The signs of communication
in your dog

Your dog's entire body is to be observed, not just one element. Otherwise, you’re likely to misinterpret what he is expressing.

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Hello and welcome to K9 Woof You, K9 Voice’s podcast.

I'm Ingrid, dog behavior consultant, and today I'm going to tell you about how your dog communicates.

 

If he's close to you, take the opportunity to watch him carefully. If he's not, visualize him in your head. In the meantime... you might soon feel a grudge against me because I'm also going to tell you to visualize other dogs. As a matter of fact, if dogs have a canine language, you also have canine lingo. If you observe a dachshund with a Newfoundland, he will not communicate in the same way as with another dachshund; just like the Newfoundland will not communicate in the same way with the Dachshund as if he is with a Border Collie, or this same Border Collie if he is with a Great Dane; I could go on like this for a long time. For the mere reason that each breed has been developed for a particular function, some dogs will communicate more with their nose, others with their eyes, some with their mouth, others with their paws; it is important to take this into account.

 

Your dog's entire body is to be observed, not just one element. Otherwise, you’re likely to misinterpret what he is expressing. You may have heard the expression « appeasement signals ». Personally, I have given up using this expression and prefer « signs of communication ». Firstly because appeasement bothers me. There is no guarantee the dog is voluntarily, knowingly, emitting signals to appease the individual in front of him; or to appease himself. These can be completely physiological reactions. We have it in humans. For example, you hear a song with a singer whose voice moves you, and your hair will stand on end. You have no control over the fact that your hair stands on end on your arms. If your dog can communicate through several channels, his body is still his main tool to communicate. We actually have the barking, his voice at various frequencies, which will indicate several emotional states, several intentions. We can also have the olfaction: he will communicate by rubbing his pads after his needs or by urinating. We will have many other possibilities. He will also communicate by touching you, with his nose, with his paws. Here I will really focus on his entire body, the voluntary signs as well as the involuntary ones. All these things must be observed and taken into account as a whole. An individual element is not enough.

So if we look at your dog's body langage as a whole, it's going to be important to look at how he is relaxed. Does he have a movement that's pretty smooth, or is it pretty rigid? In reality, that can indicate stress as much as it can indicate potential pain that would require a trip to the vet.

 

Let's take a closer look. We'll start with your dog's head. Well, I said your dog, but you gonna have dogs that have a completely squashed nose, a very long muzzle, you gonna have dogs with pointed ears, dropping ears, lips that hang to the sides, dogs that have a lower jaw shorter than their nose, others the opposite. All of this will obviously impact their ability to communicate.

The position of your dog's head can also be an indicator.

Does your dog have his head down? Does he tend to turn his head away when you are staring at him? A low head can also indicate pain, physical discomfort. A dog that has an ill-adjusted harness or an ill-adjusted collar may have his head down without emitting the slightest emotional sign at that very moment. If he turns his head away when you are staring at him, that's just that he's being polite; in canine terms, staring is not very correct. That being said, several studies have been able to bear it out : when you are staring at your dog and he is staring at you back, if you can see muscular relaxation at all levels, on his whole body, whether it's the muscles of his legs, a possible fairly smooth movement, we're going to talk about relaxed corners of his lips too, in fact, at that moment you are both secreting an attachment hormone. You are in a state of well-being. That being said, it is not because he turns his head away when you are staring at him that he is not attached to you. Some breeds tend to be frontal and stare at you automatically and others tend to be more avoidant. Being stared at, and staring, is not very polite, it can also lead to great discomfort towards a dog who is not comfortable at first. It can be both a provocation and a threat. Keep that in mind, if your dog turns his head away but keeps his body relaxed, he’s nothing but being polite. Including when he presents himself in front of other dogs. He can move forward, turn his head, look elsewhere, continue to move forward while looking at the other dog, turn his head away, etc.

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His ears

Well, since we have dogs with very different ears, what will be important is to look at the base of their ears. That part that is really the closest to their skull. They have muscles that allow them to move them in all directions, in order to reorient the origin of a noise. They can move the right independently of the left. The fact that your dog has his ears backwards does not necessarily mean that he is afraid. We have dogs, either by individual or by breed, who will have their ears backwards, flattened, while they are enjoying being petted. It is nothing but mechanical. Discomfort in the ears can also make the ear move in a certain direction. What is important is to look at the position of your dog's ears when he is relaxed. A dog that has pointed ears, erected, oriented straight ahead, focuses on the sounds that are in front of him.

 

Let’s head for his eyes

The eyes, beyond the look itself, will be expressive on two levels in particular. The pupils, the difficulty in looking at the pupils is if your dog turns his back on you, for example on a walk, or if your dog has dark eyes, a dark iris, either because he has a hazel iris or a very dark brown and when the pupil dilates, at that moment it can be complex to be able to observe well if the pupil is dilated. The dilated pupil will not indicate the type of emotion. You can have a very angry dog who will have dilated pupils, just as you can have a dog who is extremely happy to see you again who will have dilated pupils. At that very moment, you are his drug. It just shows you the emotional level. That is a reaction he has no control over. There will also be something called the whale eye. It is quite rare that you can see the white of a dog's eye. However, when it happens, if your dog, then if he shows a moment of laziness, you speak to him, he is lying down, but that would mean making an effort to turn his head towards you, he will just turn his eyes ; yes, potentially, you can see the white of his eyes at that very moment, just out of laziness. Except that if he is lying down, if he is relaxed, if in addition he dares to sigh afterwards, we are not on a dog that shows stress. On the other hand, if his body is low and in addition he looks with the white of his eyes to the side or upwards, then you can consider that something is making him uncomfortable at the very least, or even frightening him. It will therefore be important at that moment to look at what causes it.

 

Now let’s have a look on your dog’s mouth

Your dog can have V-shaped corners of his mouth. If they form a V or if the skin is rather wrinkled, there is something bothering your dog. It could be pain, it could be an external element, like another dog present, or a sound. If on the contrary, your dog has C-shaped corners, then he is very relaxed, he is fine. If your dog is panting, you know that little sound where you wonder if he has just done a marathon. Well, if it is very hot, don't worry, it is just that it is hot. It is your dog's way of being able to regulate his temperature. Well, "don't worry", check anyway that he is being hydrated. If he has just played, run, we are on a physical reaction, due to physical effort, everything is fine. Unless the physical effort is short, then that might be the sign of lungs or heart failure. On the other hand, if there is no high temperature, if he has not made a significant effort, if he has not chewed for a long time, it is a safe bet that your dog is stressed, something is bothering him. This can happen to a dog who sees his owners go to the door and who anticipates a moment of loneliness and begins to show signs of anxiety. It can also be if in a family there are people arguing, the dog will emit these signs because he is affected by the atmosphere, by the heavy atmosphere. We can also have some drooling. Well, it is important to distinguish : if you put roast chicken in your kitchen and your dog is in your kitchen, yes, he is highly likely to drool. It is possible. If you put a chocolate fountain, I can also be likely to salivate. It is only a physical reaction; it is not controllable, it is nothing but a reflex; it is stimulated by an external element. If your child ever drops food on the floor, and your dog eats it, it is possible that he has salivated, that he is licking his lips. On the other hand, if he makes small licks, really small and fast ones, something is bothering him. He is stressed, rather negative stress. If your dog licks himself up to his nose, if his tongue is long enough to reach his nose, it’s not a sign of stress, your dog is merely wiping the odors, to then be able to take new ones.

Yawning

Yes, you may have heard that yawning is a sign of stress. Potentially it can. It can also be a sign that your dog is tired. It can also be a sign that your dog has a digestive issue. That's why it's very important to be able to contextualize each expression of your dog in each moment when he does them. Your dog just ate, he yawns. Your dog just woke up, he stretches and yawns. To remain at the level of your dog's face, on certain individuals, on certain breeds, you can see some folds forming on the forehead. In fact, your dog is in search of understanding, he is analyzing his environment at that moment.

 

Now, let's take a closer look at the rest of your dog's body.

 

His muscles.

Well, the difficulty will be with dogs that have very salient muscles, just as much as with dogs that have such imposing hair that we cannot see their muscles. Why is it important to be able to look at the muscles? Because an angry dog will tend to contract his muscles more. Try, come on, try now to contract your fist. You will observe that your arm muscles are also contracted. It will be the same, a dog that tends to anchor himself will have contracted muscles. So in dogs that already have prominent muscles, it is important to look carefully at the whole body. Does the dog tend to be rooted? If a tornado passes, in fact if the dog is the only one not moving, that tells you that he is actually pushing a lot more on the muscles than usual; the same with dogs that will have very imposing hair.

By the way, speaking of hair, we always tend to pay attention to the hair that stands on end on the dog's back. Because we pay attention in case there be danger. Because when there is danger, we see it. It is something quite easy to see, compared to the pupils that dilate. Except that, in reality, piloerection is not systematically negative. It just tells us the intensity of the emotion felt at that very moment. I don't know about you, but I heard the voice of a singer and had goosebumps, had hairs that stand on end slightly. And yet, I was not upset with that singer. It's just that her voice, her words made me emotional. Try to visualize it: your dog's hair that stands on end; sometimes, it can be linked to something pleasant, like a female around, if you have a male. Often, we pay more attention to it in case there is a risk.

 

Once we've observed that, we'll look at how your dog moves.

The problem with moving forward leashed dogs is that we tend to have them meet face-to-face, head-on. But as I mentioned when they turn the head, head-on is not polite for dogs. You will have dogs, if you have the leash loose or your dog off-leash, they will go around, make some detours, to be able to go and greet you politely. Their interest is not to see the other dog's face all the time, it is to go and sniff his anal glands, his identity card, to go and sniff his rear, not his head specifically. Well, we have breeds that are made like that, where they will be more likely to communicate very head-on, where they will come at you very directly. Not all individuals, some of them can go very straight to the other dog’s space ; but if the move, they move smoothly, it’s okay. Not all of them are like that. So it is important to be able to observe how your dog communicates, or would communicate, if he was not on a leash when you walk him, to go at his pace and to be able to move him away, if possible, in the environment. I am well aware that in some urban environments, it can be complicated ,on sidewalks to put it in place. But you have some dogs who will lie down, stay somewhere else, wait for the other dog to arrive. It is just politeness. Wanting to make him move forward at all costs can go against what he wants to express.

 

Let's continue down your dog's body and head for his tail.

Well, if your dog has a tail. Yes, because on that part again, we have made dogs with a very very wide variety of possibilities. We have dogs with corkscrew-shaped tails, we have dogs with very long tails, we have dogs with very low tails, very high tails, very bushy tails, almost naked tails. What’s important is to look at the base of the tail, which means the closest part to the continuation of your dog's spine. Because if we take the example of the Akita, its tail is already very high, even if he is relaxed. One the other hand, the Whippet will have a pelvis that looks like it’s going downwards, and therefore his tail will already be very low; this does not mean he is afraid all the time. So it is very important to look at both the end of your dog's spine, his back, and the beginning of his tail, to see what the position is. And right now I'll bust a myth: no, a dog who is wagging his tail is not necessarily happy. For a dog, wagging his tail is stimulated by an emotion. There can be various emotions; they can be positive as negative. Several studies have been able to confirm that if your dog has an amplitude more on his right, in this case the emotion is pretty positive. If the amplitude is more on his left, the emotion can be ambiguous or negative; it doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a disaster. The height of the tail wag, as well as the speed, will be important. We have breeds, we know, some individuals when they are very happy, we no longer have amplitude on the left or on the right, we have a helicopter, it turns and it turns and it turns and it turns and it turns. A dog that does not wag his tail is not necessarily a scared or unhappy dog, it is just a dog with a neutral emotion at that moment.

 

I also wanna speak about your dog's body language when he shows you his belly.

I sometimes hear that you have to pin your dog down on his back, except that this position is up to the dog to agree to do it or not. It has two very important meanings. If he takes it voluntarily and all his muscles are very completely absolutely mellow, if you press with your finger, his muscles bounce, even if he is extremely muscular. In fact, you have a dog who is telling you with his body « I trust you, I feel safe, I am showing you my most vulnerable part, in the most vulnerable position possible », because it will take an effort for your dog to be able to stand up at that moment, so I know that I have nothing to fear from you. On the other hand, if your dog shows this position, whether to you or to someone else, and he is tense, it is because in fact at that moment, he is simply showing you the white flag. He's saying, « hey, be cool, I don't come for confrontation, don't get upset, I'm very vulnerable, so don't hurt me ». You'll tell me, yes, but my dog, he does it with other dogs. Yes, and it has nothing to do with submission. It's just an extreme politeness that some kinds of dog will have to signify that he has no desire for a fight, or for a confrontation, just calm, he just wants gentleness. Maybe he can be very dynamic, but he especially doesn't want to be hurt.

 

So I hope that now on you will be able to look at dogs differently. Don't hesitate to look at your dog again, to look at all the dogs you can meet. That way, his communication will no longer hold any secrets for you!