The previous article discussed how dogs express stress and fear through body language. Before we leave that topic I want to mention that chronic stress can impact a dog’s health, just as it does in humans. Dogs suffering from chronic stress may develop digestive and urinary tract problems leading to vomiting, diarrhea, and increased urination. Chronic stress can cause self-mutilation and compulsive behaviors (e.g., tail or shadow chasing) and can disturb a dog’s sleep pattern resulting in excessive sleep or reactivity.
Now let’s explore how dogs use body language to communicate threatening versus non-threatening intentions to each other. A dog that is non-threatening and friendly communicates this by one or more of the following:
- Approaching in an arc or at an angle and respecting the other dog’s personal space
- Holding a relaxed, neutral body posture with feet, ears, eyes, mouth, and facial muscles relaxed, tail relaxed or gently waving in a roughly horizontal position, leaning neither forward or backward
- Looking away and blinking or squinting
- Looking away and sniffing the ground or scratching (sniffing and scratching can also indicate stress – you have to observe the context and other body signals to understand what is going on)
- Shaking off, similar to a dog shaking off water
- Puppy licks (licking the other dog’s face as a puppy licks people and other dogs)
- Polite butt or face sniffs done from a sideways position and at a respectful distance of about a foot from the other dog’s butt or face
Dogs sometimes want to communicate non-friendly, threatening intentions. In most cases, this is because a dog is afraid of other dogs and has learned that the best defense is a good offense. Or the dog may simply be a bully who enjoys intimidating other dogs. To communicate non-friendly, threatening intentions a dog may do one or more of the following:
- Stand or approach head on
- Stare with direct, hard eye contact
- Hold a stiff, tense body posture, leaning forward, up on the toes, tail held up or over the back, stiff or waving back and forth, ears forward, mouth closed or lips stretched back showing teeth, or mouth open with teeth bared
- Invade the other dog’s space with a rude, proctologist butt sniff, or stand with their head over the other dog’s shoulders
- Move toward the other dog in stalking mode
Dogs with conflicting intentions and emotions may display a mix of friendly, fear, and threat signals. For example, a dog that is being greeted by a larger unfamiliar dog may look away and squint but also tuck his tail and have a lowered rounded body posture.
Now that you have some knowledge of dog body language, does anyone want to take a stab at interpreting the dog body language in the two photos above, by describing what the different parts of the dogs’ bodies are doing and what that might indicate?
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