A knowledge of canine body language can protect you and your children around strange or threatening dogs. If you understand how the animal will interpret your body movements and facial expressions, you will know how to act in a nonthreatening way and avoid a possible aggressive attack. Here are a few rules to follow:

1. Never approach an unknown dog without first asking its owner if it's all right. If the owner is not around, don't approach the dog.

2. Never run up to a dog, or make quick, jerky gestures toward it that might be interpreted as a threat. Move slowly and deliberately.

3. Many people immediately squat down to be at a dog's eye level. Don't do this. Staring into a strange dog's eyes may be considered a challenge by the dog; an invitation to fight. If you get down low, you're telling the dog, "Look, I'm submissive to you."

4. When you meet a dog for the first time, make your hand into a loosely closed fist, fingers down, and extend it slowly to allow the dog to sniff your knuckles. Never put your open hand over the dog's head as if to pat it, because this is interpreted as a threat by many dogs. If the dog is calm and friendly, you can then turn your hand over, palm up, but continue to keep your fingers curled in lightly; then you can gradually uncurl your fingers and let the animal nuzzle your hand if it wants to.

5. If a strange dog approaches you, stay still. If you're standing, put your arms at your sides. Don't raise your arms as the dog may think that you are threatening it. If you're on the ground, lie face-down. Let the animal sniff at you - soon it will lose interest and go away.

6. Adults should never snatch a small child away or up from a dog, because the animal may then perceive the child as a toy; a stuffed animal to run and grab. If an adult calmly places herself between the child and the dog, the dog will understand that she's being protective, and that's pack-related behavior.

7. Running away is interpreted by a dog as flight behavior and almost always triggers an instinctive chase reaction in a dog, in which it sees you, the runner, as potential prey. To sum up, stay calm and use common sense around any dog. It will understand by your reactions and body language that you are not a threat and will leave you alone.

Dog Pheromones

Pheromones are chemical substances secreted by an animal that influence the behavior of other animals of the same species. Unlike other hormones, pheromones are secreted externally and influence other animals, typically by smell. In this case, pheromones may play a very important role in animal behavior. In dogs, pheromones probably influence group integration and are a factor in fighting and general aggressiveness. Some theorys suggest that dogs release pheromones in urine and feces, and perhaps through exhaled breath, subcutaneous glands at the base of the tail and the foot pads. This would tend to explain why aggressive, fighting dogs are often compulsive urine sniffers and urine markers, and why they become less aggressive when sniffing and urine marking are not allowed by their owners.

Pheromones may act as a trigger or primer for certain types of behavior. This case is typical of many wherein a dog appears to sense, by smell, another dog that may be perceived as a threat. Also typical among some vicious biting dogs is the need to brand a strange territory with their own pheromones before launching an attack. Some take place even when the biting dogs were on their home territory. Remedial programs include restricting urination of the problem dog to a single area of his own yard. This tends to lower the aggressiveness, as well as reduce the incidence of household urination.