How to communicate with a dog in his own language
hey youtube I want to talk today about
how you can communicate with your dog
using their own language with something
called calming signals so firstly
calming signals what are they they’re a
way that dogs communicate with other
dogs – calm down other dogs and tell
them I’m okay you’re okay
or they’re a way that dogs can calm
themselves down internally Tura drew Gus
an internationally renowned dog trainer
has been studying calming signals and
researching them for over a decade
she is responsible for all this
information about calming signals being
around she has a book and the DVD about
calming signals and I’ll put a link to
those in the description so check those
out they’re really cool so dogs offer
each other a multitude of signals
constantly and if you start to if you
start to recognize them you can actually
get an idea of what your dog is thinking
and feeling watch what happens when I
pick up Kiko she’s gonna yawn and offer
me a calming signal
dogs think they’re being obvious
hole-in-one they don’t realize we don’t
understand what they’re saying and that
is how a lot of people get bitten in the
face in this video I’m only going to
give you common signals that involve the
face in another video we’ll go over
calming signals that dogs offer when
they’re moving or playing so here are
some of the common signals you can
actually offer your dog okay the first
one is soft slow eye blinks the second
one is looking away the third one is lip
licking the fourth one is yawning I like
to make a noise when I yawn Oh
or sign oh those are the main four that
are really important there are many
others that dogs offer each other that
you can try and imitate like sniffing
the ground you can pretend you like
you’re interested in the ground or
lifting a paw you can try you know
showing your dog you know lifting a paw
but I don’t try to do that another other
people have tried shaking off for their
dogs another thing you can do is offer a
combination of calming signals so for
instance here’s a combination of calming
signals I might offer a dog that’s
scared I go over to the clients house
here I come in the door
this dog is looking at me going are you
a threat and I say to the dog no I’m
cool and I do that by offering calming
signals to the dog so I walk in or on I
don’t look directly at the dog and
saying I’m not a threat leaped Lakes
yawning OH
tell me my dog calm down it’s okay
everything’s fine I am NOT a threat
calming signals are great in a dog
training class before an agility trial
whenever your dog stressed at the vet
you can offer your dog calming signals
and tell them everything’s cool
common signals are also great if you’re
walking down the street and your dog
sees something that’s slightly scary
you can yawn tell them I’m not even
freaked out about this it’s cool I use
calming signals constantly the other
night there were coyotes howling really
close to my house
both my dogs heads lifted up and they
went like whoa what what is that and I
just oh yeah and I licked my lips I made
a huge sigh and they looked at me and
they thought oh cool well she’s not
bothered about it it’s not a big deal
it’s a way of telling your dogs be cool
everything’s fine I’m in charge of these
problems right now okay so another way
you can use calming signals is when
you’re greeting a strange dog and they
don’t know you it’s a great way of
saying I’m cool don’t worry about me
here’s some footage of dogs in my
friends dog training class if you’re not
consciously looking for calming signals
you probably haven’t ever noticed them
before but dogs offer them very often in
a dog training class because it’s
stressful to be around a group of dogs
you don’t know some of the common
signals happen so quickly you might not
even see them this one is pretty obvious
the little chihuahua is scratching her
head and giving lip licks the dog in the
back is yawning because he can’t get to
where he wants to go this poodle is
licking her lips to calm down the person
who’s petting her Carmen the Chihuahua
also offers a lip lick this shy Cavalier
puppy does a look away to tell the other
dog to go away and it works now the same
dog is being bothered by an adult poodle
his ears are back he looks away numerous
times he does a lip lick he does a
polished and now he arcs around the
poodle to say please don’t bother me
this little puppy is offering lip licks
soft slow eye blinks and Luca ways and a
yawn here I’m petting Kiko in her bed
and she’s telling me in no uncertain
terms that it’s highly annoying and it’s
a great way to ruin the relationship we
have slash also tells me that it’s a
little stressful to constantly have your
head messed with
oh can you yawn can you’re gone you can
don’t feel like communicating you do oh
do you like communicate do you like
using calming signals you do do you like
communicating with human beings No
see you next time stay tuned for more
training videos
