By Minou Tpain

Stress Signals

Dogs use body language to communicate when they are stressed. Many owners may pick up on the more obvious signs such as barking, growling or biting but many times those were not the first signs of stress that were given. This is when we hear most owners say, “it happened out of nowhere”. To the untrained eye, it may seem that way but to the more experienced owner, there were so many other signals given. Knowing these signals is important because it can help you prevent your dog from choosing biting as his go-to reaction.

Here are some other, often overlooked, signals:
-heavy breathing
-whining
-pacing
-whale eye
-shake off
-pinned back ears
-tucked tail
-raised hackles
-stiff tail
-lip licking
-drooling
-dilated pupils
-blinking
-yawning
-avoidance of eye contact
-stiff body
-refusal of food

A lot of these signals are not always in isolation, they can be a combination of anyone of these. And every dog has a different sequence, just depends on their personality as well as past experiences.

That’s why it is important to always pay attention to your dog’s body language. Get to know what is normal for your individual dog and what is not. Become more aware of the subtle signs they give.

*Find out more tomorrow why it is important to recognize these stress cues.

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