Understanding Dog Body Language - Part 2

canine body language and understanding canine and communication part two this video is really going to go over tails ears and the body it's going to be just what you as the owner or the handler really want to look for if you're not understanding what you're not doing or if you're just having general inquiry or interest in your dog's behavior or what they're communicating as this is a full-time profession and I mean the biggest thing biggest false that you see with the owners is the communication between the two is so off um the dog is saying one thing in the human saying another thing and so much gets lost in translation or lost in communication and then you guys are kind of butting heads but if we can teach humans to better understand what their dog's saying and have a lot of these myth and myths and conceptions about their dog and what their dogs doing and throw that in the toilet or confirm it it just helps better understand what your dog is doing so you can better understand how to train your dog or or how to get them to where you want them to be so I hope you enjoy the second video and hopefully the more video clips I get believe me the more videos I'm going to do about body language so that people can actually see this happening right in front of them instead of on pictures or just by reading an article tail-wagging is a communication signal given from a dog to help get their message across to the recipient you cannot solely judge a dog's entire behavior on just a tail wag there are so many other signals and behaviors to take into consideration before you can make an assessment like that Hale dispositions says a lot with a dog but it doesn't say everything generally when we're looking at behavior in dogs trainers behaviors and consultants will glimpse at the dog's tail to see if it's high neutral or in a low position or even tucked this tells us about the dog's brain arousal levels which can actually give us a better indicator for what's going on we have Luna and Mookie out for a walk Lunas five years old and Mookie's nine months here look at the difference in the body language mainly with the tail Luna is calm and relaxed low head low tail Mookie is excited and interested in noises which you can see affects the brain which affects his body language tail high head high ears up here is where things can actually get confusing for some tail tuck usually indicates fear or nervousness and dogs however we have Luna sheep herding lessons waiting her turn and her tail is tucked I can tell you that she is not scared of anything right now and you can actually understand that by watching other body language on her her body is loose ears are up and relaxed eyes are soft open relaxed mouth so what's going on she's actually incredibly anxious she's just waiting for that second where she is unclipped and she can go and chase the Sheep how high this girl's tail is it's almost touching her back and she doesn't even have a curly tail this is pretty obvious that she's on high alert about something around her territory whether it's territorial behavior or whether it's hunting behavior she's on high alert and she's ready for anything this guy looks happy right tail wagging looking at me well let's stop the video and we'll see if that tail wag means good things no this dog is quite careful and so nice to people confrontation not good for this dog's tail wagging in his case means appeasement signals he's trying to communicate with us that he's not a hundred percent comfortable this is Thai he looks happy ears up rushing over to sniff the dummy dog's butt as if it were a real dog well let's stop the video here does this dog look like he's happy to see the decoy dog no he wants to attack it and cause injury this is a dog that was a stray who was lacking very much in social skills with other dogs and just wanted to make this dog go away we go back in the video we also see a lip lick which is good indicator that this dog was not happy about seeing this dog this dog you can see the neutral tail position when walking and watch it instantly change when he sees the dog in the driveway up and wagging now did he look friendly there you now this dog is a highly obnoxious and brute if you let this dog greet another dog it could possibly lead to a fight depending on what dog was on the receiving end look at the brown dog he's like wow you're nuts what is wrong with you flinching you didn't want to go near that top now for some positive tail way Luna hears instigating play with Mookie just watch the body crawling the ears back and which indicates in this scenario that she's very playful pure excitement for food with Mookie you can even see him trying to sit and be calm but the tail is a dead giveaway that he's still very much excited yeah and what else okay for the tail recap a wagging tail does not always mean the dog is friendly tails tend to but not always go up when the dog is highly aroused this means positive and negative emotions tails tend to wag when aroused this means positive and negative emotions dogs also use their tail to communicate play appeasement which means not a threat threatening displays confusion nervousness anxiety and fear to name the most common you cannot judge dog's behavior strictly on the tail behavior you must take into account the other body language in order to properly assess what is going on with the dog in this video you can actually see Lunas loose loose body language and Mookie's actually being really really tense because he doesn't know if she's out to harm him or not he's a little nervous right now so you see one part of Moon is always wiggling always moving that's what you consider more of a loose body you see Mookie he goes from tense completely rigid and then he'll moved quickly and then he'll go tense again watch this dog does she look tense or loose she's moving her head and sniffing but her whole body is so rigid her tails not moving this right now is saying this is not a good green she's feeling a lot of pressure with this person you can see because she jumps back instantly if we go back you see she takes a step back her center of gravity shifts it back she does a polished she quickly moves and you actually see a lip look as well so she's doing a lot of stress signals that can be easily overlooked by humans you here you see incredible tension a dog is approaching Luna and she is highly stressed watch the avoidance the way lies tongue flick even a paw lift she's screaming stress right now and she even snarls to get her point across to the other dog coming watch the loose body language coming up to the man watch it change as soon as she's confronted to say hello you see a lip lick which indicates stress we see a polit which is another indicator of stress and we also see the center of gravity of her body shift away from the person in order to escape if she needed to this young dog which is the bigger dog is actually just trying to play with the younger dog the chihuahua but you can actually see watch the tense body language of the Chihuahua I mean he's moving look how rich it is does it look like he's having fun no he's trying to do avoidance just like oh gosh please just leave me alone it doesn't work so he starts acting out and acting aggressive and you can see those stress signals start to build and build and then he has to act out aggressive because the pup is just not getting the communication signal that the Chihuahua is giving so tense versus loose body recap is on tension and dogs can indicate apprehension uncertainty uncomfortable in a situation or scenario tense body language can be a warning indicator to dogs and people that this dog is preparing for the fight-or-flight response if this behavior is ignored aggressive behavior can happen but not always if you've ever heard of the calm before the storm kind of deal that's what happens there loose body movements mean relaxation comfortable at ease in the situation they're ok with what's happening and relaxed watch how they're playing and then all the sudden when Lunas chase she starts eating grass just randomly this is the calming signal for a cut-off cute that she doesn't want to play with him anymore they're cut off signal and it turns around and you see that head to head and Mookie's like whoa does it play about lays down and then buggers off somewhere else beautiful communication and beautiful listening skills in this next clip I'm actually going to let you guys watch the clip and see how many warning signals does Luna give the pitbull count and then we'll go over it again I'll explain all the warning signals well there are four warning signals so the first one is look at him and then looking away this is avoidance this is okay I want nothing to do with you second one is lip licking this is a stress signal saying okay I'm getting a little annoying thirds grabbing the ball moving going okay I'm going to avoid this situation by picking up my toy and leaving and then as he's following she sees okay you're still following me and then she actually moves in another direction again more avoidance however the puppy here he's just not getting it and it is normal social skews that he will learn as he grows up so subtle cutoff signals are these are used to communicate from one dog to another that you know I need a break or I don't want to play anymore I didn't like what you did or starting to feel uncomfortable or one of the top views of why dogs will start to use them cutoff signals are generally used during activities involving two or more dogs so playing together or greeting saying hello to another dog on the road or something like that or actually being forced to be put into a small scenario like a doggie daycare or a house environment cutoff signals can also be used as same as stress and calming and displacement signals that I went over in part one so the yawning the lip licking sniffing the ground turning your head scratching urinating just out of the blue dogs that have been properly socialized tend to have a good routine and good exercise in good social interactions will have better communication and can respond to these signals easier dogs who are lacking in social skills or you know are just too excited they're not getting enough exercise tend to not be able to see these signals that other dogs give and this can often create conflict and with aggressive behaviors from one or both dogs ears now what your dog does with his or her ears will say a lot about what they're thinking and feeling just like with the tails all dogs have different ears some perk straight up some are droopy but you can still actually read a dog's ears with either style it's just a little bit harder with the flat ears unfortunately when breeders are owners crop and/or tape their dog's ears and tails we humans along with other dogs cannot read or find it hard to read the dog properly this can often cause miscommunication between the two parties when a dog's ears are pointed back or flattened on to their head the dog can communicate many different social signals such as submissive behavior you often see this in younger dogs when greeting new dogs and a branch off of submissive behavior is making oneself appear smaller to avoid conflict or to not be intimidating however it's not necessarily classified as submissive behavior agitation when a dog is tense or irritated the ears will be back but they're not quite flat on the head and of course elements of nature can cause your dog to put their ears books such as wind or rain when a dog's ears are perked up at the base of the ear between the head in the mid year the dog can communicate different social signals such as listening on alert and interest I mean all of these pair right in together the dogs will perk their ears ought to be able to absorb all of the sound like a satellite dish so this can be good for dogs that if they're hunting or if they're on alert for territorial behavior you'll often see those ears perk up and they might even swivel another reason is making oneself look bigger and more intimidating if the dog is going to use aggressive behaviors or feeling that aggressive behaviors are being used on that dog they can actually perk up their ears and even their tail to make themselves look bigger and intimidate the other dog or whatever it may be off ear behavior recap our ears just like the tail can give a good indicator of the dog's brain arousal levels and what they're thinking you cannot solely judge a dog's behavior on just the ears you need to take into account what the whole body is doing in that moment what scenario you're in what environment you're in dogs well that will have floppy ears such as basset hounds and beagles or dogs with their ears cropped ape Dobermans pitbulls etc like that will be actually harder to read because you're not going to be able to see the whole ear it's going to just be at that base of the ear just like the base of the tail avoidance behavior and dogs which basically means go away and the reason why I love avoiding avoidance behavior so much is because actually humans use it a lot to when they want to disengage from something they'll actually divert their eyes to something else and I mean it's a good indicator that they're no longer interested in whatever you're saying or whatever you're doing so you can see this little guy is just bugging the heck out of this big dog you see he's just like leave me alone I'm just going to turn my head over here and lo and behold it works you can actually see it frame by frame with this dog about the avoidance there's a lot of stress in there so you see the lip lick the eyes gaze turning away the whale eyes and then you see the head just turn this dog wants nothing to do with whatever's in front of him so the avoidance behavior recap is avoidance is generally characterized by a dog turning their head or body to avoid a situation confrontation or conflict head turns are one of the most used avoidance behaviors which can also be classified into a stress calming and displacement signals avoidance is one of the first warning signals used before dogs before with dogs before it escalates into aggressive behaviors and this is also depending on the dog some dogs will have a stronger flight response thank you for watching and thank you to all who donated video clips to help make this video possible for educational purposes don't forget to subscribe because I plan on making a lot more body language videos and other how-to tutorials on tricks and behavior and obedience training

Channel: Kristin Crestejo, CDBC

Views: 283,728

Rating: 4.9162502 out of 5

Keywords: dog, body, dog training, behavior, behaviour, dominant, alpha, submissive, why, how, body language, free advice, jumping, scared, cesar, emily, best, cool, awesome, dogs, tail wagging, aggressive, fearful, coquitlam, langley, modern canine training, puppy, border collie, help, training tips, techniques, biting, nipped, aggression, jump, barking

Id: t4N2XvnY7Mo

Length: 17min 22sec (1042 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 19 2015