatizing.

Going Outside:
Going outside with your dog on bathroom trips is necessary to the training process. You must be able to directly see them do their business to know when to praise them. Praise your dog as soon as they go to the bathroom. Reward them with a lot of pets and tell them that they were a "good boy/girl." Dogs aim to please their owners and will love the attention. They will want to potty outside more often to get the praise.

Take your dog out often. They will need to go out at least six times per day. Take them to the same part of the yard every time. Remember to praise your dog at every success. Do not scold them for not carrying thorough, that will build fear.

Clean Up Potty Spots:
Cleaning up potty thoroughly is unbelievably important. Your dog has a great sense of smell so you must ensure that any potty is thoroughly cleaned up. You don't want your dog to smell any old accidents, they will believe that it is in fact a bathroom.

Deodorant sprays do not work to remove the chemical in a dogs potty that will signal them to go in that spot again. After cleaning the spot use an odor neutralizer,  I recommend vinegar. Your house may smell of vinegar for a day or two, but it is much better than smelling like dog potty. When cleaning, do not use ammonia, this will actually signal your dog to go potty in that spot.

Do Not Punish Accidents:
Your dog will not understand the punishment. They will not know why you are mad at them. If your dog makes a mistake because you are not paying attention, that mistake is yours, not your dog's. Do not physically punish your dog. He does not understand this and it may build fear instead of your intended result.

You found the most adorable, cuddly, fuzzy little guy at the shelter or in the newspaper. You get them home and they fit perfectly into your family. You are so happy until the moment that they decide the center of your living room carpet is there for their personal toilet.

This is the moment that reality hits and you decided that your puppy needs to be trained. Where do you start? How do you convince this adorable little fuzzball that he needs to potty outside, and not on your carpet on laminate floor? I will tell you the easiest way to potty train a puppy.

Pay Attention:
Paying attention to your little cuddle buddy will prove to be the most valuable asset in house training. This step will show you what cues your puppy uses to show that they have to go potty. Many puppies signal that they have to go by turning in circles.

After Eating or Drinking:
Take your puppy outside shortly after they eat or drink. Puppies tend to potty within 10 to 15 minutes from the time they eat or drink . Taking them outside at the 10 minute mark will allow them to do their business outside.

Praise:
Praise your puppy after he goes potty outside. He will relate positive interaction with going potty outside. Puppies are people pleasers, they want to make you happy and they want to get praise.

Do Not Play With Them:
During potty time, do not play with your puppy. Puppies will forget about needing to go to the bathroom if they have someone to play with. Let them use this time to sniff around and get the feel of the yard. When the urge hits, they will do the deed. Do not forget his praise.

Consistency:
Puppies have a small body, and in return, they have small organs. They cannot hold in their potty for a long period of time. Take your puppy outside every half hour to 45 minutes. They will see that you insist that they do their business outside the house. Failing to be consistent will confuse your puppy.

Another part of consistency is using the same door, and the same part of your yard every time you take your puppy outside. This may seem strange, but changing the area can lead to confusion. Their scent in the grass will remind them what they do in this area. They will be able to remind themselves that it is time to potty.

Crate Training:
Do not crate train a puppy that is less that 16 weeks old. Their bladder cannot handle prolonged periods of holding it. They will inevitably potty in their crate and relate it with a negative place. Dogs do not like to potty where they sleep, if they are forced to potty where they sleep, they can relate that place to negative feelings. We will talk about crate training in another post.

When Your Puppy Potties Outside;
When your puppy potties outside, use the words that you want them to associate with potty.  "Go potty, good boy/girl, go potty." After your puppy finishes going potty, give them lots of love and praise. They will feel proud that they made you happy.

If Your Puppy Potties Inside:
If you catch your puppy going potty inside do not scold them. Pick them up and carry them outside the second you catch them. Let them finish their business outside. Even though your puppy started going potty inside, praise them if they finish outside. Just as you would if they went outside for the entire incident.

Puppy Training Pads:
Many people believe that puppy training pads can reinforce negative behavior. If you are not home all the time, consider using a puppy training pad while you are gone. Remember, puppies cannot hold it for a long period of time. Giving them a secure place to go potty when they have no other choice, will prevent damage to your carpet and flooring and still reinforce that there is a specific place that they are required to potty.

More From Caradwyn:

Learning What Your Dog Needs Directly From Him: Exercise

The Downside of the Free Puppy Trend

How to Tell What Your Dog is Thinking