Learning how to understand your dog is crucial to developing a strong pet and owner relationship. The key component of maintaining a healthy relationship is solid two-way communication. We use language to communicate with another person. But how do dogs communicate with humans?
Physical Gestures Are An Important Part of How Dogs Communicate With Humans
Since dogs can’t speak, you have to learn how to interpret your dog’s body language. Dogs express their feelings by making vocalizations and by certain gestures using their face and body. When you take him outside and another dog approaches him, does he become aggressive? What sounds does he make?
Does he cower and whine when a stranger approaches him? This may indicate that he is a timid or shy dog, and you might need to address this.
Has your dog ever appeared to be sad all of a sudden and didn’t seem to want to interact with you? Maybe he is feeling ill and you need to take him to a vet.
Tails can tell a tale:
A dog can also show his emotions by the manner in which he wags his tail. He demonstrates pure joy when he crazily wags his tail and entire body when you come home at the end of the day. You’ll often see this behavior when you have been separated for a long while.
A slow wagging tail, however, means he’s being cautious and a stiff tail held high means he’s being alert. A tucked tail means they are scared and you should be the one on alert for how he might respond to that fear.
A timid dog that has become fearful often reacts more aggressively than you would ever have imagined. A usually calm and well-adjusted dog is less likely to become aggressive in a strange or fear-producing situation.
Your dog’s face and head signals
Let’s start with the obvious – his eyes. Just like with humans, their eyes are the window to their souls. You can start interpreting their moods by looking into their eyes. Just do not stare too directly into their eyes or they may take that as an aggressive behavior and react accordingly.
When playing with your dog, you will notice that his eyes are usually wide open. He is showing politeness or submission if he is avoiding eye contact or trying to look away from your face. Be careful if his eyes are narrowed. This is an indication that your dog is feeling aggressive and getting ready to attack.
His ears alone can tell you a lot of things. If your dog is fully engaged in play, hunting, or concentrating you will notice that his ears are pricked forward or standing straight up. However, if his ears are partway back but not totally flattened, this could mean that he is sad or anxious.
Dogs use expression too! Yawning is part of their expression. If you yawn in front of your dog, you might have noticed once or twice that your dog yawned too. It’s not because yawning is contagious but because your dog is trying to show that he sympathizes with you.
However, if your dog is yawning in a combination of lip licking, this can be an indication that he stressed or feeling threatened.
Listen to how your dog barks if you want to know how dogs communicate with humans.
They bark for different reasons and listening can help you identify your dogs’ bark in different situations. A loud, rapid, high pitched bark means he is being aggressive.
You will more likely notice this type of bark if he is scared or is not comfortable being approached by a stranger. A short bark can be a form of a greeting or a sign of friendliness.
If he is snarling or growling with a frequent guttural, alerting kind of bark, he is sending a warning of potential danger.
As his owner and leader of the pack, you have to know when he is happy, sad, or afraid. Learn how to read your dog using both your eyes and your ears.
Communication is a two-way street that starts with learning to read your dog.
Learning to read your dog is the first step to effectively communicate with them. You need to find certain physical cues in order to understand them. Secondly, be prepared to act on those cues. Being able to do something about a potential problem before it escalates is one of the benefits of having learned how to read your dog.
If you want to read more about reading your dog, check out this article. https://excellentdogsclub.com/how-can-you-tell-your-dog-loves-you/
Photos courtesy of my photo album and Pixabay