As far as people know, dogs don’t have language in the same way people do, but this doesn’t mean they don’t communicate. Dogs use their bodies to convey a variety of messages and often communicate to their owners with their faces. Here’s how to read your dog’s facial expressions:
Eyes
Dogs don’t make eye contact with other dogs, but they do make eye contact with people. Many students of animal behavior argue that this means dogs understand that people are different from them. A loving look from a familiar dog can be as heartrending as one from an unfamiliar human, but eye contact from an unfamiliar dog is almost always a threat.
Whale Eye” is the term dog trainers use for a particular look in the eyes of a frightened dog. The whites of these dog’s eyes are very visible and the dog’s mouth and body may be very tense.
Dilated pupils can be a sign of excitement, which can mean anything from a desire to play to complete fair. A dog who looks tense and has dilated pupils needs to be left alone, but a dog play bowing with dilated pupils is desperate for interaction.
Mouths
Most people look at the front of a dog’s mouth for clues about the dog, and everyone knows a growling dog may be a threat. But the best clue to a dog’s mood may actually be at the corners of her mouth. These corners are known in the dog literature as commisures. Generally, when the commisures are pointing forward, this is a sign that the dog is ready for action. This, of course, can mean anything from playing to biting, so watch the rest of the dog’s body. A dog who is growling with commisures pointing forward, however, is an immediate danger.
When the commisures are stretched backward and tense, your dog is frustrated or stress. A dog sitting calmly with tense commisures may be in pain. When dogs growl with commisures pointing backward, however, this is a sign that their aggression is fear based and they want to be left alone.
When a dog’s commisures are relaxed and the dog has no noticeable “posture” to the corners of their mouth, your dog is relaxed.
Other mouth cues to look for include licking and teeth chattering. Dogs rarely chatter their teeth, but when they do, it’s almost always a sign that something is wrong. They may be in pain or afraid. One exception to this is the nibbling behavior of puppies, who may chatter their teeth over surfaces or even your skin. Popularly referred to as “looking for fleas”, this is a distinctly juvenile behavior that may be an attempt at self-soothing or a desire for affection. Licking can also reveal much about a dog. Dogs who lick the air are often trying to calm the people around them, and this should be read as a friendly or submissive behavior. Dogs who repeatedly lick may be feeling anxious or threatened.
Noses
Few people think to look to the noses of dogs because people don’t use our noses to communicate. But the anatomy of a dog’s nose allows a dog to do much more with his nose than a person can. Dogs have muscles in their nose that allow them to move the flaps of their nose toward interesting things. Watch your dog when he’s resting sometime and you may see him subtly moving his nose. He’s trying to sniff something he finds interesting.
In other cases, the direction a dog moves his or her nose can provide helpful information. A dog who is in pain and moving his nose in a particular direction may be pointing toward the source of the pain. Barking or aggressive dogs may move their nose to the source of the problem.
No single aspect of a dog’s face can tell you everything you need to know, and it’s important to take a holistic approach to dog body language. Looking at each facial feature can provide you progressively more information about what your dog is thinking and feeling. For more information about dog body language, check out this article
on dog tails and what they communicate to people.
Sources:
http://www.pawsacrossamerica.com/interpret.html
http://dogtrainer.quickanddirtytips.com/dogs-facial-expressions.aspx
http://thewholedog.org/wholedognews/?p=260
