Dogs and People

Dogs and people: Dogs are not born knowing how to read a human's body language so they need to learn this from us starting at a very young age, especially if we intend to help them adapt to us easily. Something as simple as eye contact, which is something that humans do in a friendly way, can cause a dog with little or no socialization skills to feel threatened by it. Most people are not aware about how dogs see the world and the misunderstandings between humans and dogs occur very frequently. Unfortunately, the dog is always the one to blame when a misunderstanding happens even though humans are supposedly the smarter species. Humans need to understand that dogs are not human beings with four legs and hair. A person that intends to have a dog needs to learn how to understand them. Doing this is the only way to will ensure a happy and healthy relationship between them.

Are you friendly?: A dog that has been properly trained and has learned to socialize to people easily accepts a person looking them in the eyes. Inclining in front of a dog and looking straight into their eyes is something that an untrained dog would consider a threat. However, dogs that have learned to be around people do not feel threatened by it. It is good to know though that you should not stare into a dogs eyes this way for a very long time as it could make the dog feel uncomfortable.

I feel safer here: A dog that stops barking and walks away from an intruder shows he lacks confidence. Dogs that show this lack of confidence and that feel incapable of protecting their territory trust in the leader of their pack (in this case the owner) to keep them protected and they feel very vulnerable when they are left alone. It is very unlikely that a dog like this will actually come to bite a person, but it's best to try to make sure that these dogs learn to be sociable from the moment they are puppies so that they do not feel the need to be frightened when they encounter strangers. A combination of positive socialization and a healthy and safe environment will help a dog to feel friendly and sociable with strangers or visitors that come to the house.