Improve Your Relationship with Your Dog - Learn to Read His Body Language

Since humans don't have the luxury of being able to speak directly to and be spoken to by dogs, learning the body language of these animals and how to employ it ourselves is the only way to effectively communicate with one of these animals. A dog has many ways in which it will hold its body or its various parts to indicate different emotions or moods and learning to interpret these signs will help you and your pet forge a much better relationship.

Unfortunately, humans lack the ability to hold themselves like a dog would. We have no tails to wag, our ears are small and difficult to move, and we are usually standing upright instead of on all fours. Despite these limitations, it is still quite possible to use certain body language motions and techniques to get the message across to a dog.

It is important to establish yourself as the pack leader when you start to train your dog. The social structure of a wolf pack in instill in most dogs, therefore a dog owner must learn how the rules work for them in order to facilitate training. It is no doubt easier to train a puppy from young, older rescued or adopted dogs tend to be harder to train.

Dominance is a key element in the hierarchy structure of a dog or wolf pack. It is important for one dog among the pack to start leading and be dominance before the sense of structure sets in. A pack leader would want the best for its pack in his own ways. Unless you establish yourself as the alpha leader early, your dog might try to get that position.

There are a number of dominant postures that a human can adopt to help drive this home to a dog. Since we walk on two legs, we are naturally much taller, and an alpha or pack leader will usually do what he can to make himself larger than the animal he wants to dominate. If your dog likes to jump up to be your size or if he takes advantage of a time when you are sitting or lying down on the floor, this is a sign that your dog does not respect you fully as his leader.

A dominant animal also has control over the other animals in the pack and if another animal is doing something that the alpha deems unnecessary or would rather not have happen, he can block the other animal simply by walking in his path or pushing him slightly out of the way. Another way an animal will tell another off is by giving him a little nip on the neck or back, not enough to cause any real pain, but simply a little reminder of who's in charge. Obviously, it is impossible for us to nip our puppies, however a quick soft slap on the body can work as well.

How your dog move his ears and tail also reveal a great deal of how he is feeling. Ears folded backwards behind the head mean that he is fearful, submissive or happy. Ears edging forward means he is alert or nervous. A low tail wag indicates submission and happiness, whereas a high one might indicate dominance and excitement.

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