A dog’s body language is more than tail wagging or showing teeth. It is a form of communication to let others know who they are, where they stand in the pack, and much more.
Dogs don’t just communicate vocally, they also use and interpret body language. They use their entire bodies to communicate, from tilting their heads to wagging their tails.
Begin to take note of your dog’s actions and learn to understand him.
The more you understand your dog, the more you will know how your messages are being understood for him.
Take a trip to the dog park and watch how the dogs interact with each other. Learn how one dog’s body language communicates and reacts to another dog’s body language.
Notice the positions of their ears and the expression on their face from the frown to the tightness around the mouth and muzzle. How its weight is distributed and how it holds its tail. You will start to learn if he is relaxed and/or dominant in a given situation or if he is submissive or even fearful.
A dominant dog is not an aggressive dog, he is confident in himself and in his position. Likewise, a submissive dog is not a scared dog. In fact, they also rely on knowing where he stands in the grand scheme of things. They know his position and are happy with it.
A dog’s body language can show that it is submissive to a higher range but dominant to a lower range. In fact, it’s within these middle ranks that most of the fighting happens because they’re continually jockeying for position.
A pack leader doesn’t need to stoop to fight.
When you’re at the park, watch for dogs that play together, but more importantly, watch for those who meet for the first time. How does one react to the other, do they both react the same? Does one dog show dominance over the other?
When you do observe them, notice their general behavior and then try to identify the subtleties of their behavior. Are both tails up and wagging, are they relaxed or stiff? Keep an eye on the eyes, ears, mouth, and hair, especially along the neck and back.
Dogs are naturally pack animals with keen senses. They can hear, see, and smell things long before we can. They are always watching each other, as well as what is going on around them.
They use their body language as a means of communication and will very often watch yours and interpret your movements. Knowing this, we can use it to our advantage by doing two things; learn the body language of our own dog and learn to use it in training him.