Help, my dog tries to bite me when I leave the house, why is he doing this, and most of all, how can I reduce this behavior? A dog biting when the owner is leaving the house is certainly a concerning behavior, and one that needs to be corrected before the behavior gains a strong rehearsal history, and therefore, becomes more difficult to eradicate. If the behavior occurs always and only as the owner is leaving the house, then this can be suggestive of separation anxiety. However, there can be other possible causes too. Because dog behavior is unpredictable and can lead to injury, the best option is to have the dog evaluated by a behavior professional for safety and correct behavior modification implementation.
A Case of Separation Anxiety
Most dogs do not like to be left alone. Many dogs learn to cope with their owner’s absences, but some dogs develop such strong dysfunctional attachments to their owners, that they have very poor coping skills when left alone. These dogs therefore go on to develop separation anxiety which is a very distressing situation to the dog.
Most classical cases of separation anxiety have dogs who follow their owners room-to-room, whine and act restless as dog owners prepare for their departures. These dogs have learned to associate all these pre-departure cues with their owners leaving the home, and therefore, start acting anxious as their owners get dressed, have breakfast and then grab their keys and exit the door.
Once left alone, these dogs are restless and spend most of their time whining, barking, howling, pacing near the door, and even drooling, having pee and poop accidents in the home and scratching/biting doors exit points.
Some dogs may also try to bite their owners’ hands and feet as they are leaving the house. This behavior can be triggered by the hyper arousal caused by anxiety, so it definitely can be linked as well to separation anxiety. These dogs are desperately trying to prevent their owners from leaving the home, because, once left alone, they feel vulnerable and get highly stressed.
Many dog owners are not aware of their dogs having separation anxiety until they record their dogs’ behavior when left alone and watch it, noticing several signs of distress.
Other Possible Causes
Dog behavior can sometimes be quite complex to understand, and uncovering a dog’s motives when displaying certain behaviors can be challenging at times. There can be several dynamics going on.
For instance, a dog biting the dog owner as he prepares to leave the house may just be boisterous behavior stemming from a high-energy dog who is overly enthusiastic in greeting his owner first thing in the morning after not interacting with him during the whole night.
A dog may simply be wanting the owner to interact with him and this can be an attention-getting behavior. Many dogs enjoy attention, even if of the negative type. A dog owner who is talking to the dog or pushing the dog away to make him stop, may be perceived as a “game” by the dog and just another way to gain attention.
Dog breeds with a history of being used for herding may sometimes attempt to “herd” family members and guests as if they were “flocks” preventing them from leaving the premises or to “move them” from one area to another.
A behavior assessment done by a behavior professional can turn handy in cases as such. In a behavior assessment, the behavior professional will be asking several questions and will be observing the dog’s behavior to generate “clues” that may play an important role in the behavior modification process. A functional assessment can often help identify the exact triggers and the function of the behavior.
Help, My Dog Tries to Bite Me When I Leave the House!
Help, my dog tries to bite me when I leave the house, why is he doing this and how can I reduce this behavior? In some cases, it may not be easy to identify the exact function of the behavior, and it’s therefore not unusual sometimes to encounter instances where the dog’s behavior cannot be categorized neatly as one would want it to.
James O’ Heare in the “Canine Aggression Handbook” claims: “Actual dog behavior doesn’t always fit neatly into any category system that I have seen. Owners shouldn’t attempt to “jam square pegs into round holes.”
The moral of this story is that, if your dog is trying to bite when you leave the house, and you cannot figure out exactly why, it may be far more productive intervening rather then wasting time into attempting to dig deeply into the dog’ brain
In such cases, the behavior can be 1) managed (keep dog inside a crate, inside a room or behind a baby gate when you must leave the house so that your dog doesn’t have a chance to rehearse the problem behavior, 2) redirected (toss treats or a ball the opposite way as you are leaving) and 3) fixed by training an alternate behavior to the biting upon leaving, such as laying on a mat with a stuffed Kong.
If the recording of your dog’s behavior in your absence, when he is home alone denotes distress and several signs of separation anxiety, you may need to work on training your dog to hold a nice sit-stay or down-stay as you walk around the home and desensitizing your dog to pre-departure cues as outlined in the various separation anxiety protocols listed on a previous article on this website.