Any Dog Can Bite – the Bite Threshold

A close up of a dogs mouth and nose
All dogs have the potential to bite. This fact is important to remember, especially because we commonly hear people say things that imply otherwise. The other day a woman at the dog park told me her dog “doesn’t have a mean bone in his body.” I believe that her big fluffy sheepdog isn’t likely to hurt my mini goldendoodle, Bella. But, I think it’s important to remember that even the gentlest dogs have a “bite threshold.”

Just as the nicest person you know can have a really bad day and say something mean out of stress, all dogs have a point of stress at which they will bite, called their bite threshold. Some dogs have simply never been pushed past theirs.

A close up of a dogs mouth and nose
Black and white picture of a dog with a muzzle.

When I worked as a veterinary assistant, I often had the unpleasant experience of seeing dogs get very stressed. Some dogs were so stressed by being at the vet that they had to have a muzzle on just for the examination. But even the gentlest, calmest dogs had to be muzzled for certain procedures that were particularly stressful or painful.

Often, dogs bite because multiple stressors are occurring at once. For instance, a dog that is fearful of strangers might not bite if a stranger handles her. And if she’s injured, she might not bite if her owner touches the injured area. But she might bite when the veterinarian touches her during an examination of the injury, because experiencing stranger fear and pain at the same time pushed her past her bite threshold.

So even if your dog doesn’t have a history of aggression, it’s important to know her stressors and avoid them whenever possible. If you don’t know a dog’s stressors, you should pay attention to her body language. A fearful dog is likely to show defensive aggression if the feared person, animal, or object keeps advancing.

Of course, you should avoid causing a dog stress anyway! But it’s important to remember that it’s a matter of safety.

Have you ever seen a dog bite? What do you think the stressors were?

Much of the information contained in this blog post was obtained during the CATCH master dog training class.