Learning dog body language is key to dog bite prevention.
Guarding Space: Dog Body Language
Guarding space is when a dog hides or moves away to be alone, be it a bed, under a table, on top of a couch, saying “I’ve had enough and need some alone time.”
This image is one of 60 other images in the Dog Decoder app depicting dog body languages describing the different body parts that are communicating.
When dogs retreat like this and someone intrudes on their space, they can become aggressive and often times bite if not left alone.
Of course, this isn’t OK and needs to be dealt with by learning what triggers your dog and then working to lessen the stress of these triggers. This can be an adult or a child and even another dog coming to invade their space.
The dog in this image/situation needs help to feel more secure in her environment and this means that the child needs to learn how to play with and interact with dogs to be more respectful and when to leave the dog alone.