Understanding Dog Language

People who have lived with a dog for a long time usually know intuitively what it wants to say. In contrast, canine language can be difficult for first-time owners, because it is very complex. Unfortunately, misunderstandings can also have serious consequences – such as if a dog doesn’t know how to handle itself and suddenly bites. This article helps you to better understand canine language.

Understanding canine language: Why is this so important?

Misunderstandings between dogs and humans can be very dangerous. This is why it is so important that you truly understand dog language. Before a dog bites, it generally shows in its own way that it isn’t happy about something. However, these alarm signals can be overlooked or misinterpreted.

A further example: There is a difference between a dog not obeying you because it doesn’t want to or because it is scared of a situation. Perhaps it doesn’t want to ‘sit’ on the side of the road because it is frightened of the passing cars. If you know how your dog really feels, you can save it a lot of stress.

The most important thing: Mutual understanding creates trust and reinforces the friendship between you and your dog.

How do dogs communicate?

Dogs communicate with humans and fellow canines in several ways. Expressions like barking, whimpering, whining, howling or growling are part of verbal language.

However, dogs don’t just use their voice to communicate with one another, but their entire body. Body language includes gesturing and mimicry. Wagging the tail is an example of gesturing, whilst baring the teeth is an example of mimicry.

The message of smells

Smells play an important role in the canine world. A dog’s nose has up to 300 million olfactory cells (human nose: five million). It’s hardly surprising that dogs are deployed to track down missing persons.

With the help of urine and faecal markings, dogs leave important messages for their fellow canines. This too is part of dogs’ language. A urine stain or pile of faeces at the wayside? Nothing like diving in and sniffing around to not miss any messages. It’s quite normal for dogs to smell or even lick the droppings of other canines on walks.

Dogs’ language depends on context

Unfortunately dog’s language is rarely clear-cut. In order to understand the meaning of a statement, you always have to consider the specific context. This means the particular situation in which your dog currently finds itself. If you ignore this, misunderstandings can easily occur.

For instance, dogs lick their nose to appease their counterpart. But if it received a treat to nibble at just beforehand, it may just want to clean its nose.

Barking as part of dogs’ language

Dogs bark for very different reasons – for instance, because they are hungry or thirsty, because they want to go for a walk or because they want to play with their owner. A desire for attention is often the underlying factor.

Even with barking, you can see that dog’s language is often ambiguous. Dogs also bark when they want to warn their owners of an intruder. They bark even when they themselves feel threatened.

If the verbal warning is of no use, baring their teeth may be the next step. The expression ‘barking dogs never bite’ unfortunately isn’t always true.

Desire for attention or warning

How do you now distinguish whether your dog simply wants attention or is trying to express a serious warning?

In general, barking is probably meant in a friendly way if it is high-pitched. Deep barking indicates that a dog is seriously annoyed or feels threatened.

Chihuahuas and other small dogs bark in a higher pitch, whilst large dogs such as St Bernards have a deeper tone. This too must be considered when making an assessment.

Some dogs bark at every opportunity and test their owners’ nerves to the very limit. However, dogs that bark excessively are often simply not challenged enough.

Our article How to Calm Barking Dogs explains what you can do in this case.

Howling encourages solidarity

When wolves howl, they signal that they belong to their pack, as this encourages social cohesion. Howling also communicates their location to other animals or warns them of a danger.

Pet dogs bark too – some more and some less. Basset Hounds, Beagles and Huskies are some of the breeds that bark the most.

Does your four-legged friend join in when the church bells ring or a siren sounds? Experts presume that dogs interpret these noises as the howls of fellow canines due to the similar tone frequency.

Pain, loneliness and stress can also lead to your dog howling.

Tip: Howl along too
Even if it seems strange to you, dog owners should wholeheartedly join in with howling every now and then, according to expert advice. This strengthens the bond with your dog, because you are showing that you too belong to the pack.

Understanding canine language with videos

Dogs often move very quickly. When they frolic around the dog run with their fellow canines, the fine nuances of their body language are difficult to recognise. Is it still a peaceful game or is the situation escalating?

If you want to understand your own dog better, film it with your smartphone on your next walk. Playing the video in slow motion once in a while can be a real eye-opener.

On YouTube too you can find numerous videos explaining canine body language.