Irrespective of the language a being speaks, they always communicate with the beings around them.Be it a human being or an elephant; they are able to communicate through either speech or stomach rumblings.
When it comes to communication between human beings and some other animals, understanding their language is quite difficult, but you can always guess the emotion behind their deeds.
The way you communicate with another being doesn’t always have to involve words; it sometimes can be understood by the actions, eyes, and reactions.
That’s how most of nature communicates.
The kind of bond that human beings share with dogs is considered to be the purest and the strongest.
The way a human being responds is effortlessly understood by a dog, and they act accordingly.
Additionally, human beings also understand what the dog needs or is asking for, no matter if it is their pet dog or a stray.
However, to understand your dog better, there are certain signs that you should know about so that you don’t miss out on them the next time.
These signs are a must-know for all dog-lovers so that they are able to help the poor animals when in need.
The four groups:
As complex any psychology is, it isn’t easy to understand is in one go.
You have to categorize it groups and then in subgroups so that the notion is understood by you.
To make things convenient for you, let’s divide all the reactions that dogs give into five groups.
A dog would react to a certain situation according to these five groups, although they might show characteristics from other groups as well that happens in rare or special cases.
While reading a dog’s signals, make sure you don’t forget the fact that they depend on situations only.
Every dog has a certain set of reactions that they display in a given situation.
The four groups of signals are fearful, arousal, anxious, and aggressive.
These groups have been chosen as they are the most common moods of a dog, and you would be able to understand how do dogs communicate with people?
Let us take a close look at each one of them:
Communication when scared:
When a dog is scared of something, there are chances of it reacting to the situation with its entire body.
The way it moves or is moving its body will show you some signs that something is up.
The most common signals are the dog licking its lips constantly, even when properly hydrated or fed.
It might also start yawning when it isn’t really tired.
When a dog is very scared, it might start to shake or tremble and start to avoid eye contact as well.
A frightened might put his ears back and lean his body backward and lower the tail.
Sometimes, the dog might not react to anything at all.
They might refuse to eat anything; they might not want to meet you when you visit the kennel and do not respond to your calls at once.
All these symptoms are a clear sign that they aren’t okay; something is definitely bothering them.
Sometimes, a dog might start acting aggressively instead of scared as a defense mechanism.
Please note if the situation seems to get out of hand, you may have to call a dog whisperer or take your dog to a vet to check what is wrong.
Communication when aroused:
Arousal signs are visible more prominently in a male dog than a female one.
When a male dog hits puberty, they start developing testosterone hormones in their body.
They start developing desires to make sexual contact with a female dog. With this rise in testosterone, the dog may also get aggressive and behave weirdly.
They can get super active, and excitement for no reason and would want to play for longer hours.
If the dog isn’t let to exhaust all its energy properly, they might get even aggressive and start to bark for no reason on everybody.
They may also pace from one place to another and start spinning vigorously.
Sometimes, the dog may react according to the person, toy, dog, etc.
The object or the person triggers the emotions in the dog, and the dog responds accordingly.
This behavior may sometimes hurt the person as well.
Due to such energy, the aggression is high in the dog, and when an unwanted person or animal walks in, they might just run for it and hurt them seriously.
Such aggression and excitement occur in male dogs, mostly due to a lack of sexual activity.
To guess more efficiently, if the dog is aroused, you can check if their tail is wagging stiffly; if they have focused and still eyes, they are in an attentive stance, or they could be barking continuously.
The best way to treat them in such situations is to either get them neutered or let them indulge in sexual activity.
This will make sure their energy is controllable, and they are in a good mood.
However, do so only when you are ready for new pups, or you have a separate arrangement for them.
Communicating when anxious:
Animals are pretty sensitive to the environment and atmosphere around them.
When someone or something doesn’t feel right, they listen to their intuition and respond accordingly.
Obviously, they cannot tell you about what they are feeling directly, but they give you a lot of obvious signs that there is something that is just not right.
If you know your dog well, you will be able to tell that there is something that is bothering it.
However, if you have missed the signs, some of them are mentioned here.
For instance, if your dog has started losing focus and doesn’t listen to you immediately, something else might be having his focus.
The dog could be panting or pacing from here to there for no reason and be tired like all the time.
If your dog is stressed or worried about something, the signs it will show would be similar to that of a frightened dog.
They could seem dehydrated or tired even if you feed them properly. They could lack confidence and be in a lean stance.
Its ear could be back, and its tail could be wagging slowly. They could also be drooling and shedding mostly throughout the day.
Sometimes, they might get aroused or super excited due to over stressing of a lot of anxiety.
They could be moving from here to there and getting in and out of the house.
A dog, when anxious, would always be restless and show signals of discomfort.
To check for such signals, you should also check if the dog is taking a proper diet.
Sometimes the dogs refuse to take in meals and start losing weight.
When this happens, you should take them to a doctor or a dog whisperer that would be able to understand what is bothering your dog.
Communication in aggression:
A dog being aggressive or over-reacting to situations could be a very natural thing in them.
There might be chances of them being perfectly normal and reacting in a very normal way that justifies their basic nature.
However, sometimes the dogs sense an energy that is suiting them, and that can make them skeptical about a person or an object.
It is said that dogs can actually recognize bad omens and predict if a person has bad intentions.
If such a situation arrives, the dog gets aggressive and starts to growl at the suspicious person or thing.
The dog could also feel threatened by another dog or may find his human being in danger of some time.
Such situations make the dog very alert and dangerous as well.
If the signals are not read properly, and advancements are made even after them giving you warnings, they might bite you or attack you.
On a usual basis, when a dog gets uncomfortable because of a person coming near to them or touching them, they start to growl and show their teeth and warn the stranger to stay a few steps back.
Aggression also comes on if the signals given by the dog are misread.
The dog could be fearful or sad or aroused; however, if the person doesn’t react accordingly, and the dog gets way too uncomfortable, he would start to show signals of aggression.
Some of the common signs of a dog getting aggressive are teeth showing, growling, wrinkling of the nose, curling of lips, or a tense mouth.
Final words:
All the moods mentioned above are the ones that human beings should understand quite effortlessly.
If you stay around dogs mostly, you would be able to understand the signals, and the skill would come as handy to you as well.
There are some classes that you can take as well that would be able to teach you about dogs and their communication methods.
However, thoroughly reading the signals mentioned above can also make you understand how do dogs communicate with people?
