Source: Greyhounds As Pets

Often, despite our best intentions, we are letting our dogs down by not giving them the guidance and direction they need. This is often because we don’t understand what our dog is trying to tell us as we don’t understand the behaviour. Learn more now.

Understanding Facial Expressions

Yawning
⦁ Unless your dog is getting ready to take a nap, this could indicate that they are feeling a bit stressed or they need to dampen down the excitement levels a bit.
Eyes looking down
⦁ Dogs generally don’t maintain eye contact like we do and in their world not making eye contact is polite.
Half-moon Eye
⦁ When a dog is looking away, with his gaze fixed on something and the whites are showing, it can be a sign of anxiety or agitation. Give them some space to calm down or check and remove the source of this behaviour.
Open mouth
⦁ This generally means the dog is content and relaxed – unless there’s food involved! If their mouth is open while you’re having your dinner, that’s them pleading with you to get their share.
Baring Teeth
⦁ This all depends on the situation and it can the sign of a submissive dog (that guilty face you’d see on YouTube videos!)
⦁ However, if this is accompanied by growling, raised hair and a defensive stance it may result in aggression.

Understanding Body Posture

Baseline Posture
⦁ A normal posture for a dog when relaxed when there is no reason get excited or anxious.

Alert Posture
⦁ Generally, it means that the dog has not yet made up their mind if they’re going to communicate with submissive play, aggression or fear with what they’ve encountered.

 

Aggressive Posture
A dominant and confident posture meaning the dog may attack at any time. The posture will often be accompanied by growling and/or barking.

 Fear Posture
A frightened dog has the potential to become an aggressive dog and people have been bitten in these circumstances. Dogs are especially likely to bite if cornered.

Active Submission
⦁ Some submission gestures exhibited by dogs are considered obnoxious by humans but remember this is a dog’s way to communicate that you are their leader/or that they see another dog as superior.

Note: forehead is spelt wrong in the pic

Passive Submission
⦁ The most submissive posture for a dog. These signals are learned at a young age during the process of cleaning by the mother. In this situation, the tail is held lower than the body and direct eye contact is avoided.

Understanding Tails & Ears

Understanding Woofs

The meaning of pitches
⦁ These usually indicate threats, anger and the possibility of aggression. It essentially means “Stay Away from Me”.
⦁ High pitch sounds generally mean the opposite and indicate that they’re asking to be allowed to come closer or that it’s safe to approach.

The meaning of durations
⦁ The longer the sound, the more likely is that the dog has made a conscious decision about the nature of what he is reacting to and his next behaviours.
⦁ If the growl is in shorter bursts, and only held briefly, it likely indicates that the dog is worried about whether it can successfully deal with the situation.

The meaning of frequency
⦁ Sounds that are spaced out or not repeated usually indicate a lower level of excitement.
⦁ Multiple bursts and multiple repetitions means that the dog feels the situation is important or even a potential crisis.