Dogs Gestures and Language

Do you know if your dogs are happy, angry or sad?

Most of the dog owners probably know when their dogs feel happy and relaxed. But do you know when they are anxious or stressed? If you can tell and avoid things or events that would irritate them further and escalate their anxiety level, there is a great chance to prevent aggressive behaviors.

Here is an excellent simple diagram to explain the most common dog gestures.

Credit of this diagram goes to Doggie Drawings.

My dog Mochi looking stressed, fearing someone would rob his toy.

My dog HorLok looking fearful in front of strangers.

Stressful or Fearful Signals

In the diagram, notice how the dog’s tail and ears position would change as they feel stressed. When you see your dog sneezing, yawning, scratching, looking away or licking nose, it might be a stress signal. In moment like this, the best way for you and people around is to leave the dog alone. Or you can use it’s favorite toy or treats to redirect it’s attention.

Aggressive Dogs?

If your dogs have aggressive behavior, pay attention to when they to start staring at something, it might be an early sign of aggression. Right at that moment if you can direct their attention to something else (toys or treats, etc), very likely their aggressive behaviors could be prevented. My yorkie Mochi hates golden-hair-big-sized dogs. When I walk him, I try to keep a distance from big dogs and warn any owner of unleashed big dogs to not let them come close. If that cannot be avoided, I sometimes use treats to direct his attention (as he loves to eat). Or sometimes just covering his eyes 🙈 would calm him down. If you have tried many methods but still fail, there is alway professional help who can help you. See below for some great training programs and websites.

Organizations and Websites with Excellent Training Tips or Courses

Here are a few useful links that gives out free resources on dog trainings and behaviour problems. They use positive training methods to motivate dogs to learn step by step in all their training materials and courses.  No force! No pain!

Hong Kong Dog Rescue

Dogs Trust Dog School , DogsTrust Facebook  (UK)

Dogs Trust Dog School Training Videos 

Dr. Sophia Yin Training Resources (USA)

Positively by Victoria Stilwell (USA)

Personal Trainers

You can also seek personal trainers who can visit your home to teach you how to deal with dogs behavior problems. They will be able to see how your dogs behaves in their normal day situation.  Some of the above listed organizations provide this service.

For my readers in Hong Kong, I recommand trainers AliceInDoggieLand and Cactus N Dogs.

Dog Slaves Training

I want to thank Charmaine 吠青义明 for helping me in this blog page. Charmaine is a Shar Pei dog whose expertise is to train her human slave.  I highly recommand her fun FaceBook or Instagram page to you.

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