Do Dogs Know When Someone is Afraud if Them?
It's the dog's fear, not yours, that matters
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But if you're worried about a nearby canine sinking its teeth into you, what you're really wondering is this: If a dog senses you're afraid, is it more likely to attack you? There doesn't seem to be much evidence that a dog's perception of a person's fear is a significant trigger for an attack. What really matters is whether the dog is afraid of you or is anxious in general.
A 2007 study of incidents in which children were bitten by dogs, published in the journal Injury Prevention, found that dogs most often bit children when they perceived a threat to their territory, food or other resources, such as toys. In addition, children who were noisy and made unpredictable movements were at greater risk of being bitten. When the aggressive animals were examined, about half of them had medical conditions, such as skin or bone disorders, which tend to cause anxiety in dogs -- and thus, make them more likely to feel the urge to protect themselves.
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