The natural dog has two choices when it sees something, fight or flight. As with humans’ flight is usually the first choice, after all every fight you’re not in is one you win. The flight option is only available when there is space to do so. This is one of the reasons the Castle Doctrine exists in regard to self-defense. When your ability to move is restricted so are your options so lack to ability to flight forces fight. This is a natural response in all creatures.
Our dogs are not living natural lives being confined to a house 95% of the time. They live a contained life. Not being afforded the ability to get away, they focus on where a threat can possibly enter, we call that the door. We like it when dogs come up to us and are friendly, however this is a very unnatural behavior. In the wild a dog outside of your pack or a human is a threat to your resources and possibly your life. It only makes good sense to watch them at a distance and to move farther away if they come closer to you. Another example of eye contact and movement in canine communication.
If a dog is not conditioned to focus on you when the doorbell rings, there is a knock at the door, or someone opens the door they are by nature forced to make a decision on what makes sense to them as a canine. People will bypass dogs that come to them to pursue the one that doesn’t. The dog clearly communicating it wants to be left alone by using the flight response. When you move towards that dog you are removing the option of flight, and the dog decides at which point it is backed into a corner. The dogs will likely bark or growl in effort to communicate in canine. The more they verbalize the more people look them in the eyes which is a challenge to a dog. When challenged there are two choices, do nothing or respond to the challenge. At this point they have don’t everything they can to communicate with you to leave them alone. Few interactions between canines would get this far because they both speak dog. Then the person lowers their head and reaches for the dog and gets nipped. Nipping for a dog is the same thing as pushing is for a person, it accomplishes two things, first it tells the offender that they are willing to use physical force and it creates distance between them and the threat. In the case of the dog this is called aggression. Men are much more likely to do this and that is why people report their dog being afraid of men, not women. Men just can’t no for an answer. My experience with dogs and as a bouncer has confirmed this many times.
When I go to a client’s house because their dog is not “friendly” with strangers the same thing always happen. I walk in and the dog is 100% fixated on me. They are in front of the owners and not “listening.” It is impossible to use all your process all your senses at the same time. The #1 sense needed for survival is sight. The dog will react to the slightest thing that I do. If the people touch the dog, they will jump because they forgot there was anyone behind then.
This is why I favor in home training over group classes. A dog that will not focus on you in your house with such limited variables will not focus on you during the chaos outside of your front door.
If you put a dog in an open space and walk towards them, they will either respond to your movement by running away or moving towards you. This is because they are making their own decision. Through Focused Based Canine Training we teach you how to condition the dog not to respond but to look to you for guidance. The obvious place to start this process is the front door of your house.