Most of Jamie’s “messages” in My Doggie Says… were based on a behavior. She would walk to a door, or stop and make eye contact. Or adopt a specific posture in a particular location. Her behaviors were acted out, and my challenge was to figure out what she meant by each one.
Here’s an example of Jamie standing in front of her puppy treat jar and making a polite request for one of the flavor gems.
Traditionally, though, dog talk has been interpreted in terms of how the dog wags its tail, holds its ears, pants, shows its teeth, and other specific body actions. Here are two good short articles on how to interpret this kind of dog body language: 1) Dog Communication (from Wikipedia) and 2) How to talk — and listen — to your pets (by Kim Campbell Thornton, MSNBC Contributor).
The Wikipedia article explains how a dog’s tail, teeth, ears, mouth, eyes and eyebrows, feet and legs, and head can send messages about its mood or aggressiveness.
As we discussed in an earlier blog, dogs are really into signalling their dominance, or submissiveness, over other dogs. This article explains that dogs sometimes signal their confidence, or degree of dominance, by how high they hold their tail, some even curling their tail up & over their back. This might be something to pay attention to with your dog.
Kim Campbell Thornton’s article also talks about tail wags and the messages they can send. A peppy tail wag can be friendly, whereas a slow steady tail wag can signal aggressiveness.
This article also suggests that establishing your dominance over your dog, as the alpha animal, can be over-rated. Being dominant in the relationship doesn’t guarantee that your dog won’t engage in problem behaviors.
I still like Amy’s comment from June 12: “Benevolent but Alpha.”
