What I Do When I Meet a Dog

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	What I do when I meet a dog
	Before Gina joined our family, I always went up to every dog I saw to pet it. Now I know how lucky I was that nothing ever happened to me. Gina snaps at almost every person who pets her. This gave me the great chance to observe the way people act when they meet her. I found out a few things you shouldn't do when you meet a dog.
	At this point I'd like to say that every dog has its own boundaries (in this, they are not different from us) and when we cross them, it may snap or bite. A family dog will accept much more while a guard dog might already bite you when you enter its territory. We wouldn't like it either if everybody came up to us to pet us, neither do dogs. Even therapy dogs work only for half a day per week.
		There is always the possibility that a dog reacts in a aggressive way because it is sick and has pains. It then may be afraid that you touch it and make its pains stronger. In this case TTEAM can be very helpful.
When I meet any animal, I pretend it's a crocodile or some other wild animal which could bite off my head if I made a wrong move. Now if you met a crocodile, you certainly wouldn't go up to it and pet it. But since you want to make contact with it, you don't run away either. The best thing is probably to wait and observe it. Maybe it is also interested in you. When you observe it, some crocodile language would be a good thing to know . You don't want to stare at it, because crocodiles might connect starring with aggression, like dogs do. Since I don't know much about crocodile language, we'll change to dogs at this point.
	Moving slowly and talking softly is always good when you meet a dog. If the dog comes up to you, you can pet it gently, still observing it to be able to remove your hand immediately at the tiniest growl or the first teeth that may be shown. These are both warning signals (even a soft growling is not a purring!) which come before biting and snapping. If a dog is not interested in you, it's best to leave it alone. Maybe it will like some company later on. In short: show the dog your respect. Fear and overenthusiasm are out of place. Don't scare or stress the dog. Let the dog choose when and how much of your company it wants.

Observe the dogs you meet all the time! You can learn to understand their language and partially speak back to them. It's really fun when the dog understands you, and when you can tell what might be going on in its head. And then of course, it comes in handy if you can see the first signs of aggression and react to them, so you can stop the aggression immediately. Read more under Dog Language.

What I do when I meet a dog