Understanding what a dog wants to express with its language is essential to coexist and live with the dog, but if you do not have much experience with dogs, either living with them or raising them, it will be difficult at first to understand what it means the language of a dog with its attitudes and movements.
We can understand the language of a dog by interpreting its movements, sounds, behaviors or experiences. Dog language is not only determined by its temporary status, but character as well as upbringing influence what most of your pet’s body language will be like.
We can know what a dog’s emotional state is like if we learn to understand its body language. There are types of basic characteristics in a dog’s attitude that we can use to get a more solid foundation of the pet’s behavior.
If you have difficulty understanding your dog’s mood, then you can be guided by the attitudes that we will describe below in this article, so you will know more accurately what is happening to your pet and understand the language of a dog according to its actions.
Analyze your dog and begin to understand a dog’s language based on their gestures and behaviors.
What do you need to understand the language of a dog?
- A dog
Instructions to understand the language of a dog
- Signs that show fear in the dog. Some of the easy signs to identify in the dog are the signs of fear. When your dog is afraid, we can notice some characteristics in his body language, such as putting his tail between his legs, covering his genital area. This signal has no gender distinction; both dogs and bitches do it. Along with this sign, having a closed snout, a slightly hunched back, backwards ears and a downward-facing head are signs of fear.
- If this behavior continues and the dog feels stalked or harassed his attitude will usually be accompanied by steps backwards looking forwards, this as a reason to get away from what he fears. It is even possible that in a moment of desperation the dog runs away and looks for a place to hide and take refuge from fear.
- When we are talking about the attitude of anger in the dog, the main body language signs to identify is violent or easily irritable behavior. Both irritability and violent behavior can imply possible aggression, so it is not good to bother the dog or insist on an action that bothers him, or he could hurt you. When the dog is angry, he will make his ears forward; this is a sign of attention and awareness of his surroundings, which could upset him.
- In addition to this, when being aggressive the dog will raise its tail, raise its gums showing its teeth, wrinkle its nose and forehead, frown its forehead, as well as its eyes will be more awake and fixed in the gaze of its objective more threatening. The dog will emit loud growls and start barking loudly combining both sounds. When the dog reaches a high level of aggressiveness, he tends to move his body forward when he barks and his back hair stands on end. In case the dog takes this attitude, it is dangerous to approach him, touch him or bother him; the ideal is to slowly walk away backwards.
- When the dog shows submission, it tends to sit or lie on the ground in a quiet and neutral posture in front of its owner. He puts his ears back and avoids looking his master in the eye, possibly embarrassed or avoiding any scolding or repression from the master. If he feels too insecure he may start making little high-pitched squeaks showing his submission from him.
- It is also possible that these characteristics are displayed in an attempt to obtain the master’s appreciation or forgiveness, for which he may lie on the ground asking for his belly to be scratched or to rub his head or back on the master’s legs. In case of feeling rejected, the dog may withdraw to a place away from the owner until he feels that the owner has lost his anger from him or the dog feels a higher spirit.
- Dominant character. When the dog becomes dominant over others, he puts his head forward with his ears pricked forward, his tail up and his chin up, his spine straight, perhaps even arched a little inward, so that his chest over him comes out.
- When a dog feels the desire to play, his body language is very easy to identify. Fun-seeking dogs usually turn to the owner and start wagging their tails, either standing or sitting, climb on the owner’s legs, or start energetically barking (the latter depending on the species and the dog’s upbringing). Dog). The dog may pick up a toy or object and begin to move it in front of you with the intention of drawing you into play, lowering its head and raising its tail in front of you.
- When the dog wants pampering or affection, we can notice on his face the ears backwards or forwards, this will depend on the dog’s mood, if the dog wants affection, but is shown with a submissive or sad character, his ears will be towards the back, however if the dog is more commonly pampered or is happy his ears will be towards the front. In addition to this, his eyebrows will be raised and he will wag his tail.
- Possibly when the dog wants to be petted, it will raise one of its legs and touch the foot, leg or some part of the body of the owner, or it will lie on the ground exposing its belly to be petted. It is also possible that he caresses his body against the master’s.
Tips for understanding a dog’s language
- To better understand the language of a dog, we must spend more time with him and pay attention to his attitude in various situations.
