There are 4 MILLION DOG BITES reported each year in the US. How can we prevent this?
Most of these reports state that the bites came out of no where since most of these bites are made by family pets to young boys under the age age of 12 years. We can’t prevent most dog bites, because they rarely come out of nowhere, but there was one quote Alex used this past week. “Dogs do speak, but only to those who are willing to listen”. We can’t pretend dogs accept every thing we do to them, remember they are thinking and sentient beings and they are a very different species and have very different ways of communication.
Why is it important to understand canine body language?
We can prevent a lot of accidents but we can also improve our relationship when we understand a little better what our dogs enjoy and what they don’t. When it comes to dogs, we tend to think what we like and what we expect of our dogs but we put aside their wants and needs. We think “Oh I want to hug my dog right now and smother him with love” while the dog is resting and doesn’t want to be bothered. We rely heavily on verbal communication with our dogs who DON’T SPEAK any fluid language but are so incredibly smart that can catch up real quick with any body cues we might give. On the other hand, dogs also try to communicate with us like if we were one of their own, unfortunately this creates a lot of misunderstandings between both owner and dog.
Dogs communicate primarily on an intention base, what’s safe and what’s dangerous. “Come on, let’s play” “This bone is mine, get closer and I’ll bite you” “Let’s hunt that squirrel together” but they don’t say this vocally, they use body language.
Not everything your dog does is meant to communicate something.
Is the dog nervous in this video or just trying to dry himself?
Sometimes your dogs have reflexive responses to stuff and it’s simply that, a reflex. For example, shaking when getting out of the lake just means your dog is trying to dry himself. But since dogs are super smart, they can learn very quickly how to use this reflexive responses deliberately. We must keep in mind, that our dogs can use the same body language for two or more things, we HAVE to pay attention to context and the moment when everything is happening, so we can discern from one thing meaning X,Y or Z.
The more you know about canine body language, which honestly we should all learn more and more everyday since dogs are such a big part of human life, you will make better decisions for you and your 4 legged friend. When we understand what somebody’s intentions with us are, it’s easier for us to trust them, the same goes with our dogs, we can definitely improve their behavior if we understand what it means and decide what consequence we can provide for it.
Let’s go back for a moment to the concept of safety and danger. Both humans and dogs need to feel safe in order to work normally, this safety doesn’t have to be from life or dead danger, but we can look at it even like emotional safety, if you’re at a party when you dont know anyone, you might feel a little socially awkward and that makes you feel unsafe. Safety for dogs generally has to do with space and their belongings. They are constantly concerned with the safety of their personal boundaries. So imagine always being in your dogs face kissing him and hugging him, thats not giving much respect to their personal space.
We talked about aggression last week, how can we identify signs of aggression? There are some very obvious ones, but others are very subtle and more thank likely, those are the ones we should worry about the most. Signs that are easily identifiable include:
- Body orientation forward like an arrow directed towards its target
- Mouth open and teeth baring
- Ears forward
- Eyes wide open facing towards the same direction of the nose
This type of aggressive body signals belong to the “fight” part of the flight or fight theory. “fight” signs of aggression are usually the ones more visible and obvious, because the dog is full on telling us, “get back or I will bite you”.
The problem starts when we start to make a dog uncomfortable, we “invade his space” or touch him somewhere he doesn’t like and we keep doing it because we ignore dogs stress signals. We ignore the subtle precursors to reactive or aggressive behavior. Warning signs may be backed up with real action or may be a bluff, it is better to always expect the worst and after seeing warning signals stop what one is doing.
This warning signals may include:
- Head lowered
- Tucked tail
- Still or rigid body posture
- Eyes wide open, they will stare at you even if their head wont move
- Ears forced back
- A lot of lip licking
Warning signals are all about possession, wether from an object or from personal space. If you move further into their possession odds are, a bite or air snap will happen.
BE WARE, IF YOUR DOG COMMUNICATES WITH YOU, LISTEN TO HIM.
When the possibility of conflict arises, dogs will try to give calming and negotiating signals. Just like certain signs of aggression, calming signals can be very subtle, but of course fundamental in dog to dog interaction. It’s important that we know about this as well as our dogs might encounter some other dogs down the road and we can leave our dogs be dogs, but also be vigilant about what may happen. Play can turn into fight real quick and when two new dogs meet, these types of signals are everything.
Its very important to note that when dogs meet for the first time, its not like they are automatically going to be super hyper and play with each other like they’re best friends. One of the mistakes humans tend to make, is thinking dogs are naturally friendly with each other and that they should just be BFFS with every dog they encounter, dogs just like humans, don’t like everyone they meet.
So when there are multiples dog in the picture these are some of the ways they can avoid conflict.
e.g. Dog A enters a park and sees Dog B, Dog A runs in a straight line towards Dog B (this already may lead to conflict since its not a polite way of approaching another dog), right before Dog A gets to Dog B, Dog B starts sniffing the ground. YES sniffing the ground is one sign that says hey, im friendly, im just hanging around. Like we mentioned, several signs can mean a lot of things depending on the situation.
Dogs hate staring contests, thats one of the things that will elevate tensions with dogs, so what do they do here to defuse the situation…
- Blink
- Look Away
- Shake
- Scratch
- Yawn
As you can see, many of these signs are also stress signs in a dog, which tell us that when in stress, dogs do what they can to try and calm surrounding activities. They try to resolve issues before they even arise.
NOT ALL DOGS LIKE TO MAKE FRIENDS, but a lot of them do, after all dogs are very social animals. We’ve been talking about all the things they do when they’re uncomfortable or they’re defending something of value to them. But of course dogs are very social animals as well and they have ways of telling other dogs and us, that they’re neutral and friendly, they dont have a problem being approached or hanging out together. This neutrality generally comes from self confidence, confidence in being around different surroundings and things, and still being able to be in a safe space mentally.
Friendly dogs don’t have to be super wiggly and excited to denote that, as everything we’ve talked about this past week, most signs are very subtle, but super clear to other dogs to be like “oh cool, you are friendly”. In fact, some of the most confident dogs, don’t have to prove anything, they just chill and do their thing, this could actually look to the untrained eye like the dog was bored and sad, but that is not the case. PEACEFULNESS AND CALM DEMEANOR=CONFIDENT AND FRIENDLY. You can look at the face of a calm dog and you wont see any tension in the mouth, eyes or ears.
Signs of neutrality and friendliness (to be taken into consideration with all the other things going on around)
-The famous butt sniff – like the friendly handshake in the weekly gathering, and just like a hand shake, it can be overwhelming if one dog is overstepping. Sniffing for too long or doing it too close is the equivalent of the guy who wont let go in a hand shake or the one who just grabs the fingers (weirdos).
-The inguinal sniff (spinoff of butt sniff) – while doing this we must look for tails and ears half mast, soft eyes and if they dog has a lot of social skills, he will mirror the other dog’s positions.
-The puppy eyes, big and round – you know the typical “i give you my soul and love” kind of look.
-Stretching can also mean the dog is very comfortable with you, it looks very similar to a play bow, but by the level of energy and the activities going on around, this would just be a dog who is comfortable to be around you.
Alway look for a very relaxed body posture, you can see this in the tail, which is usually half mast and moving, ears are soft and resting near the head, the legs are not braced like ready to do something in a heartbeat, lips and mouth are relaxed, eyes are soft and inviting.
One of the most repeated questions we hear is “are my dogs playing or it is something else?” “Are my dogs playing too rough?” And what we usually see in videos our clients send us, is nothing more than a couple of dogs rough-housing. Remember dogs use their mouth for everything and play is not excluded from this. There are several signs that dogs will give when they’re comfortable while playing with another dog. Squinty eyes are generally a sign of cooperation and friendliness, relaxed body posture, floppy ears, wagging tail, relaxed mouth, as well as the absence of direct eye contact, which we already stated that is menacing and uncomfortable for dogs.
When playing dogs should take pauses in between and change rolls from “prey” to “predator”, so one runs around and its chased by the other, and then roles are reversed. When it comes to puppies, adult dogs will sometimes take a submissive position as an invitation to the pup into their personal space. Now dogs may seem like they’re fighting, even have mouths opened with teeth showing, but again, a relaxed facial expression is they key that will tell us, “it’s okay, they’re only playing”. They usually seem unbothered, even with a dog (with a very educated bite pressure) biting at their neck. When dogs are fighting you can feel the purpose and intensity of what’s happening, unlike playing dogs, who generally have very relaxed body postures while playing. If you have one dog who is generally more intense than the other, we recommend to look at the least intense while they play, and look at how they react, if they’re not too tense or stressed, it means that even though their playing partner is being a little more energetic, they’re still doing fine with this level of intensity.
“THE PLAY BOW”: Bottoms up, lowered tail, mouth half opened but relaxed and elbow touching the ground. These are the most epic signs that a dog will give when they want to party. They might use it to initiate play or to interrupt play if its getting too intense. The most important thing is to keep an eye on your dogs when they’re playing and if they don’t take a break from time to time, to step in there and let the dogs know you are watching, you let them lower the intensity of play, and you also let them know you can tell them when enough is enough.