Snug Pet Resort – Reading Dog Behavior
hi everybody it’s mike stone and again
today i’m going to be teaching you some
new dog training behaviors and different
exercises this particular exercise today
is really about teaching you how to read
dog behavior dog body language this is
really where you can understand what
your dog’s thinking what your dog’s
feeling and that’s everything when you
know what kind of mood your dogs in you
know what approach to take today one of
the main things I want to relay is for
people who aren’t really familiar with
dog body language and if they’re going
to interact with strange dogs maybe you
have children at home and you’re trying
to teach them how to say hi to a new dog
this particular dog has some behavioral
problems he does have some aggression
issues so I wanted to bring him out and
kind of showcase different things that
you can start to learn to recognize at
home first thing is this dog has a very
unique tail his tail has a slight curl
to it so when he’s feeling really
confident when he’s feeling really good
about himself you’ll see that his tail
start to come up kind of curls and gets
up in the air when his tails up it’s
kind of like what you’re thinking he’s
feeling pretty good about himself he’s
got his tail high in the air his ears
are up and alert at that moment he’s not
really feeling insecure he’s feeling a
little bit more dominant so let me see
if I can get him to showcase that come
on made her what you doing buddy there’s
that tails got a little curl to it it’s
not quite up yet so he’s not at a point
where he’s feeling super confident you
can see he’s also a little bit uneasy
he’s not really checking in with me he’s
got his ears up he’s checking everything
else out not a lot of interaction with
me right now so I wouldn’t say that
there’s a huge connection and bond at
this point between me and the dog we’re
still in the early phases of training
now i’m going to show you when you have
somebody approaching that how you can
kind of tell what your dog is thinking
when a stranger starts to approach you
so i’m going to have my assistant Lori
come up you’re going to come up and
shake my hand and start to pet the dog
hi Lori how are you today this is mater
now the first thing I don’t know if you
can see it his tails a little bit low
his ears are slightly back a little bit
he’s not panting right now his mouth is
slightly tight and closed there’s not
one ounce of a tail wag going on when
his tail wasn’t not wagging he’s not
super happy right now he’s accepting
somebody new but I can clearly tell that
he’s not
comfortable with it so my goal was
socializing him is to do little small
visits having people come over pet him
making it Pleasant and then moving on we
wouldn’t want to spend a ton of time
with a stranger pushing and pushing and
touching until he becomes uncomfortable
so I’m going to have you do that again
it’ll be very brief just walk up say hi
hi mater I’m Mike how are you hi buddy
again our tail went slightly down our
ears went slightly tucked we are not
panting so again he’s very unsure right
now I’m just going to have you walk away
from him take a break mater good boy now
it’s my job as the trainer and alpha of
the pack to give him confidence and when
someone’s approaching and I start to see
that body language I want to reassure
him that everything is okay not by
petting him and reinforcing that he
should be insecure but by giving him a
competent outlook a happy tone maybe I
could give him some kind of an obedience
command to get them focused more on
being in the pack and following my lead
but the main thing i want to show you
today is just to kind of see different
things that dogs will show you different
cues to understand when a dog’s
uncomfortable uneasy when you should
continue to pet a dog or when you should
see that sign and back off now as i’m
starting to pet him right now you can
see that he’s panting his ears are not
super back he’s not super uneasy he’s
still kind of a loop with me but he’s
not unsure and again I’m going to
demonstrate when Lori comes over his
change in body language camera mater hey
how are you today meet mater ok so we’re
not panting now he’s sitting right now
so you really can’t tell about the about
his tail but you can definitely tell in
his body language that he’s not super
interactive with with Laurie no tail wag
whatsoever so now I’m going to have you
just move on good boy and the idea here
is that he got a quick interaction with
somebody new nothing bad happened and
we’re moving on that’s it for today Lori
so just some highlights of what we
talked about today you want to look for
the tail you want to look for the ears
you want to look for a tense body type
so when he’s really kind of tight
anytime I dogs avoiding you backing up
these are all warning signs of a dog
being uncomfortable dogs can’t talk so
they have two ways that relaying what
they’re feeling to us
their body language and then the next
step is by growling potentially nipping
and actually in their mind defending
themselves because they have no exit
route so in this guy’s case he’s come a
long way so far we’re at a point where
strangers are coming up he’s not totally
being afraid he’s starting to learn how
to socialize with new people but I
thought today it would be good to kind
of start learning some of the different
body languages and how to associate when
a dog’s feeling comfortable or not
feeling comfortable that’s it for today
we’ll see you next time
