Understanding dog body language is essential for smooth dog training and behavior problem solving.
Knowing the meaning of their canine language not only helps you understand how they are feeling and what their intentions are in general, it also allows you to listen in and understand the communication between two or more dogs.
Furthermore, pay attention enough to their communication and culture, and you will find yourself having a two way conversation in their language!
This is the basis of "dog whispering" – when you can communicate using their postures, movements, and vibes.
On this page I will continually add important information on this subject and update as often as I can.
Here are some basics of important dog body language:
Tail up – assertive, wants to lead, not backing down
Tail low – relaxed, submissive
Tail wagging – desire to engage
No tail wag – no desire to engage
Hackles up – feels threatened
Combine these for different possibilities:
Tail down and wagging – a submissive desire to engage (such as greeting someone with respect)
Tail high and wagging – an assertive desire to engage (such as while hunting prey)
Hackles up, tail up, no wagging – Feels threatened, will not back down to threat, but no desire to engage if threat passes
Hackles up, tail up, wagging tail – feels threatened, has desire to engage with threat in an assertive way
Tail down, hackles up – feels threatened, may retreat if possible, no desire to engage
Tail down, wagging, hackles up – feels threatened or intimidated but has desire to engage and submit.
Making sense?
Take a look at the police dog in the video below. Pay attention to his wagging tail and position. The average person thinks of a wagging tail and thinks of friendliness and a playful encounter. Obviously, there is more to the wagging tail than that. It is all about, plain and simple, a desire or willingness to engage. The rest of the dog's body language tells the rest of the story:
Here are some other important things to know about their language:
Growling – A warning, does not want to, but will bite if target does not respond to the threat.
Humping – Often misunderstood as something sexual. When it is not done for the actual purpose of mating it is generally a demand for attention. We see this most often when a dog (or person) is ignoring the attempts of an assertive dog for attention. It is a non-aggressive, but a hard to ignore demand. You will see dogs also do this to try to trigger a still dog, person, cat, toy, etc to interact.
Here is a creative video I found that also reflects the common misconception of what humping is about:
Here are a group of posted youtube videos from a lecture on dog body language by Jean Donaldson. Jean is an award winning author and well respected expert on dog body language and behavior. If you are intrigued by this subject of dog body language you should enjoy these:
Armed with some knowledge of dog culture and body language, the next step is to understand a little more about the behavior that most likely will cause them to get into trouble... aggression.
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