Why do dogs attack when the sense fear?

How do dogs sense fear and why do they attack when they do sense it?

Most don't. But yes they can sense when you are afraid or uncertain of them. This makes them uncomfortable and unsure of YOU. Which is why the dog would potentially attack.

I've always heard that dogs can smell adrenaline. When you get scared, your body releases adrenaline.If a dog attacks a human EVER, apart from protecting or being properly trained to do so, then there is a problem. Think of all the people who are afraid of dogs. If you took your dog to the park and he/she attacked every person that smelled like fear, then you'd probably go to jail for the rest of your life...

Dogs only attack if they are provoked unless the dog is in the wild and then it is done for reasons like staying alive or for food.If you mean dogs we live with then I would think it is because they are pushed into a situation such as being backed in to a corner or provoked like being teased.Dogs who are trained do not do that unless their owners are being attacked and then to protect the family the dog will attack to save the owners etc.Hope that helps you.Oh dogs that fear or have fear aggression will do it because of being scared and usually a dog like that was teased, hit or abused during it's life and then will attack because it knows no better.

There are a bunch of ways to explain this.First, who's fear are they sensing? Their own fear or the pheromone's of other animals or humans?Either way the one showing the fear is a sign of weakness or submissiveness. Think of a rabbit being chased by a coyote. That rabbit is scared for its life, just pouring out the pheromone. Which in turn just encourages the coyote.Then there is the fear biter. Who bites because he is scared. Push 'em just a little to far & they bite, corner them & they bite. It is the only line of defense they have. Their 'fight or flight' jumps in there a lot sooner than on a dog who is not a fear biter.When you go to pet a dog & you are not sure it will be ok, you put of the smell of the pheromone long before you actually feel the fear yourself. The dog senses this & because of your fears the dog will become fearful its self. Picking up on your vibes. He doesn't know if you're hesitant because you may want to harm it or if you are teasing him.When I was learning to train dogs in aggression work we had to learn to control that pheromone, that is hard to do."pheromones in dogs" I used Yahoo Searchhttp://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oG72Hsg5JMkyQBFlVXNyoA;_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGFvAzEEaG9zdHB2aWQDNGdrTGxrb0c3N21jYWNPa1RJX1JqQWdVUzYxUmhreVNnLndBRHdESwRuX2dwcwMwBG5fdnBzAzQEb3JpZ2luA3NycARxdWVyeQNwaGVyb21vbmVzICYgZG9ncwRzYW8DMgR2dGVzdGlkA1ZJUDAwNQ--?p=pheromones+%26+dogs&fr2=sb-topThese sites can go into more detail.

would you not attack or feel defensive if you sensed someone was being mean?? dogs are very similar to humans that way.

Weak energy, so shouting, anger, frustration from people makes dogs reactive, not having a strong pack leader will make dogs anxious........tension on a lead thy will pick up that the handler is fearful and so they will react to that.......they pick it up through energy and body language mainlyMost dogs will avoid if possible rather than attack when they are fearful.....so flight ( run away), freeze, fool around ( behave silly, like jumping up, collecting a toy rolling on the ground) Fight (attack, bark, growl) although most people only realise once a dog reacts ( attacks) that anything is wrong and because people don't recognise and stop the situation going further, once the dog has attacked and it has 'worked' for the dog it is likely to jut attack immediately the next time..because it has learned it works