Tag Archives: communication

01/6/12

Do dogs want to communicate?

Say there is a dog without a tail (a natural bobtail or a docked breed).  People often say, “He can’t tell other dogs how he’s feeling without a tail.”

Let’s think about that comment.  With that exclamation, there are two inherent suggestions.  Firstly, the notion that dogs are consciously manipulating their body and, secondly, they are doing so with the intention to communicate.

Is it a colloquial slip of the tongue, or is that genuinely what we believe?

Two dogs playing

Photos © Ruthless Photos

Let’s think about dogs manipulating their body.  Clearly, we can train dogs to consciously manipulate their body.  We can train tail wags, lip licking, head turning, paw lifting, and many other complex behaviours that dogs would do naturally.  There is no doubt when dogs perform behaviours on cue, they are doing so consciously and so consciously manipulating their body.

However, when they are interacting with other dogs, are they consciously changing their body to reflect their emotions?  To me, I think this is a big fat no.  Do you consciously decide to put your grumpy face on when you’re feeling unhappy? Or do you consciously smile when you see a puppy?

Now let’s consider a dog having the intention to communicate.  From Googling definitions, it seems communication is defined as ‘passing on information’.  While this may seem simple, in reality, it’s quite a complex proposal.  It suggests dogs have theory of the mind.  That is, it suggests that dogs are aware that other dogs are aware – that they understand that other dogs are psychologically capable of understanding their emotions.

Though it’s nice and succinct to describe dogs as ‘wanting to show how they’re feeling’, in reality, they are probably not thinking much about it.  In all likelihood, their level of arousal and psychological state is changing their body physiologically, without their conscious thought, and other animals have learnt to interpret these.  At the most, dogs may have learnt to display some behaviours in order to elicit a desired response from another dog.  (For example, a dog may learn that snarling makes other dogs go away, or a dog performing a play bow make decrease the distance between themselves and another dog.)

Are you guilty of framing dog behaviour is communication terms? E.g. “He is telling us how he’s feeling.”

I admit that I do use it a lot, but mostly in classroom contexts. I do work talking to young children, from 4 years to 12 years, about dog behaviour and avoiding dog bites.  The succinctness of talking about a dog’s feelings is beneficial in this context.  However, with adults (particularly dog-savvy adults), I’d pick my words more carefully.

12/27/10

Puppies Exhibiting Calming Signals

At the moment, I am raising my first litter.  The puppies are only two weeks old, but are already using calming signals during intensive handling sessions.

The most obvious of which is yawning.  I don’t think I have seen a puppy yawn once in the whelping box – all have yawned while they are being handled.  Obviously, the puppies are not merely tired.

For those who are unaware, “Calming Signals” is a term coined by Turid Rugaas to describe behaviours that communicate discomfort or stress. One of them is yawning, and my puppies are clearly displaying this behaviour.  Another is the ‘look away’. I am certain that taking photographs of these puppies would not be so hard if this signal wasn’t mastered yet.  I have also seen the occasional lip licking, though not with enough conviction that I am convinced it is a calming signal.

I guess my interest in posting this observation is the very early stage of this yawning – why are puppies this young yawning?

There is some debate about whether calming signals are for the benefit of the other animal (e.g. another dog) or actually work in calming the dog down who is displaying the behaviour.  It could be proposed that, at this stage, the puppies are only interacting with their mother.  I have doubts whether they are using these behaviours to solely communicate with her. So perhaps calming signals are working in these young puppies to calm them down?

Perhaps our pet dogs need calming signals in preparedness of interacting with humans.  This raises questions about the origins of calming signals.  Do wolves make calming signals?  How about some wild dog-like species, like New Guinea Singing Dogs or Dingos?  Could this very young display of calming signals be as a result of puppies having to interact with outsiders sooner than their wild cousins (considering that puppies ‘in the wild’ would be in a den for several weeks)?

This is a simple observation, but it makes you wonder – what’s the point of yawning when you’re two weeks old?

(Turid’s website is Calming Signals Community. For more information about Calming Signals, you can access DogWise.com’s selection of Turid Rugaas books. I can personally vouch for the fantastic “On Talking Terms With Dogs” DVD, though the rest of her resources are yet to be dissected.)