A dog trainer has shared the subtle signs and signals you might mistakenly believe show your pet is happy and content when the truth is the complete opposite.
A dog trainer has shared the subtle signs and signals you might mistakenly believe show your pet is happy and content when the truth is the complete opposite.
As a nation of dog lovers, we adore our four-legged friends and consider them an important part of our families.
Needless to say, we only want our pooches to be happy, healthy, and well cared for.
However, it can be easy to mistake some subtle signs and signals they give us as indications they’re fine with some behaviours when in reality they’re far from it.
Taking to Instagram to share their insight, dog trainer The Tired Pooch showed some of the manners dogs can use that show they are uncomfortable with a situation, even one people often mistake for compliance.
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Explaining all by doing a physical demonstration with their dog, the trainer said: “Does your dog’s body language look like this during interactions? If so, stop.” Detailing that they were about to show a typical scenario between a person and a dog, they began by sitting next to their German Shepherd, Ripley, and giving them a small hug and a kiss on the side of their head.
The first sign to notice is that when they leaned into the dog, she looked at her owner and then immediately looked away. She went on: “After I kissed her on the muzzle she did a stress yawn, which is immediately followed by a lot of lip licking.” Still trying to cuddle her, Ripley turns her attention to her owner and starts licking her face.
The trainer told viewers: “This is where most people think the dog is reciprocating the kiss but it is not.” She explained that the licks were slow, an appeasement, and Ripley was politely telling her to stop kissing her and being in her space.
Stressing to followers that she is being intentionally obnoxious for the purpose of the video, the trainer went back in for another cuddle and noted that Ripley had put her ears back and was giving her the ‘whale eye’ and physically gets up to move away from her owner.
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She finished: “Her getting up and moving away is when most people would think that she’s not happy when in reality look at the huge lead up in all the different body language and signals she was giving me.”
Those watching loved the demonstration and rushed to share their thoughts. One person wrote: “Love this! More people should know this. Especially for puppies. Then they wonder why their dog constantly runs away from them.”
Another user shared: “When I learned this I was initially sad then I realized how selfish that was. The more I backed off from trying to give my female dog attention the more she started to come seek it, I guess. Now she’ll come up to me and shove her snout in my armpit and hang out there while I give her pets. Then she decides she’s had enough and peace’s out and I love that for us more than any interaction we had while I was selfishly seeking emotional fulfillment from her.”
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Sourse: www.express.co.uk
