In the immortal words of singer Billy Joel,
Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.
While these words are true for humans, but they are also just as true for our four-footed best friends.
Dogs never lie.
Oh they may know how to play on our emotions … and to some degree every dog knows how to manipulate us to get what they want, but they never lie about it.
As dog owners we all need to learn how to “read” our dogs. With a bit of training and some basic knowledge about body language it is very easy to see what our dogs are feeling at any moment of the day.
If you know what to look for, you can tell when your dog is happy, sad, excited, scared or angry. Knowing what to look for can be critical because It can help you avoid some bad situations when you are out in public. Being able to read your dog will also help you read other dogs that you may encounter during your walks or when you are at the dog park.
Being able to read your dog can also help you when working with YOUR dog!
Not only is it important for us to learn to read our dog’s body language, it is also important to realize that dogs can read OUR body language as well. It is important to know that not only do they know some of the words we use, they also understand our vocal tones and feel our emotions (a.k.a. our energy or ora). Because of this we need to be in touch with our feeling and have them under control before we take Fido on a walk, train him or even interact with him.
EXAMPLE: You’ve had a bad day at work, and you are angry and stressed out when you walk thru the door at home. Your dog will immediately sense this and try to avoid it. But as you walk in to the house you want your dog to come to you. So, not thinking, you bark “COME” to your dog! Sensing your bad mood, the dog tries to avoid you and may not come to you right away. Not realizing why your dog is not coming to you, you may get mad at the dog … and the dog suffers your anger for doing something that comes natural to it … and that is avoiding unstable emotions!
On the other hand, if you take a few moments to remove your work related frustrations and stress BEFORE you walk thru the door, your dog will be glad to see you and come running as soon as he hears you put your key in the lock.
There are many other examples I could use, but you get the idea. Right?
Don’t lie to your dog! Tell him how you really feel, not how bad your day was!