Sometimes, Jamie would station herself comfortably along the hallway outside my office. She would lie on the floor with her body close to the wall.

At other times, she would position herself across the hallway, forcing me to step over her if I wanted to walk down the hallway.

Finally, I connected the dots. When I was working around the house and showed no signs of leaving, Jamie would lie along the wall. But if I put on business clothes or packed up my briefcase, she put her body across the hallway, as if to say, “Please don’t go!”

Callie, my four-year-old Golden Retriever, has one toy that she treats differently from her other toys. By observing when she plays with it and how she treats it (with reverence), my wife and I have concluded that this toy (Callie’s “Stinky”) is her security object. She uses it as a calming device almost every evening before bedtime.

Sometimes, to figure out what your dog is saying, you have to “connect the dots.” Is there a pattern to the behavior? When does it happen? Where does it happen? How often does it happen? It might take some patience, but you’ll “break the code” — and your dog will “get the message.”