Humans largely rely on the spoken language to communicate their thoughts and feelings. In the dog world, communication by vocal means is a very minor part of dog language as dogs mainly use body signals to express themselves. If you wish to understand what dogs are saying you will need to learn how to read the various body signals that they are giving.

In a dog’s world personal space and belongings are extremely important, and their conception of safety lies in their ability to read whether a situation is safe or dangerous.

In the wild, canids’ survival depends on protecting themselves, their pack and their territory. As a result, canine aggression is mostly about space invasion, and mostly what a dog communicates is about their personal space. “May I enter your space?’, “Yes, you may approach and share this space with me” or “Yes, you may come close, but don’t touch me” or “Get away from me!”. For each of these sentences your dog has a specific set and combination of signals to express his intentions.

Dogs have an amazing understanding of human language. Don’t we owe it to them to try to learn some of theirs?

Take for instance the following scenario:

If I am in a queue and someone persists in bumping into me, it would be acceptable for me to ask them to stop. It would be an extreme overreaction to take out a gun and shoot them. However if in spite of my request they persisted, it would be necessary for me to get more defensive if I wished to stop the assault.

Well-mannered dogs follow a very similar procedure. If another dog rudely enters their space they will give a mild warning. If the other dog doesn’t heed this warning and disrespectfully persists and continues to invade the space, the invaded dog must choose between having no personal space or making it more clear to the rude intruder that this won’t be tolerated. Some dogs have lost their natural language due to unintentional bad training by their owners. For instance: Dogs do not approach one another front on the way humans do. In dog talk this is extremely rude and confrontational. But many owners when taking their dogs for a walk, walk straight on up to another human and dog. A polite dog would curve away and avoid direct eye contact when approaching another dog.

By the same token, dog-owners often find it acceptable to allow their dogs to rush up to another dog’s face (literally “in your face”) or jump up onto a human or dog. They wrongly think this means that their dog is friendly. Most dogs would rightly consider this approach extremely rude. Unaware of all the subtle signals the invaded dog has

given, the owner of the rude dog unfairly blames the invaded dog when it retaliates with a snap. Thus the real offender is wrongly consoled and the invaded dog blamed.

Well-mannered dogs do not rush up into another dog’s space. They politely ask the other dog, using negotiating signals, whether it is acceptable or not to do so. Dogs raised in multiple dog households are able to practice manners frequently and learn how to understand dog language.

References: Aggression In Dogs by Brenda Aloff; Canine Body language by Brenda Aloff; On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas; Barking the Sound of Language by Turid Rugaas.

Photos of Shenanigan and her cat by Susan Henderson.