When you take on the responsibility of raising a pup, your ability to do it well is contingent on how well you understand what your furry baby is trying to communicate to you. Dogs are adept at communicating their emotions, needs, and intentions not just through verbal cues such as barks, whines, and growls, but also through a series of body language signs. The trouble is, often humans are not adept at understanding dog body language or even verbal cues. This lack of understanding becomes the basis of dog behavior issues such as aggression. That’s why All About Dog Parenting has created a dedicated space for deciphering dog behaviors and what they mean.

Dog Behavior Explained

Often, pet parents turn their attention to understanding dog body language and behaviors when they’re faced with dilemmas such as how to correct aggressive dog behavior, how to correct unwanted dog behavior, or when looking for answers to questions like, “Why does my dog keep biting me and what can I do to stop it?”

However, by then, dog behavior issues have already taken hold, and correcting them can be a considerable challenge given that dogs are creatures of habit and tend to repeat actions and behaviors that they learn work well for them. That’s why understanding the most subtle dog behaviors and responding to them the right way is crucial for building a healthy bond with them, steeped in the foundation of trust.

The most basic example of this is the wagging of the tail. This body language cue is often misunderstood as a sign of friendliness or happiness, however, tail wagging simply indicates that your dog is emotionally stimulated – that could mean that your dog is happy, agitated, nervous, feeling threatened, or anxious. To be able to decode which is it, you need to be able to read your dog’s body language in totality.

For instance, what’s the placement of the ears? Are the heckles raised? does the body seem relaxed or stiff? And what are their facial expression like (yes, dogs have those too)? A knowledge of these easy-to-miss dog behaviors and what they mean can be the difference between a good, well-behaved dog, and one that leaves you wondering, how to correct aggressive dog behavior or how to correct unwanted dog behavior.

Let’s paint a picture to help you understand dog characteristics personality and how it manifests in their interactions with their humans. Say, you approach your dog (or a dog), and they turn their head away from you and blink more than usual. The dog is trying to tell you that they feel nervous or unsure in the current environment and need space. If you pick up on this cue and leave them alone, they’re likely to repeat this behavior whenever they need space in the future.

On the other hand, if you miss picking up on this cue and continue to engage with the do, they may resort to more obvious signs of displeasure such as growling. And once you respond to that and back off, the dog might learn that a more aggressive behavior gets them out of such situations and are likely to repeat it in the future. With this basic dog behavior explained, let’s take a close look at some tell-tale signs every pet parent needs to be cued into behavior issues such as aggression, biting, or destructiveness:

Tail wagging

As already mentioned, the wagging of the tail is not necessarily a sign of happiness in a dog. It simply means your dog is experiencing heightened emotions, which could be anything from fear to anxiety, nervousness, and of course, happiness. To interpret the intention behind the wagging correctly, you need to see your dog’s overall body language as well as the speed at which they’re wagging the tail and the direction in which it is pointed.

Think of how your dog greets you when you return home – soft, side-to-side sweeps of the tail that cause your dog’s entire body to move. That is the sign of a happy, relaxed dog that’s happy to see you. On the other hand, if tail wagging is faster and twitch-like, accompanied by stiff body language, it indicates a negative emotion that can likely lead to bouts of aggression. The most common dog behavior problems arise from human’s inability to decipher these minor differences in what the dog is trying to communicate.

Raised heckles

Raised heckles, or in lay terms the hair on the dog’s back standing on its edges, sometimes going all the way to the tail, is another dog behavior that is commonly misunderstood. Often, raised heckles are interpreted as a sign of aggression, especially when accompanied by barking. While this can mean that the dog is agitated or stressed, it can also mean that your pooch is overly excited or intrigued by something (like a bug on the floor).

Posture

To decode dog behaviors and what they mean, you need to know what different postures convey:

• Cowering posture: A dog hunched toward the ground is undoubtedly stressed and trying to convey submission
•  Exposed belly: An exposed belly is often seen as the sign of a secure, relaxed dog, who trusts you and is asking for a belly rub. While that is true, when it appears in quick succession to cowering, it can be a sign of anxiety and stress, indicating total submission
• Towering posture: When a dog takes on a towering stance with its weight shifted forward, it can either be intrigued by something or ready to go on the offensive (if accompanied by other signs of aggression such as a twitching tail)
• Play bow: Touching the chest to the ground, or the play bow posture is fairly easy to read. This means your dog is initiating play
• Paw raise: Unless your dog is responding to a taught command of hello or shake-hand with a paw raise, it indicates that the dog is uncertain or even a bit insecure

Facial expressions

Like humans, dogs express themselves through their facial expressions, however, the meaning of these expressions may be different from their human companions. For instance, while humans yawn when they’re bored or tired, in dogs, yawning is a self-soothing mechanism in stressful situations. Likewise, a dog may lip their licks after a heart meal but also when they feel stressed.

Among the most distinct facial expressions, which isn’t well-recognized, is the dog smile. When smiling, dogs bare their teeth but it’s a lot different from when done as a sign of aggression. When a dog is agitated and even preparing for an attack, the baring of teeth is accompanied by a growl and stiff body language. But when a dog smiles at you, its jaw and the entire body are relaxed and often indicative of happiness. 

Eyes

The eyes, Chico, they never lie! You can learn a lot about dog behaviors and what they mean by looking at your pooch’s eyes. Soft eyes with relaxed lids indicate a happy or calm state of mind. Hard eyes with a cold or detached look indicate negative emotions. Your dog may be feeling aggressive or possessive when they give this look – for instance when guarding their favorite toy or a chewy bone. On the other hand, avoiding eye content or making “whale eyes”, that is where the whites of the eye are visible, are signs of feeling stressed or anxious. These are just the very basics of dog behaviors and what they mean. In this section, we will delve deeper into understanding dog body language to help you tune into your pet’s thoughts and state of mind. The objective is to make sure that no pet parent is left scrambling for answers to questions like, “Why does my dog keep biting me?” “Why is my dog displaying signs of aggression?”