{"id":766,"date":"2012-01-06T09:11:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T22:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/?p=766"},"modified":"2021-08-02T14:53:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T04:23:12","slug":"do-dogs-want-to-communicate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/dog-behaviour\/do-dogs-want-to-communicate\/","title":{"rendered":"Do dogs want to communicate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Say there is a dog without a tail (a natural bobtail or a docked breed).\u00a0 People often say, \u201cHe can\u2019t tell other dogs how he\u2019s feeling without a tail.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s think about that comment.\u00a0 With that exclamation, there are two inherent suggestions.\u00a0 Firstly, the notion that dogs are consciously manipulating their body and, secondly, they are doing so with the intention to communicate.<\/p>\n

Is it a colloquial slip of the tongue, or is that genuinely what we believe?<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>

Photos \u00a9 Ruthless Photos<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s think about dogs manipulating their body. <\/strong>\u00a0Clearly, we can train dogs to consciously manipulate their body.\u00a0 We can train tail wags, lip licking, head turning, paw lifting, and many other complex behaviours that dogs would do naturally.\u00a0 There is no doubt when dogs perform behaviours on cue, they are doing so consciously and so consciously manipulating their body.<\/p>\n

However, when they are interacting with other dogs, are they consciously changing their body to reflect their emotions?<\/strong>\u00a0 To me, I think this is a big fat no.\u00a0 Do you consciously decide to put your grumpy face on when you\u2019re feeling unhappy? Or do you consciously smile when you see a puppy?<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s consider a dog having the intention to communicate<\/strong>.\u00a0 From Googling definitions, it seems communication is defined as \u2018passing on information\u2019.\u00a0 While this may seem simple, in reality, it\u2019s quite a complex proposal. \u00a0It suggests dogs have theory of the mind<\/a>.<\/strong> \u00a0That is, it suggests that dogs are aware that other dogs are aware \u2013 that they understand that other dogs are psychologically capable of understanding their emotions.<\/p>\n

Though it\u2019s nice and succinct to describe dogs as \u2018wanting to show how they\u2019re feeling\u2019, in reality, they are probably not thinking much about it.<\/strong>\u00a0 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.\u00a0 At the most, dogs may have learnt to display some behaviours in order to elicit a desired response from another dog.\u00a0 (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.)<\/p>\n

Are you guilty of framing dog behaviour is communication terms?<\/strong> E.g. \u201cHe is telling us how he\u2019s feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 The succinctness of talking about a dog\u2019s feelings is beneficial in this context.\u00a0 However, with adults (particularly dog-savvy adults), I\u2019d pick my words more carefully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do dogs really choose to tell dogs how they are feeling? Do they understand that other dogs and beings can interpret their behaviour?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[314,30,12,11],"class_list":["post-766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dog-behaviour","tag-body-language","tag-communication","tag-dog","tag-dogs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2804,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions\/2804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}