Imagine how you’d feel if you moved to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language and they don’t speak yours. How would you communicate?
- Show people what you mean–point to things, act happy when they guess correctly, and so on.
- Learn to speak their language. (It sure would help if they would teach you!)
- Find someone, anyone, in this country who speaks your language. Eureka! You’ve found your new best friend.
Your dog has moved to a foreign country where people speak nothing but human. You’ll be teaching your dog a lot of human language as you train (#2), but you’ll automatically be his favorite friend forever if you learn to speak dog (#3).
Here are two videos that can help you learn to speak dog. In two hours with a bowl of popcorn, you can learn enough to transform your relationship with your canine friend.
- The Language of Dogs by Sarah Kalnajs
- Calming Signals: What Your Dog Tells You by Turid Rugaas
I’ll outline a few of the basics here. Just like humans, dogs communicate both with the sounds they make and with their body language. Once you know the signals, you can learn to use some of them yourself.
Sounds
Some dog sounds are fairly easy for humans to understand:
- Growl: I’m warning you!
- Whine: I’m unhappy. (Why the dog is unhappy is up to you to figure out, if it’s not obvious.)
The next step is to interpret dogs’ various barks:
- A high-pitched bark means your dog is excited. It could mean anything from “Play with me!” to “I’ve treed a squirrel!”
- A quick single bark means, “Hey, pay attention to me!”
- A slow, deep bark is a preliminary warning. Your dog is saying, “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m uncomfortable.”
- A steady, deep bark is a more serious warning. “Stay away! Get out! I’m not happy at all about your being here!”
Dealing with warning barks is part of teaching appropriate barking. After all, a dog who barks at the mail carrier is simply doing his job: He is protecting your property from outsiders he doesn’t trust.
When this bark is directed at a person or animal, it means, “Stay away!” What should you do? Stay away! Give calming signals. Whatever you do, don’t “bark” or shout! Cooing or other sounds that seem calming to you will not be calming to the dog if you are approaching as you make them.
Body language
The first step in learning your dog’s body language is simply to observe. There are basic signs that every dog uses, but every dog is a little different, just as every user of human English speaks a little differently.
Yes, tail wagging generally means, “I’m happy!” But it means different things depending on the position of the tail. If the tail is up and wagging, it could be a sign of excited dominance: “I intend to control you.” This sign could come before aggressive behavior. By contrast, tail down and wagging could be a sign of stress. This, too, can be a precursor to aggression; the dog may feel he has no choice but to defend himself—unless you intervene to help.
(I’m annoyed when victims of dog aggression say things like “There was no warning” or “It was out of the blue.” They just didn’t read the signals. Dogs always give warnings.)
A quick inventory of the whole body will teach you how your dog is feeling and reacting at any given moment. One sign—such as what the tail is doing—is not enough; you have to look at the ears, the posture, and other areas to get the full picture.
You can read your own dogs and those you know well by learning their relaxed or neutral positions. Each of the signs below is relative to the neutral position. If your dog’s ears stick out to the side naturally, then the “airplane wing” position will look quite different on him than on a dog with upright ears.
Here are some body signs you can look for:
- What are the ears doing?
- Up: alert
- Out to side (“airplane wings”): not sure, mixed feelings
- A little back: extra friendly
- Pinned down: vulnerable, scared
- Overall posture?
- Tall: confident
- Hunched: vulnerable
- Stiff: alarmed
- Hair: hackles up: excited, maybe even on guard (but not necessarily aggressive, as I’ve heard many people assume too quickly)
- Tail
- Up: alert, confident, energized
- Tucked: scared, uncomfortable
- Eyes
- Wide eyes (whites visible): very uncomfortable, possibly aggressive
- Sleepy or squinty eyes: A calming signal
- Lips
- A little bit tight: stressed
- Showing the teeth a little: agonized
- Full “C” shape, blatantly showing teeth: aggressive
It takes the whole package to tell you how your dog is feeling. For example: Hackles up + tail up means your dog is excited and confident. I would check the rest of the body for more information about friendly intentions vs. dominant intentions. Hackles up + tucked tail means your dog is very worried.
Speaking dog
The best signals to learn are the calming ones. Sleepy, squinty eyes, as well as scratching, yawning, stretching, lifting a paw, licking the nose, turning the head—these all mean “Peace out, brother!” Your dog is trying to calm himself or you, or both. Why not try a few of these signals yourself to help your dog calm down when he is anxious or distressed? You may not want to scratch, but you can yawn, turn your head, or lick your nose.
Your straight posture helps to convey that you are a strong, confident leader, which will make your dogs more comfortable as well.
Another signal I use rarely because it’s so effective is to widen the eyes. This expression says, “I really do not like what’s going on right now!” It works better to stop unwanted or unsafe behavior more effectively than any amount of yelling could possibly do.
