In Wuthering Heights, why do Heathcliff's dogs turn against Lockwood?

The amusing first chapter of this classic details the way
in which Lockwood, as a southerner and therefore not used to the northern culture and
life, misinterprets so much of what he sees in the house of Heathcliff, his landlord,
and often with hilarious consequences. The dogs in Wuthering Heights turn on him when
Lockwood ignores the advice he is given by Heathcliff and provokes the dogs by making
faces at them. Note how the text describes this
event:

Not
anxious to come in contact with their fangs, I sat still; but, imagining they would
scarcely understand tacit insults, I unfortunately indulged in winking and making faces
at the trio, and some turn of my physiognomy so irritated madam, that she suddenly broke
into a fury and leapt on my knees. I flung her back, and hastened to interpose the table
between us. This proceeding aroused the whole hive: half-a-dozen four-footed fiends, of
various sizes and ages, issued from hidden dens to the common
centre.

Thus we can see that
Lockwood finds himself the unexpected quarry of the many dogs in Wuthering Heights
because of his stupidity in provoking one of them with silly facial gestures. However,
let us not forget the import of Lockwood's role in the first chapter. As our principal
narrator, he is clearly shown to not understand the culture of the Moors, and therefore
is shown to be distinctly unreliable.