A man crouches down about two feet in front of a young yellow Lab, stares at her sternly and puts a food dish down between them. Unsure what to do, the dog blinks and turns her head away from the man, clearly nervous about starting to eat. The man points to the dish, encouraging the dog, and she starts eating normally. After about five seconds, the man moves closer, encroaching on the dog's space, with his legs on either side of the dish, his feet just inches from the bowl. As he moves in, the dog starts gobbling her food. As the man stays in this threatening, close position, the dog snarls and snaps at his leg.

Rather than moving away to give the dog her space, the man instantly reacts by jabbing her hard on the side of the neck with his fingers in a claw-like position. The dog backs away from the food dish, snarling and showing her teeth. Assuming a threatening “Kung Fu” crouch with his arms stiffly bent, his hands in a rigid, claw-like position, the man moves toward the dog, staring sternly. Man and dog face off, the dog snarling with her teeth bared, clearly feeling threatened. After about 15 seconds, she starts licking her lips repeatedly, blinking and clearly avoiding eye contact, looking side-to-side. After another 20 to 25 seconds, she lies down in front of the man, with her head turned away.

With the dog now lying down, the man relaxes his posture, remaining crouched in front of her as he talks to the owner about how he needs to wait for her to get into a relaxed state. After another 25 seconds, as he explains how her body language is now relaxed, he reaches toward the dog, placing his hand on top of her muzzle. The dog instantly snaps and snarls at him, but doesn't connect and bite. Up until this moment, the dog has displayed a great deal of “leave me alone” behavior and body language and has not bitten the man, despite his threatening and invasive behavior.

When the dog snapped at his hand, the man's natural, automatic reaction was to back up a step. Without a pause, he immediately moves in again, crouches right in front of her and makes a hissing noise. This all happens in the space of less than two seconds. Suddenly, the dog grabs his hand and bites him, hard. The man stands up with her still attached to his hand, kicks at her, and she lets go.

The bite is quite serious, but for the next five minutes, the man stands there sternly, with the dog cornered against a fence. The dog remains still, blinking and looking away from the man. This standoff lasts until the man, clearly in pain, points to the fact that the dog starts panting with her mouth open. As if this stress signal is a “win” for him, proving that he's made his point, he leaves to ice his hand.

Regular readers of this column will recognize that many of the signals the dog was sending were what are called “calming signals,” used by dogs in an attempt to avoid confrontation. The escalation of tension and the resulting bite were absolutely avoidable. After encouraging the dog to eat in front of him, the man moved in threateningly, encroaching on her space and food dish. Consider how you would respond if a waiter hovered threateningly over your plate while you ate. And how would you react if, having had the nerve to object to his encroachment, he struck out and hit you?

The vast majority of dog aggression is for the purpose of increasing distance — to get the “offender,” in this case the man encroaching on the dog as she ate, to move away. And as she lay there, clearly stressed, all she wanted was for him to leave her alone — but he didn't.

I purposely didn't say who the man is, although you might have recognized Cesar Millan, “The Dog Whisperer.” The YouTube video is a teaser for the final season of his program on NatGeo, available with the title: “Dog Whisperer: Showdown with Holly,” (click for link) or if you have access to the entire program, it aired on Sept. 15.

There are several lessons to be learned from this video. First, what is absolutely clear is that the trainer provoked the dog into being aggressive — both unnecessary and counterproductive, which I'll write more about next week. Further, given the severity of this dog's behavior, she is probably not appropriate in a home with an 18-month-old child — and ultimately, Millan did make that recommendation. That is not always the case, as many dogs can be “reprogrammed” to be appropriate around food, depending on the severity of the behavior and several other factors, including what the owners have tried to do to “fix” it prior to getting sound training advice.

Next week, I'll write more on this topic, with advice about handling food-bowl aggression — how to avoid it to begin with, and if you already have it, how to eliminate it without causing the serious biting behavior that Holly exhibited.

Gail Fisher, author of “The Thinking Dog,” runs All Dogs Gym & Inn in Manchester. To suggest a column topic, email gail@alldogsgym.com or write c/o All Dogs Gym & Inn, 505 Sheffield Road, Manchester NH 03103. Her website has past columns.