You've probably heard someone say, with a bit of bravado, oh, my dog would never bite. The trouble is that bravado usually comes from picturing only the extreme version of biting A snarling, lunging dog you'd see in some viral video. But most dog bites don't look like that at all. More often they're just quick nips from a dog who feels stressed or pushed too far. Bites often come out of situations that don't look aggressive on the surface. A dog might feel cornered and snap out of fear, or maybe they've been handled or petted a little too much and finally react. Sometimes it's a startle, like being touched while asleep, or it could be pain-related, when injury or illness lowers their tolerance. These moments don't look traumatic and they're often small a nip, a snap, a quick contact followed by retreat. But they're still bites. And here's something important.

Biting isn't something that dogs have to learn. It's instinct. Just like people are born with fight or flight responses, dogs are born with the ability to bite. They don't need practice or past trauma to figure it out. It's built in. That doesn't mean every dog will bite, but it does mean every dog can mean every dog will bite, but it does mean every dog can.

So our job as dog owners is to notice the early warning signs before it ever gets that far. Things like lip licking, yawning, turning their head away or showing the whites of their eyes, maybe a stiff body pinned back, ears, tucked tail or even a low growl Even a dog that simply tries to walk away or hide is telling you something, and that's communication that we should respect. So just remember any dog has the potential to bite. That doesn't make them bad. It means they were put in a situation where biting felt like their only option. And if we have that false sense of security that our dog would never bite, then we risk missing those early warning signs. But when we stay aware, when we acknowledge that any dog can bite even our dog, given the right circumstances we start paying attention, we give space, we make changes before things escalate, allowing us to greatly reduce the chance of a bite ever happening.