Copper’s Dog Behavior Assessment
all right so this is copper and today
what we’re going to be doing is
assessing his behavior when he is
playing with another dog just to go over
what normal and typical play is and if
there’s any signs of anything that we
should be concerned about so this is how
he’s acting when we don’t have another
dog out and what we’re gonna do next is
bring out a dog that he does live with
named Kona and so I’ll let the Guardian
go ahead and get the second dog
so far nothing to be concerned about say
that what I am seeing the most of is
that he’s probably growling in a playful
way of trying to engage her and trying
to get her to play with him that’s what
I’m seeing so far um
I we it should be noted though that a
wagging tail doesn’t necessarily mean
happy behavior
it just means how much energy they’re
bringing to the table but look at but
wait so what you want to look at is when
you see the dogs wagging their tails it
means it’s a good indicator of how much
energy but what you can tell by the rest
of their body language is whether
they’re happy or not essentially like
whether they’re comfortable or not
comfortable and if you can see in the
video as he’s moving around he’s very
Wiggly his body isn’t it nice and
relaxed posture as you can see him
trying to play with Kona’s sister um
here that what that means that in
combination with the tail wagging back
and forth he’s bringing a lot of energy
to the table because he wants to play
but because his body postures nice and
relaxed like this it shows that he’s
being friendly and that these are
growling noises that are indicating that
he wants to play and he’s trying to
engage in play behavior now if he was
standing here really stiff and rigid his
tail was in like really tight wags or
and you can see here that it’s not it’s
his loose tail wagging but if his body
got really rigid and stiff or you see
kind of will I was where you see the
whites in their eyes those would be
indicators that he was
unhappy or uncomfortable with some kind
of communication or with another dog
however it is better to have a dog
indicate to another dog that they are
uncomfortable it would be better for him
to growl or tell another dog that they
are being disrespectful and he needs
more space or for him to turn his head
walk away
all those things are better than a dog
biting so you I don’t want to extinguish
those types of signals because that
would be like us trying to say to
someone else I’m uncomfortable I don’t
um when I do something and that being
taken away and leaving us for the last
resort of having to just push somebody
away or do something like that so we
don’t want to take those signal signals
away and most dogs no no not all dogs
it’s okay but and for most dogs if they
recognize these types of communication
signals then they will be able to know
okay this sounds uncomfortable and they
can communicate and work walk away from
each other which is what you do want
if one dogs that upset so as long as
he’s communicating and the other dog is
understanding interpreting correctly
that communication signal then
everything’s fine and growling is even
okay as long as it doesn’t escalate into
a fight again a play though is like what
he’s doing and these type of growling
and this is all he’s using by inhibition
he’s not fighting hard these are just
play bites again nothing that I’m seeing
to be concerned about but we’ll just
kind of let him play for a couple for a
bit and make sure that we’re not seeing
anything that’s problematic
so when um so when Kona there was kind
of said like okay and when you stopped
she turned her head away but he also did
the same thing see how they do that
right now they were just doing that
they’re turning their heads away from
each other which is a common signal
which is saying it’s helping to keep
them at a play level so they keep
playing and everything stays fine and so
it doesn’t escalate into something else
which is normal dog behavior in
communication during play interactions
that’s typical we expect to see that but
the calming signals are just a way for
them to communicate with each other
we’re still playing and to give each
other a quick little break in the middle
of playing so notice that they kind of
take little breaks like this and then
they check in with each other and then
they usually start playing again but he
is respecting Kona when Kona kind of
says okay give me a break for a second
he does stop and again he’s not biting
hard whatsoever these he’s using bite
inhibition meaning that he’s not biting
down very hard these are just playful
but some are not even bites it’s more or
less what I would call mouthing all
right hey copper sit good boy so this is
copper and this is a little bit of an
assessment with a job that he does live
with so he is very familiar with her but
on how he’s using his play styles and
based on what I’m seeing right now I
wouldn’t
any cause for concern about how he’s
playing with Kona
