How do dogs know to bark at people who are not very nice?

Question

Animals can sense the intentions of people. How does science make sense o fthis?

Answer 1

I don't think this is true. Dogs bark at people who are strange, this may be that the have a limp or a shuffle or are carrying a bag or stick or wearing raggy flappy clothes, or they might smell strange. They bark when people come close to "their" territory, or if they move about at night. They can smell fear or nervousness, but this might not be due to bad intentions, it might be due to previous bad experiences with a dog.

A dog barks as a warning. He alerts his "pack" to an event that needs watching. If a whole pack of dogs bark at you it can be quite intimidating. if you show fear they might attack, if you run they would almost certainly chase and "hunt" you. But you don't have to have any bad intentions towards them.

Domesticated dogs bark for the same reason, only they are warning the owner. One dog is not likely to attack as long as you are not nervous. But they will keep an eye on you, and some will go further if you cross the line. This may include one step too far, touching anything, or physical contact with a family member.

Dogs do bark for other reasons, they may bark when playing out of excitement, They may bark to attract owners attention to a need, ie water or food, or a desire to go out. Usually they wag their tail at these times. Some seem to bark from boredom, when they are left alone and this can be very annoying to neighbours.

PS Hitler had a dog. She appeared to love him right up to the time he shot her.

Answer 2

Most animals can pick up "vibes" that we humans overlook. Be careful though, they're not always right. My dog growled at a small child before (and he never growls at children). What could a child have done at that point to deserve that? And no...I highly doubt my dog could see into the future!

Also- just an example of the better senses dogs posses- they can actually smell cancers in people. Even those that are deeply buried. People can't do that.

By the way- the duck comment is BS! They proved it wrong on mythbusters!

Answer 3

Dogs are in tune with things we are not. Just like when a person is blind and he develops a better sense of hearing and/or smell. Dogs don't communicate in spoken language, obviously, so they have learned to pick up other clues from body language, emotional response, intuition, etc. I have a son who is autistic, and I think he has the same gift. I guess it is just a different kind of communication and we can't really understand it because we just don't do it nearly as well (although some people are much better at it than others.)

Answer 4

Dogs have a superior sense of smell and are very observant of body language. The combination of these two things makes a dog a very good judge of character. In my thirty + years of working with dogs, I have learned if a dog does not like someone, there is usually a good reason.

Answer 5

Dogs' refined sense of smell, perhaps. They can smell the stink of fear and guilt on a person a lot better than we can, and they can certainly tell if someone doesn't smell like they belong to the household they're guarding.

Answer 6

because they have developed a sense that humans have suppressed. A 6th sense. That's why they bark at walls. They see and feel things that we don't. Hence horses will stampede long before we see the danger

Answer 7

We tend to think of dog training as a series of steps for teaching particular behaviors. To teach a dog to stay in a particular position, you reward her as she remains in place for gradually longer times, at gradually greater distances, with gradually increasing degrees of distraction. Read more https://tr.im/ZN0Vs

Now, this is fine, training does involve teaching dogs specific behaviors with a step-by-step approach. This week, though, I’m going to discuss three mental habits that will not only enable you train more effectively but also make life pleasant for both you and your dog.

Answer 8

Dogs can't smell fear, fear doesn't have a scent.. I'll tell you what does though, being a big douchebag... Douchebags have a certain scent to them that dogs hate, therefore they bark at the d-bag.

Helps a lot to have a good douchebag-sniffin dog around when you're meeting new people and having them over.

Answer 9

I know that dogs bark at nice people as well as nasty ones so I am not sure what you say is correct.

Answer 10

I think they are just very in tune with body language. They communicate by body language and can quickly recognize even the slightest threatening posture.