BODY LANGUAGE
intro
Dogs' body language is sometimes subtle and hard to see in real time. You can become better at understanding the nuances with practice. Most people are already good at knowing their own dog’s body language when it comes to the dog’s general mood. We can think of this starting point in terms of your dog’s mindset.
We want to pay attention to the dog’s body language so we know when we need to adjust our training and enrichment plans for the dog in front of us. If a dog is over-aroused, they cannot make good choices and they cannot learn optimally. Even if they are over-aroused in a HAPPY way, the training may not go very well (consider the difficulty of getting little kids to do their homework during a trip to an amusement park and you get the idea!). We are aiming for the middle of the crosshairs in this graph.
You want to look for signs that your dog is uncomfortable, including these:
—head ducking
—tail tucking
—head turning away
—paw lift
—freezing
—hunched back
—side-eye
—lip-licking
Also charging up and barking can be a signs of over-arousal and nervousness.
If you see these, immediately give your dog a short break from whatever is happening. This playlist has several videos; I recommend that you start with Kristin’s “understanding dog body language” parts 1 and 2.
