There is much about dogs I don’t know, but I’ve made a habit out of studying how to read their behaviors, and thus, listen to them.

The signals and messages dogs give us are obvious when we pay attention to them, but we live lives of distraction and rarely take the time to listen to our dogs, just as we rarely take the time to listen to other people.

Watching the body movements of dogs – paying attention to them – is critical when it comes to training and also for having the kind of relationship with our dogs that we really want.

Everywhere I go I see people pulling on leashes and yelling at dogs when all they need to do much of the time is listen and be clear about what we want.

Writers like Stanley Coren, Patrician McConnell, and James Serpell have helped me to understand what my dogs are telling me, and it’s been a passion of mine for years now.

Some things I’ve learned:

-A relaxed and reasonably content dog has his or her ears up (not forward) and head held high. His mouth is open slightly, his tongue is often exposed. His stance, if he is standing, is loose, his weight is flat on his feet. His tail is down and relaxed.

-An alert dog has his ears forward, his mouth is closed, his tail is horizontal, not stiff or bristled. His posture is slightly forward lean, he is standing tall on his toes, his paws are not flat.

-A dominant or threatening animal has his ears forward, his nose wrinkled, his lips curled and teeth exposed, his stance is stiff-legged, his body is leaning slightly forward., his hair is often upon his back, his tail is raised and bristled.

-A frightened dog holds his ears back, his hair is up on his back, his nose is wrinkled, lips slightly curled, corner of his mouth is back, his tail is tucked underneath his body, his body is learning forward. This posture signals that the dog may attack of pressed.

What can we learn from  “urinating?’

Urinating is the primary way dogs have to show us what they are thinking. Generally, the dog is telling us “this is my territory.” Or “this object belongs to me.”

Scent marking, as the trainers call it, is usually done on vertical objects to place the scent at nose level for the next dog to sniff and to permit the smell to diffuse widely into the air.

Dogs will often urinate over the marks of other dogs. If a dog urinates on another dog or a person, the message is different: it becomes an assertion of dominance as well as possession.

For dogs, urination is sometimes used as a direct signal rather than as the equivalent of a  formal message. A fearful dog is more likely to produce a small puddle of urine when it feels threatened or frightened.

This is most common when the dog is approached by a person or other dog that makes him or her anxious.

This short urinating is a sign of submission and is meant to show that the dog is not looking for a fight, and isn’t going to challenge the approaching dog or human.

What does “bristling” mean?

Bristling means trouble.

What is the dog telling us when the hair bristles on his back or shoulders?

This is a posture for people to accept and take seriously rather than trivialize or ignore.

People don’t like to think of their dogs as capable of aggression. Almost all dogs can be aggressive at times.

This is a sign of anticipated aggression. When the ridge of hair bristles down the back, that is a clear sign that the dog is saying”I’ve had enough, I’m angry.” When bristling extends to the shoulder, it means “I’ve had it with you” and an attack is imminent.

What is “Mouthing?”

Generally speaking, dogs should never be permitted to put their mouths on human beings. It is most often a sign of dominance and can lead to aggression, authority challenges, and disobedience.

Mouthing shows up in dog-human interactions when the dog takes a person’s hand in his mouth, or while walking, takes the leash in his mouth (dogs view the leash as an extension of the human hand).

Mouthing suggests a serious challenge to the person’s authority, a sign of dominance, and suggests that the dog does not yet accept the human as a pack leader.

When my dogs put the leash into their mouth, I snap it and yank it out, saying “no” or “off” sharply. I’m a positive reinforcement trainer, but there are times when the human simply must assert his dominance over the dog. I call it “doing the bear.”

Sometimes, a roar from the person does the trick. The dog has to accept a person’s authority in order to respond quickly and safely to commands.

Most people are inconsistent about this and uneven in their training. If you look around, you’ll notice that many dogs are what I call “multiple-choice dogs,” they see commands as something they can choose to obey or disregard.

Early on in training, it’s important to only give commands you are ready to enforce. Once a command is given, it must be enforced and followed through.

As the dog grows older, he doesn’t think he has a choice, and he simply obeys.  If training isn’t strictly enforced from the beginning, he learns he can take commands or leave them.

In my training, I always watch the tail and the ears and only train when the dogs are in “relaxed” positions.

That’s enough for one round. I’ll be following this subject up with more posts. It’s a subject I love.