Mary Allen
If the dog snaps at a person, the horror is usually great. The reasons for the supposed bad manners are manifold. Whether playing or attacking, it is important to get to the bottom of the problem. Because people are often to blame.
Snapping is nothing more than when we humans grab something with our hands,” says Monika Oehler, a behavioral biologist specializing in dog behavior. “This is how dogs hold something, play, stop someone opposite, or use it to defend themselves.” The meaning of the snapping movement always correlates with the context. Dogs hold each other with their mouths while playing, or a dog grabs the object of its desire with its snout. “He doesn’t have any hands that he could use for this,” says Oehler.
However, if a person holds their hand between them at this moment, the person suddenly becomes part of the action. “The dog can, for example, accidentally brush against the human with its teeth,” explains Oehler. However, the four-legged friend usually does not mean that in a bad way. Dogs that are resource-oriented can tend to defend their stock. The bone or the toy should therefore never be simply taken away from such dogs. “It’s best to offer your four-legged friend a piece of sausage in exchange,” advises the behavior specialist. In this way, the dog can learn to confidently give up its resource and receive something else in return. The four-legged friend is then no longer in defense mode and you can take the object with you without any problems or danger.
Final Warning: Gasping for Air
However, snap actions do not always end lightly. “Dogs whose limits are constantly being disregarded will sooner or later react with a snapping movement,” says Monika Oehler, from many years of experience as a qualified animal psychology consultant in the cantons of Aargau and Basel. According to the expert, people in particular who are not well-versed in reading their dog’s body language sometimes find themselves in uncomfortable situations. “Instead of respecting the signals, owners forbid the dog to growl, for example, or force it into exactly the situations that it wants to avoid out of fear or stress.”
The less the dog feels understood, the more it expresses its desire. A whole repertoire of physical and phonetic expressions is available to him for this purpose. “The snap comes last.” Oehler should know. She wrote her master’s thesis at the University of Zurich on the subject of aggressive behavior in domestic dogs. “First, dogs turn their heads away, try to walk away or dodge, get a fixed look and a stiff posture. They bark and growl.” Only when they are unsuccessful do they move on to the next stage: they snap into the air. What laypeople interpret as a missed bite is a precise apparent snapping of the animal. “Only then will the dog really snap, either to hold on to the other person or to fend him off?”
Finely Graded Communication
It takes a lot for this to happen with your own dog. “Only a dog that is constantly ignored in its needs would eventually snap or bite its owner.” The dog simply no longer knows how to convey to its owner that it needs space, quiet, or distance, for example. If the worst comes to the worst, you should above all remain calm and consult a specialist. This can explain in context why the dog acted as it did and give tips on how to behave in the future so that you don’t get caught again.
The same applies to the rare case that a complete stranger dog snaps. According to Oehler, this is usually a classic: Two dogs were separated in an argument, an unknown dog was touched, someone stranger walked into the dog’s territory, or an attempt was made to take something away from a stranger’s dog. “It always depends on the individual dog and the situation.” In order to be able to assess dogs better, one should observe them closely; how they communicate with humans or with their fellow species – “that is very finely gradated,” says Monika Oehler. “Observing dog behavior is a field of endless learning opportunities.”