The world saw when President George W. Bush's dog Barney bit a reporter possibly to get the message across; You don't like my owner I don't like you. This may or may not have been the case but something was up.

Luckily the reporter kept his digits, but some people have not been so lucky. I met a person who tried to separate his two fighting dogs and claims that while he was trying to yank one's mouth off the others, his pinkie got stuck in one canine's mouth and now he has 9 2/3 digits. He panicked after he removed his pinkie from the dog's mouth and left his fallen 1/3 finger in the house as he fled to the emergency room; To this day he maintains that he doesn't know which pooch bit him. When he got back from the emergency room stitched up, he found the severed finger on the floor whithering into death and unable to be reattached to his pinkie finger because time had elapsed.

A dog has about 42 teeth and uses his mouth for many things-biting, transporting things, eating and for defense purposes. There are some dogs who are bred and trained for viciousness by people who use them to fight for money and they may survive and thrive if they are retrained. Unfortunately some have to be euthanized because they have been abused so much they cannot be rehabilitated and socialized.

However this writing is not about those poor souls but rather about dogs who need to be trained for socialization. But if you should run into these dogs or any vicious one in a lonely, dark alley or anyplace else where you are compromised, you can spot check to see if you are in danger by observing the following:

1. Ears- Dominant Dogs Keep their ears tense; calm dogs relax them; fearful dogs pull ears flat against head
2. Eyes-Direct Staring means a dog may be dominate
3. Mouth-If Mouth Relaxed a relaxed dog; tense mouth tense dog
4. Torso Tension- Tightened muscles around head and shoulders is a scared or aggressive dog.
5. Fur-If the coat is smooth from shoulder to hips the canine is calm; If its elevated it's scared
6. The Tail-If it's wagging quickly the dog's excited; A nervous dog holds his tail straight out and wags it slowly.**

If things are ambiguous err on the side of caution; If in doubt get out.

If you meet an aggressive dog who has you cornered and is about to attack stand still with you hands by your side, look at your feet and make no eye contact with the canine. If the dog charges get into a fetal position until help arrives taking care to cover your major organs, blood vessels and head. Use your Yoga Training to squeeze into a ball-knees into chest, head between knees etc.

In the case of your own dog you must let them know as puppies what is appropriate to bite and what is not; There is no need to hit his personage as dogs know what the word no means better than humans sometimes.

Puppies like any child is exploring his environment and its boundaries and as owners we must set boundaries for them. They do have training tools to stop the puppy from biting; The two which I am familiar with are Bitter Apple and the Air Horn have proven to be effective in some instances.T

Bitter Apple is a non-toxic substance when placed on anything repels the animal because of its taste. The Air Horn is a sound which repels an animal's bad behavior. It is wise not to wait until the dog is a 175lb adult dog to teach him about biting, even though they still can be taught.

In the case of the fellow who lost his digits his veterinarian told him he shouldn't have separated his dogs with his bare hands but pried them apart with a stick; behavioral training would have been a better fit to address these behaviors. But his hand and pinkie is only a vestiage of what it was.

And when a person gets a notion to get a pet it should behoove him to get a book about that breed so that he'll get the gist of that particular breed's psychology and physiology; it would prevent a lot of grief or as they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

If You Are Bitten Go To Doctor Don't Treat Yourself

**The Dog Behavioral Answer Book By Arden Moore

T-The Pet Show