Understanding Dog Behavior – Part 2

In the first part, we saw the prerequisites to understand the dog's behavior, greeting, and gaze. In this second part, we will focus on your dog's message based on its posture, mouth and tail. Good reading !

• How to read your dog's posture ?

With your gaze, analyzing your dog's posture and movements will allow you to learn a lot about what he feels. Since the possible postures are very numerous, we will present only a few of them to you.

• Relaxed posture : his face and body are relaxed, his posture is balanced and his movements are calm. Your dog feels in a pleasant environment, he is carefree and serenely enjoys the present moment.
• Vigilance posture : Its ears are erect, facing forward, its head and body are forward and its tail erect. Your dog probably feels interest, surprise, curiosity in the face of a change in his environment.
• Tracking posture : Your dog has a slow and cautious gait, his head and body are at ground level, and his gaze is fixed. He's very focused and he's chasing something. This behavior is completely natural in dogs; depending on the context, tracking can be a game or, on the contrary, something very serious.
• Uncertain posture : Your dog has his head down, the front part of his body forward, his tail stiff and his hind legs outstretched. He is undecided about what to do: should he run away from a situation or approach it? He is cautious and prepares to escape, he needs to get more information about the situation to know what to do. He may feel anxiety or curiosity.
• Anxious posture : Your dog is curled up, tail tucked in or down, head lowered, ears laid back, body immobile, even trembling. Here, he very clearly feels great insecurity, paralyzing fear and he wants to avoid interaction at all costs. It is important to respect his feelings and not to force the dog to confront at all costs what scares him, at the risk of worsening his feelings and causing him to lose confidence in you.
• Threatening posture : The gaze is hard, the jaw is clenched, the tail is stiff and erect and the chest is leaning forward. Your dog feels strong annoyance, he is tense and determined. Here, he prepares for the fight and sends a very clear warning to his interlocutor, if he persists in his behavior, the dog risks going on the attack.
• Defensive posture : Its body is curled up, the tail is low, it growls or shows its teeth and its ears are folded back. Your dog is probably afraid, he may have the feeling of being trapped and he is ready to fight to defend himself or to flee.
• Rage Posture : This behavior usually happens as a last resort, when all other signals have been ignored and the situation causing the discomfort has not improved. The dog lunges forward, it growls with its teeth showing, the hair on its back may stand on end. Clearly your dog is showing his anger and extreme stress. It attacks to protect itself where all other attempts at deterrence have failed.

• What message behind my dog's mouth ?

We humans are very sensitive to the face of our interlocutor, especially by looking at what is happening on their lips. We try to do the same by analyzing our dog's mouth, but there are often many errors in interpretation, as their fangs can bias our way of seeing things.

• Happy mouth : the jaw is not clenched, the tongue is tucked in or relaxed, its gaze is soft and the ears are also relaxed. Here the dog feels relaxed, happy and serene.
• Anxious face : This expression can easily be confused with joy because it gives the impression that the dog is "smiling", when it is a sign of stress, discomfort or frustration. The dog's mouth is open or closed, its lips stretched back with a grimacing look. The dog may be panting and his body is tense, and his ears are pulled back.
• Closed mouth : The jaw is clenched with the lips forward, the gaze is hard. Your dog shows his concern, his restraint or his annoyance in the face of a situation.
• Defensive mouth : The mouth is open with fangs showing, the lips are forward and the dog's body is generally tense. Here, he comes to show his worry or his stress, he prepares to escape.
• Soothing smile : be careful, this is often interpreted as aggression or joy, whereas the dog shows benevolence tinged with uncertainty. His mouth is stretched in a wide smile, his teeth are visible, his posture is low. Roughly this can be interpreted as a “I come in peace” from the dog.

• The different positions of the dog's tail :

We may tend to believe that a dog that wags its tail is necessarily happy or that a dog with a very low tail is necessarily uncomfortable. There are many more nuances than that, and again it is always important to analyze the context and the whole body of the dog. It is also necessary to take into account its physical characteristics: some dogs naturally have a high tail and others will have it low. 

• Relaxed or neutral tail : In this case, it is important to take into account the proper appearance of your dog's tail, depending on its breed. The hindquarters should be as relaxed as the tail. This shows joy and that your dog is relaxed.
• Low tail : the tail is pressed against the hindquarters or tucked in. In dogs with naturally curled tails, it may be lower than usual. Your dog is telling you about his lack of confidence, his anxiety, even his fear.
• Tail erect : The tail is high, either relaxed or stiff. Your dog is showing you that he is alert, excited or agitated. The more excited or agitated the dog is, the more erect its tail will be and the faster it will beat.

In addition to the position of the tail, you must know how to distinguish between the types of tail beats which may seem very similar:

• High beats : If the hindquarters wiggle, the dog is excited and playful. On the other hand, if the body and face are tense, the dog is agitated. A stiff tail and tight flapping are not a friendly signal.
• Loose or tight beats : Wide beats are a sign of joy while tight beats with a low tail are a sign of anxiety.
• Circular beats : If your dog makes rapid circular movements with his tail while wagging, you can rest assured, he is the happiest of all doggies!

To conclude, you have understood that even if your dog does not speak the same language as you, he can still easily make himself understood and you will be able to enjoy him even more once you have learned his language.

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