Despite our close bond with our family dogs, we still often don't know what they're trying to tell us and still face communication problems. Fortunately, dogs have developed ways to communicate with us and express themselves through vocalisation, scent, and a complex range of posturing.

Understanding how your dog feels and how your dog shows their behaviour can help to prevent accidents, injuries, improve your relationship and their welfare. So you want to understand your dog's body language, here's a breakdown so you get to know how your dog's doing.

Everypaw's in-house vet, Dr Anna, shares helpful insights in the video below.

How to Read Your Dog's Body Language

It can be difficult to understand how a dog feels, especially as some types of body language have different meanings. For example, showing teeth can be a sign of aggression, or it can be a submissive smile. To determine what a dog is feeling you have to look at the rest of their body like their eyes, posture and ear positioning.

A dog expresses its feelings through multiple signifiers, so we need to consider all of them to understand the full picture. Their vocalisation can also help – a growling dog is often a sign of aggression, whereas barking could be playful or used as a warning sign.

Happy and Relaxed Dog Body Language

Facial expressions play an important part in how a dog communicates. A relaxed and happy dog has soft almond shaped eyes, with no white showing, and relaxed eyelids that can look as though they’re squinting. A dog usually relaxes its jaw with its mouth slightly open. If a dog is relaxed, it’ll have lowered ears and their tail will be in a neutral position.

When it comes to body language, your dog’s tail holds a lot of meaning - the position and movement are useful indications of mood. Happy and excited dogs will have a high wagging tail that is wide and sweeping, with lots of body movements. If your dog doesn't wag its tail despite your best efforts and appears withdrawn, it may feel sad or unwell.

If a dog cocks its head to the side when you are talking to it, it means it’s happy to interact. If they look away and avoid eye contact, it means they’re not interested.

Signs of Submissive Body Language in Your Dog

Sometimes people confuse submissive dog body language with threatening dog behaviour. A submissive grin displays their teeth, but they have no threatening intent. Their facial muscles remain relaxed, and their eyes narrowed.

A sign of a fearful dog, a dog that is submitting will get low to the ground, curl up small or roll on to their back as if waiting for a belly rub. Their tail will be between their legs or wagging low from side to side. In the dog world, they will avoid eye contact because a stare can be seen as a sign of confrontation.

Signals Your Dog's Being Dominant

A dominant dog will attempt to make direct eye contact. Their mouth will remain closed, and they may let out a soft growl. Their body will be rigid and alert, with their head and tail held high. They’ll raise their hair (piloerection) along their shoulders or back.

Aggression and dominance are very similar in terms of body language and the dog’s body position holds a lot of meaning. They hold a stiff posture and are prepared for a potential threat. The dog's behaviour signals that they're the alpha dog. However, a dominant dog will not become aggressive unless someone challenges its position, while they respond with aggressive body language to what they perceive as a threat.

Dealing with bad dog behaviour requires a lot of patience, and perserverence, but at the heart of it is understanding your dog.

Understanding a Dog's Aggressive Body Language

An aggressive dog will curl back their lips and display their front teeth. If the dog pulls its tongue back inside its mouth, it's a sign that it is preparing to bite. A tightly closed mouth with clear muscle tension can also indicate biting intention.

Aggressive and dominant dogs will keep eye contact and have dark and enlarged pupils. They have a stiff body posture with either their weight forward or their body down, head tilted upwards and their weight towards the back. They will stay very still in this position until they’re ready to attack.

Dogs will raise the hair down their entire back (piloerection) to show that they are a threat. If the hair raises only around the shoulder region, it's likely the dog is fearful. Stiff slow wagging of the tail is its way of asking for space.

Signs of Stress in a Dog

A stressed or frightened dog's pupils will dilate, and you will see a 'whale eye', where a crescent of the white part of the eye is visible. They may blink slowly and will avoid eye contact. You might think that yawning is a bored dog body language, but it's often a sign of stress. Lip licking and panting in the absence of heat are other common signs but can also be body language of a dog in pain.

If their ears are pulled back, it's a sign of fear. The dog will hold their head low and their tail tight into their body, indicating the degree of fear it feels. Instead, the dog could be laying down with their head turned away.

Some dogs visibly shake or whine when they’re anxious. A dog that displays these signs is asking for people to leave it alone. If the dog’s fear and anxiety levels increase, it may resort to aggression to remove what it perceives as a threat. If you know what is upsetting your dog, try to remove it before the situation escalates.

A dog’s body language is an important part of canine communication. Knowing what different facial expressions and body language in dogs mean can help owners understand their dog’s emotional state. This will help to reduce the risk of accidents and injuries, improve animal welfare and also strengthen the bond between pet and owner.

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Content provided from Vetstream's Vetlexicon Canis - www.vetstream.com/treat/canis 

Vetlexicon is the world’s largest peer-reviewed online clinical reference source. All our content is written and peer-reviewed by over 1,000 of the world’s leading veterinarians, ensuring relevance, accuracy and quality.