All About Dog Body Language: The Best Guide in 2020

We, humans, have so many languages to speak what we want to express. But the most loyal friend we have, cannot. Yes, we are trying to talk about dog body language. It is so smart of you when you show your skills off, in front of your friends, telling them what your dog might be trying to do and what will he do next. But, do you know it all?

Dogs do bark or whine and that is a clear sign of what they want to tell you. But that is not at all complete. Canine communication or the communication of dogs through their body language is important for a great bond between you doggo and you.

When you show your empty palm to your dog he keeps its paws on it. When you throw some stick or ball in some direction, your dog rushes to that direction and bring the stuff back. But do you think that’s enough? It is just halfway communication.

Knowing the body postures and especially the facial expressions of your dog is a source to lots of information. You will know it better that your dog is bored, happy, nervous or is about to attack your visitor, who is just being normal but unusual to your dog.

Having a dog in your life can fill up the empty portion of your life. You will be highly obliged if you welcome a dog in your family. Understanding the sweet gestures of your dog is as smooth as you helped it to peep inside your home when it was a puppy. It is pretty usual that there will be a chance of misunderstandings amongst you and your pet. But try to stay aware of its every action.

Listed below are guidelines for all the possible moods of your dog. This will make your bond with your sweet dog a little sweeter. I hope you will be helped by it.

When your dog is stressed

Dogs are friendly animals, and that you clearly know. But you do not have a clear idea as to when your dog is most likely to be nervous or really stressed out, is it? Whenever they are stressed they show behavioral signs that will tell their masters that they are trying to relieve their stress. When the dog is nervous it will try to give signs of deference in a way to tackle the threat.

And you thought that your dog wanted to sleep, it was tired, while all it wanted to indicate was it was stressed out. Like humans, dogs also tend to yawn when they are feeling sleepy or are bored but not always is the same case. Nervousness may also lead to make them yawn.

When your dog is finished eating, does it lick its lips? When you are cooking something and your dog smells it, doesn’t it licks its lips to tell you that it is hungry? But it is not the case always. In the case of nervousness too your dog does the same.

Their body looks as if the dog has been freezing itself either briefly or completely until the threat goes away. Their eyes turn into the ‘whale eyes’ where they are not directly gazing at the threat but the whites of their eyes can be seen. They even turn their heads away from the threat showing the sign of appeasement.

The nervousness can cause dryness in their mouth and cause dry panting sound. The fear, whereas increases the saliva production resulting in drooling.

The shape of their eyebrows curl up showing a frowned look and they might even start shaking. And all this can be reduced by hugging. Hug your dog and keep loving!

The deference language of your dog

You know that they say that the toughest survive in the jungle. But sometimes you have to be cunning enough to let go when you think you are not as strong. These behavioral characteristics can be clearly seen in dogs. Whenever they sense a threat and estimate their inability to fight back, they just bow down in appeasement to avoid crucial injury.

If the threat in front of them, which can be a human being or another animal, sees this, they become less threatening and do not show any negative reactions. This submissive side of a dog makes it appear smaller than the threat and less threatening. All the other dogs react pretty positively to this reaction but some may attack as they will find this deference nature as a weakness.

The dog turns its head whenever it finds a threat away from it so as to avoid further injuries. It turns its eyes but keeps looking at it with a side gaze. The body makes an arch structure and lowers down to the ground making the dog look smaller than the threat.

The dog starts licking vigorously. It tucks its tail under its body. And a lot of the times it may flip its body exposing its stomach. This does not always mean that the dog needs a belly rub, but gives a clear sign of withdrawing any further interaction. So you have to respond accordingly!

The Curious & Confident Dog

The dog eyes seem like they are always searching for something. They are curious animals by birth. And this is something that gives them confidence. A confident dog can easily live in the changes easily without getting irritated and nervous. How to know that he being confident?

Doesn’t your dog look cute when it cocks its head to either side? This means that it is trying to understand something. This is a clear sign of his curiosity.

It might lift its front paw towards you. This may be a sign of your dog trying to understand what is going to happen next and what it should be doing next. Their mouths might be zipped as they are trying to analyze the situation to act accordingly.

The Attention Withdrawer

Your dog is definitely a sweetly cunning and a peacemaking an animal. This trait of your dog can be assumed by its capabilities of distracting the attention of the threat from something they find negative in itself.

This tendency of your dog comes under displacement behavior. This self-calms the dog and refocus the attention of the threat to something which is less threatening. When the dog faces a threat and becomes scared, then it indulges itself in some activities that can distract the threat’s focus.

Have you seen your dog continuously and vigorously spinning or licking? This is a state that can happen when displacement behaviors turn into really compulsive behaviors.

This behavior of your dog includes sneezing and shaking like a cell in vibration mode. It may sniff the threat without stopping and even lick their noses. While shaking the dog’s teeth may start chattering and it may keep spinning like a tornado.

As already mentioned, it may start yawning and even shake off its body as is it is wet and try to dry off all the water from its fur. At this situation try to calm you dog and start hugging it as this is all it needs.

The Offended Dog Body Language

The first step a dog takes when it faces a threat is, it starts being defensive. By defensive, we mean that it might growl or bark at the threat. If the threat is stubborn enough to return back, then the dog may bite it as well. This defensive nature of a dog explains the threat clearly that it needs to maintain a distance.

The dog will lean its body in the outward and forward direction and push its lips forward while growling. It may even snap its mouth in air giving signs to the coming threat that it may bite if it won’t stop. Sometimes it may touch the skin of the threat while snapping with clear instructions to get back to a safe place.

Then the eyes of the dog will be hard and staring at the threat without blinking. The tail might be wagging but that doesn’t always mean that it is happy to be touched.

The dog will not bite dangerously all at once. Firstly, it will give a short nip and will release as soon as its teeth touch your skin. Then there will be a little deeper bite that can pierce the skin of the threat. If the dog has grown really offensive, then it may bite and hold the threat and even shake with the potential to kill the threat.

At this moment try keeping a safe distance from the dog unless it is calm!

Finally, The Relaxed Dog Body Language

So finally, the loveliest mood of your dog that you love and you cherish is the relaxed state. What is better than watching your dog in its happiest mood. The body of your dog all relaxed gives you the invitation to play with it.

The signs of this mood can be the slightly open mouth with the tongue lolling at one side of the mouth. The tail can be seen wagging fast side by side or even round and round. The backside of your dog also wiggles along with the tail.

While playing it bows its body and freezes briefly showing the cheerfulness in it which is an inviting sign for you to go and play with it. The face seems relaxed. They might flip over with their stomach exposed for you to give a playful rub and joy can be seen on their faces.

Conclusion

You love your pet and we know it. But there are times when you get frustrated with your pet because you do not understand what it wants and whatever you are trying to do is only making it angrier. On the other hand, your dog keeps giving you signs and still getting what it does not want. If you have a cat, make sure you read our article about Cat Body Language.

This ruins your bond with your pet. This guideline was for you to get through your pet’s behavior as we cannot ask the animal to compromise. Is it?