How many times have we said that “This dog just needs to talk.” I’m sure many. And it is that our pets are not only able to communicate with their owners, but also to understand words that we say to them. However, what is really relevant to understand the behavior of a dog is to be aware of their gestures, the way they react, if they wag their tail or their ears and how they do it… and with all of this we will know perfectly until we distinguish his state of mind.
The study on which the keys that we are going to give you are based was carried out more than 25 years ago by the world-renowned dog trainer Turid Rugaas, which was reflected in the book “The language of dogs. The signs of calm” that we found on Amazon with a price of 16.05 euros.
The language of dogs. Calming signals: 25th anniversary. Revised and expanded edition
In this book, based on his own experiences, the author discovers the keys to the language of dogs that will allow us a more direct and effective communication with our pets. In addition, it is written in an accessible way, with multiple practical cases, it constitutes an essential work for professionals and lovers in general of the world of dog.
In this way, according to the expert’s experience, she says that when a dog is afraid, for example, when there are firecrackers, there are different identifying signs: on the one hand, it shows a crouched and stooped posture with its tail between its legs or, on the other hand, In his case, maintaining that posture, he becomes more aggressive, barks constantly and even shows us his teeth.
As ways to deal with it, they tell us that it is best to try to leave the animal alone, since approaching it and trying to calm it down will cause more stress. Let him be the one to approach while we are calm and collected.
In any case, we have to do our part to identify when it is an attitude of our defensive dog from another offensive since they have nothing to do with it.
However, there are many other behaviors that we can identify in our pet such as happiness and the desire to play. How will we identify it? Well, it is popularly understood as such when our dog leans on the ground with its two front legs, keeping its rear legs upright, lifts and moves its tail quickly looking from below. It is clear that here he asks us to party.
Dogs also feel a lot curiosity and the most significant thing in these cases is that they turn their heads, for example, when they hear a strange noise. There are times that this attitude is also accompanied by being upright and straight with the tail up.
The Calm down It is perhaps the easiest to identify because they are usually lying down and relaxed. However, standing up they can also show it when their ears and tail are relaxed, without rigidity.
Meanwhile he stress It will be one of those attitudes that we will have to work harder to identify since it can be shown in different ways such as yawning or licking their nose (which could also be indicative of being tired or hungry), scratching a lot or shake continuously. And it is that with these movements they manage to release stress.
Finally, to identify that our dog is alert we will know it because it will be upright, with its head high and its ears rigid, as well as its tail, and it will probably be fixed looking at what catches its attention.
There is no doubt that there are many more attitudes that our dog can show and that we have to learn to identify in order to know how to behave with them.
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