Stress Cues

By Minou Tpain

Stress Cues

  Author: Denise Partlow

Instagram: @modernk9 Carolinas


Dogs use body language to communicate how they are feeling. Knowing your dog’s stress signals is super important because it allows your dog to feel heard.

Here’s an example of how I watch my dogs for any sign of stress and then intervene.

My seven-year-old daughter loves to snuggle with my dogs, but she’s seven and doesn’t understand completely that they are not just giant teddy bears, so I always supervise when she decides she wants to go in and smother them with affection. I allow it but the moment my dogs give me a signal such as a head turn (away from her), lip licking, yawning, I immediately tell her to stop, that she is “too much right now” and to respect what the dogs are telling her.

Dogs are allowed to feel uncomfortable with things just as we do as humans. The only difference is they cannot speak our language, they cannot shove a person away and yell “stop”, so they use subtle signals at first. If these signals do not work they will resort to harsher signals which is what we want to avoid.

Unfortunately the first time a dog feels that his signals are not working and decides to go with a different way to communicate, the dog now has a picture in his mind as to what works and this will most likely be his method of choice in the future.

He will also feel that he has to take care of things himself, that he cannot look to his owner in a moment such as this and on the next occasion he may skip all of the other subtle signals and go straight to the harsher signal. For many dogs, it only takes one time for them to choose this harsher signal as their go to method.

So really pay attention to your dog, look at his head, his eyes, his face, his body, check for any signs of stress and find ways to intervene at the first signal to let your dog know he has been heard.

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