Key Insights:
- Dogs use their whole bodies to show you how they feel.
- While there are many things your dog will do to express themselves, the biggest things to look at are their ears and tails.
- Once you understand your dog’s emotional state, you can help them cope when they feel scared or anxious.
When your dog is fearful or stressed, their instinct is to fight or flight (run away or avoid). We don’t want our dogs to feel the need to fight, so it’s up to us to watch their body language and help them be more comfortable with the situation.
Dogs can’t tell us how they feel, but they can show us through body language. In fact, they are quite expressive with their bodies. Learning to identify how your dog feels by observing their body language can help you understand if your dog is comfortable with the situation.
Basic Dog Body Language
Dogs don’t hide their emotions. The most basic way to understand your dog’s emotional state is by looking at their entire body.
Don’t assume your dog is happy when he is wagging his tail. You have to look at the entire dog to get a better understanding about how the dog may be feeling. A tail wag can mean one thing when the wag is low and slow, but another when the tail way is fast and high! Look at their ears too (up, down, flattened) and body posture (leaning forward, leaning away, stiff, loose and wiggly).
If you are looking for a trusted visual resource to help you better understand canine behavior, explore Lili Chin’s free Dogs Digital Downloads collection, featuring downloadable infographics on dog body language, socialization, leash walking, emotional well-being, and more.
How to Help a Fearful or Anxious Dog
Even the friendliest, happiest dog may become anxious or alert when taken out of their familiar places and routines, such as on the Fourth of July, at Halloween, or during Holiday parties. These events may be fun for you and your family, but your dog has no way of knowing what’s going on and how to react to what they may perceive as a threat.
We believe that the best way to change a dog’s behavior is to change their “emotional state” about a person, place, or situation. This is called Classical Conditioning. Classical Conditioning pairs good things (yummy treats, for example) with scary things (little children, people in hats, for example.)
If you notice your dog becoming stressed or fearful, (ears back, tail low or tucked, etc.), it is your responsibility to help them feel more comfortable with the situation. You generally have two options:
- Management. Avoid the situation. If your dog is afraid of little children, then avoid little children. Cross the street if you see little children approaching. Leave your dog at home if going to a family party means little children will be there.
- Training. The training goal would be for your dog to tolerate and not react to little children. Move your dog far away from the child so he’s not over threshold and still looking fearful. You can offer treats to your dog. (If he won’t take treats, then he’s probably still too stressed.) As the dog is able to eat treat, then you can try to move one foot closer. If he stops eating treats, then you are likely too close to the child. Add more distance and try again.
For dogs that get fearful or anxious around new people, use the following technique to teach your pooch that the new person poses no threat:
- Stand at a distance from the dog where they are clearly still happy and friendly (tail and ears neutral).
- Toss a piece of the dog’s food over their head so it lands behind them. The dog will move farther away.
- When the dog faces you again, throw three high-value special treats between you and the dog. The dog will have to move closer to get them.
- Repeat these steps until the dog feels comfortable being close to you.
- If the dog’s ears start to perk or lay flat, or tuck her tail between her legs, or raise and stiffens it, move farther away again and start over.
This teaches the dog that being close to you (or another person) is a positive experience that they can be comfortable with.
Pooch Pawsitive believes that happy and confident dogs come from positive reinforcement dog training and knowledgeable, understanding humans. When you can interpret what your dog is trying to tell you, you can better attend to her needs. And while it might be easy to tell when your dog is happy and playful, it can be a little more challenging to decipher when she needs to be reassured due to fear or de-escalated due to anxiety. She doesn’t need to speak to tell you what she needs, just read her body!
We proudly serve families seeking puppy training in East Providence, Barrington, and the surrounding areas. Contact us today!