SolveYourProblem.com
Article Series: "Dog Talk" & Barking
Why Is My Dog Barking?
Dog
Talk: What Is My Dog Saying (Tail, Paws, Lips, Smile and Chewing)?
When your dog is talking, do you listen? Are
you paying attention?
Barking is not the topic here, but rather, the way our dogs
communicate to us and the world around them with the use of
their body language, specifically the tail.
There are lots of different wags. Plain, ordinary, enthusiastic
wagging means “I'm a friendly fella!” A slow wag is the nervous
laugh of a dog who is embarrassed about something. A tail
held high and wagged widely, instead of only slightly, means
he wants to play. If he wiggles up to you after you have
disciplined him, wagging his tail between his hind legs,
he is saying he wants to make up and is sorry.
Most of a dog's nosing around is done for identification purposes.
When he approaches another dog, the first thing he does is
sniff him out to discover whether he is friend or foe. First
he smells the rear; then he smells the face.
When your dog props his paws on your chest or shoulders, he
is trying to get in position to smell your breath. He can tell
whether it's you for sure, and what you've been eating that
he might get some of!
You can often tell immediately whether a dog cares for your
company by noticing the position of his lips. When he draws
the corners of his lips forward, he is feeling distinctly antisocial.
He may become aggressive and could attack, especially if he
has drawn his lips open to show his teeth. However, when he
pulls back horizontally so that he appears to be grinning,
he is expressing his friendliness or submissiveness.
When he feels very submissive, he will smile like a simpleton.
He looks like he's feeling silly and has lots of “waggle.”
A few dogs are capable of the mimic grin, something they have
learned from humans and display only to humans. They retract
their lips to show their front teeth in a wide toothpaste smile.
A dog that uses those teeth to chew up your slippers may be
telling you that he is unhappy. A chewing dog is a fretting
dog. A pet that gets a lot of attention otherwise, but is left
shut in the house alone all day will fret in this manner. When
he is lonely and unhappy, and he wants something done – now
– then he becomes like a hyperactive child. He's liable to
chew up everything in the house eventually.
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SolveYourProblem.com
: 2009
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