Sharon Potter

What Is Your Dog Telling You?

The most valuable aid to training effectively is the ability to read your dog. What we’re talking about is your ability to understand the body language and expression of your dog and then being able to apply this knowledge to the current training situation.

Why is this an important skill? If we don’t have the ability to understand what the dog is telling us, we will make mistakes and errors in judgment throughout the training process. Dogs don’t have the ability to say aloud, "Hey, slow down a little; I don’t quite understand what you want," but they sure can say it with silent body language.

Correctly reading a dog is not difficult. It does, however, require that we pay close attention to the signs. Areas we need to focus on are: the tail, the head position, the ears, the eyes, and the body position.

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The Tail
The main indicator of a dog’s attitude and comfort level is especially easy to read: Watch the dog’s tail. The most commonly recognized thing dogs do with a tail is obvious — they wag it. However, there’s more to reading your dog’s tail than just seeing it wag and assuming the dog is happy. Let’s go further into detail and translate a wagging tail into its many meanings.

Wagging Tail — An erectly held, wagging tail is a sign of excitement and confidence. The tail is held high, and is moved at a medium to quick speed. You’ll see this when a dog gets birdy or when it is happy, self-assured, and confident. If the dog is holding its tail low and wagging it in a tentative manner, this usually means the dog is showing signs of submission or surrender, or it may be a sheepish gesture that translates into, I don’t know what got into me; I just had to chew up your best shoes. Please don’t get too mad at me. If we take the wagging and break it down further, it can have even more meanings. For example, a slow, short wag, where the tail is moving, but not traveling far from side to side are signals of uncertainty on the dog’s part. A very rapid wag, on the other hand, indicates location of game, and usually tells us that the dog is about to jump into it because they can’t stand the excitement any longer. This is a great indicator of whether or not your dog is going to hold that point or bust the birds. If the tail stays high and steady, your dog probably will, too. If the tail stays high and starts to wag rapidly, usually accompanied by a lowering of the nose and then the head, get ready for the dog to make a move.

Tucked Tail — Another tail position that is often misread is the tucked tail. You know the look: tail wrapped between the hind legs, with sad eyes and a "poor pitiful me" expression on the dog’s face. This can mean a shy dog, which is either genetic or man-made. If it’s man-made, check out articles on the danger of anger directed toward your dog. If you have given your dog no reason to fear you via anger, then a tucked tail is no more than an act. By this we mean your dog is using "pack language" to tell you that it doesn’t want to do what you want, but isn’t willing to argue about it either. A dog that is willing to argue the point will assume a more aggressive posture, which we’ll discuss later. The tucked tail means, "go away and leave me alone. I would rather not cooperate right now, but I don’t want to fight about it, or, I give up, but I don’t understand what you want." This particular behavior in one often misread by dog owners. Many people figure the dog is frightened or cowering, and the person immediately stops asking the dog for a response. This is exactly what the dog was telling you to do! It’s amazing how well they can train us if we’re not savvy to the real meaning of these postures. Don’t buy into this act; dogs learn to get their way very quickly by playing "poor pitiful me." In the case of a tucked tail, gentle persistence and repetition will get your point across, and the dog will respond after realizing that acting won’t fool you. Let’s move on to the body of the dog.

The head turned across the handler's leg and paw placed on his boot are clear signs of dominant behavior. Photo by: Author

Body Actions
The action that goes hand-in-hand with the tucked tail is quivering/shivering. Obviously, this shivering can mean the dog is cold; but in most cases, when accompanied by the tucked tail, it is just another part of the act. Best to ignore it and quietly continue on. If you don’t react to it, the behavior will go away. It’s very important to not assign human feelings and emotions to dogs. They have their own language and emotions, and what means one thing in "human" may mean an entirely different thing in "canine." Translating the shivering into fear would assume we have given that dog a reason to fear us, which is our problem, not the dog’s. If a dog understands what we want and we are consistent in our behavior toward them, they will not fear us. At the opposite end of the spectrum, if a dog is quivering with tail held up or out, it means one thing: intensity. A dog standing with tail erect and body quivering will usually have the head held up or slightly forward, and this signifies that something has the dog’s undivided attention. This is normal and is insignificant as far as requiring a response from us. Intensity is a good thing, as long as it is shown in appropriate situations, such as on birds. It’s not so good when that intensity means there’s a porcupine in the cover and your dog’s about to make a grab for it!

We can predict that movement, too, by watching the position of the dog’s head. First, the nose will tip down, followed by lowering the head. This means the dog is thinking very seriously about making a move. If you can read that sign, you can predict the movement and stop it before it happens, whether it’s on birds or off game. Additionally, dogs will often lower their front end, putting their weight on the haunches just before they break. Usually, the head movements come just before or after the slight crouch in front. You’ll also notice a bunching up of the shoulder muscles. Any one or combination of these signs tells us to anticipate movement. When a dog crouches low to the ground with its entire body, it signals one of two things: defiance or submission. How do we decide whether it’s defiance or submission? Watch the tail. If the tail is held up or out, it’s sheer defiance. If the tail is very low or tucked, it’s submission.

	Tail tucked and the ears, eyes, and mouth are telling us this dog is not confident about what is going on. Pushing too hard could confuse and frustrate him. Photo by: Author

Head Actions
We can learn a lot about our dogs by paying close attention to their head. If the head is down and tail is down, the dog is sulky and sullen, much like a pouting child. When you ask your dog to respond to a command and they ignore you and look in the opposite direction, translate that to being "blown off." They’ve decided you don’t exist. On the flip side, when your dog turns its head in front of your leg while standing or walking beside you, it’s a dominance issue. This is a sure sign of defiance and being pushy. When a dog looks across or away from you as described above, it’s normally accompanied by some pretty strong body language as well. Often, this type of dog will lean its body into your leg, move in front of you when being led, and even stand with one paw on your foot. The body contact, whether with the paw or body, is happening for a couple of reasons:

First, the dog wants to keep track of you without having to pay attention to you. Body contact allows this to happen, since he can lean on your leg and look the other way.

Second, the dog is being dominant and will push or crowd you into taking its direction by cutting you off and forcing you to move over.

Interestingly, the paw placement on your foot is closely related to the dog putting its paws on your body or jumping on you. In "canine" language, the dog that is higher (kind of like "king of the hill") is the dominant dog, and your dog is trying to get higher than you.

The slight lowering of the shoulders is telling us this dog is about to break. A correction applied now can make all the difference. Photo by: Author

Ear Position
Let’s go back to the head and facial expression for a moment. Watch your dog’s ears. When your dog is relaxed, the ears will hang naturally. If the ears are pulled back, looking rather like the wings on a jet, it signifies confusion and can be a sign of a dog about to bolt. This is sometimes accompanied by a narrowed, slant-eyed look to the eyes, due to the pull of the ears on the facial skin. Watch for this sign carefully, as it tells you to back up a step or two with whatever training you’re doing. A dog that is frustrated enough to consider bolting is not in a position to learn, and proceeding past this comfort level is going to set back your training. Two other ear positions to look for are: when the ears come up, the head comes up. When the ears go down, the head goes down a bit, as well. Ears that are hanging in a relaxed, natural manner signify a comfortable and contented dog.

All this body language is important to training and hunting a dog. Without the ability to read a dog and have some concept of what is going through its mind, we can’t react in time to prevent mistakes or problems. Good training is all about making the right things easy and the wrong things hard; and being able to anticipate a dog’s moves before they happen makes our job that much easier and makes learning much more successful for our dogs.

	This cute but pushy pup is on his way to being a big pushy dog! Note the shoulder leaning against the handler's leg; this is easier to stop when the dog is small. Photo by: Author

When training, it’s important to remember that you can’t make a mistake by going too slow. If we watch our dogs and listen to what they’re telling us, we can slow down when they’re confused or uncertain, and take charge when they try to be dominant. This makes the right responses come easy, and keeps our training fun.