DOG CALMING SIGNALS

I came across a little booklet on canine body language that I found particularly enlightening. It is called “On talking terms with Dogs” by Turid Rugaas. I’ll share the main points with you and you can decide if you want to buy it and read the full version.

What are calming signals?

Dogs, being the ever vigilant social mediators, use various body “signals” to ease social tensions and relieve stress. They use them amongst themselves, and with us.

By learning to identify these signals, we humans can begin to understand the state of mind of our dogs, and signal them back in a meaningful way to help them during stressful or confusing social interactions.

Turning of the Head and/or Eyes (Look-away)

From a very subtle and momentary look-away to a full turn-and-hold head position, this is used to reassure a nervous dog of your good intentions.

It can also be accomplished with the eyes only, moving them from side to side and/or softening the gaze by slightly squinting while approaching.

If you see your dog doing this to you, you probably appear too stressed out or agitated to him and he’s trying to calm you down. He’s also probably feeling pressured and uncomfortable, and may be using a combination of signals to calm himself AND you.

Turning to the side or back

Most of us know this one. Approaching a dog sideways while also looking away from his eyes is the polite way to say”Hello” in the doggy world. We observe this ritual every day amongst our dogs. This is particularly important when greeting a new dog, who will immediately be assessing you and needs to find you are a cool dude / gal.

Turning your back to a dog is a very powerful signal used to stop a hyperactive dog in its tracks.  Dogs use this on each other during play to calm things down, and even with us when we are yelling or in other ways being too excited.

You can easily use it on dogs who are rushing at you or being impolite. Although it does not always work with hyper jumping puppies, it does send them a message of “stop acting like this and then I’ll give you my attention again,” which they will eventually get.

Licking nose

A very quick lick of the nose, usually accompanied with the turning of the head. Used by dogs to signal their social partner, dog or human, that they feel pressured by him or uncomfortable.

Humans would have a hard time using this one, but nonetheless, it’s important to understand what your dog is trying to tell you.

Total Muscle Freeze

We’ve all seen this behaviour many a time in our dogs. It comes in many forms from stopping abruptly, standing still, sitting, or laying down, but what they all have in common is the total freeze of all muscles.

This is a indicator of much stronger levels of stress or fear in the dog. They freeze when a very threatening looking (in their minds) dog is rushing on top of them, or if their human is yelling aggressively or physically handling them too roughly.

This behaviour is unfortunately too often interpreted as the dog being stubborn, as for example when it’s called harshly and freezes instead of coming. It’s therefore very important to understand that we are scaring the poor creature at that moment, and he’s most definitely not trying to be stubborn, but is instead attempting to appease us.

Slowing down dramatically

Similar to the total freeze, but used in less threatening circumstances, dogs will try to calm each other and us if the energy levels rise above their personal comfort zone.

For example, when you jump and wave and scream at a dog to make him run faster, you will often get the opposite effect (unless you’re running away from the dog, in which case you will most likely get he desired result).

Downward Facing Dog

Although it looks like the “play invitation” and can often seamlessly flow into it, the downward bow / stretch of the frontal paws is a display of  caution and mindfulness in your dog. He will use it with animals and people he’s not too sure about to signal his good nature and peaceful intentions.

Humans can easily use this signal on worried or scared dogs with great success. Just keep in mind that you have to point your arms down rather than up, as would come naturally to a human in a yawn-stretch.

Sitting firmly down

My dog actually does this all the time when strange dogs in the park try to sniff her butt too much or when there is too much commotion going on around her. She’s been doing it for years, and here I though she was just being a coy princess.

Well, it appears that the act of firmly sitting down when approached by a dog or human that is just a bit too enthusiastic, is a strong signal of discomfort and displeasure in your dog. It’s saying “Please stop, you’re being very rude right now.” Dogs do get the message immediately, and start behaving more politely around her (what looked like loosing interest to me) until she is satisfied with the level of intensity they are giving her and she gets up and goes to them.

You can apply this method of making your dog stop what it’s doing by sitting or even laying down and being very still and calm.

Laying down

Belly down in a calm “lay” is a very powerful and clear message usually practiced by alpha dogs to send all those present into a time-out. The effect of the signal is directly related to the social status of the dog using it, and most adults will follow suit within a few seconds (oblivious puppies excluded as usual).

Humans can use it (remember, this is a belly down lay) to calm a dog that is pestering them, or is fearful of them. The belly down lay is the most benign, peaceful, calm inducing, and benevolent message a dog can send and / or receive.

It is important to point out that this position has calming effects on the dog itself not only on those around him. Therefore, if your dog is overexcited or stressed, gently bring him to a lay position to help him calm himself down.

Yawning

Just like we tend to “lay hands” on a friend who is stressed or upset, dogs yawn at each other for comfort. When they are not sleepy but are yawning, they are literally saying “It’s going to be OK, I promise.”

When you’re fighting at home, or crying, or another animal is in distress, your dog will yawn and yawn and yawn. They will yawn to calm themselves down as well, and you can do the same for them.

When your dog is agitated or fearful of a new place, strange people or noises, relax your body, look away and yawn your heart out for him. Try it, it works!

Sniffing

Of course dogs sniff all the time, but if you observe a situation carefully, you will notice that they also sniff as a way to avoid direct eye contact and / or aggressive frontal approach by other dogs or humans. If you’re standing firmly facing your dog and call him to come with irritation in your voice he may sniff several times while approaching you (usually in a curve).

It’s hard for humans to use this calming signal, but again, it’s good to understand your dog’s state of mind.

Curving

Dogs do not usually go straight toward each other. They might, if they are puppies or know each other very well, and even then, they will use other socially acceptable appeasement signals in order to be polite.

As mentioned before, it is proper dog etiquette to avoid approaching them in a straight line, frontal body position while looking them in the eyes as we would when we approach humans. Depending on the dog and the situation, our misguided friendly human approach method can be interpreted as anything from impolite to aggressive behaviour on our part.

Walking through

We see this in the park all the time when a play fight gets a bit too rowdy or the dispute over the stick gets too tense. A dog who gets between other dogs or people is trying to split up an escalating sotuation and avoid problems.

I had the opportunity to use this signal just the other day, when my dog and her friend were getting too worked up over a stick. Things were not looking pretty and were escalating quickly. Both the other owner and I, walked between them casually while talking to each other and not looking straight at them or addressing them in any way. The dogs, having lost the dangerous eye contact for that brief second, quickly moved on to other amusements.

Crawling with low tail wag

We’ve all seen this groveling behaviour, where the tail wag is actually a “white flag” signal rather than a sign of excitement and happiness. Your dog will grovel in front of a social superior dog or a human who has lost his temper. They will use this appeasement technique even if your aggravation is not directed at them or if you are just generally in a state of high alert.

You cannot use this one unless you have a tail, but just know that your dog is feeling your anger or stress level and is trying really hard to make you nice and calm again.

Many other signals

Turid mentions that there are many other signals dogs use to mediate their surroundings, such as making themselves small in stature, rolling over on their backs, licking faces and lips (they are not trying to kiss you, but it is a similar sign of affection and submissiveness to your wishes), blinking their eyes, and lifting their paws playfully.