[Episode 28]

 

5 Stress Signal You’re Missing       

One of the biggest mistakes struggling dog owners make is not understanding what their dog is saying.

In fact, sloppy dog trainers skip this topic altogether and go straight to discipline or commands. But you can’t ignore your dog when he’s barking, lunging, growling, or snapping, right?  But what if your dog told you before he barked, lunged, or growled? What if he gave you signals before he snapped at your neighbor? What if knowing these signals could help you teach your dog not to bark?   

 

Today you’re going to learn the 5 Stress Signals Your Dog Gives you that you might be missing. 

 

Most frustrated dog owners don’t know when their dog is trying to tell them they are worried. They can’t ignore it when their dogs are barking, lunging, growling or snapping, cowering, or hiding behind you. But you’ve missed the signals your dog is giving you to tell you he’s stressed before he barks. Your dog will politely tell you that he’s’ working and about to bark or bite, but if you don’t know how to recognize those signals, then your dog will think you’re ignoring them. 

 

You’re not born knowing how dogs communicate, so you have to take the time to learn. 

 

Today you’re going to learn about the 5 Most Common Stress Signals your dog does to tell you that he’s worried.

What are stress signals:

 

Dog’s don’t speak English, they communicate with their body language. Just like humans communicate, dogs communicate with other dogs. We, humans, use verbal language to communicate but we also use non-verbal language. In fact, some studies show that human communication is 80% non-verbal and only 20% verbal. We rely on words to communicate but we all know when our spouse is angry or upset just from their body language. If you’re a parent, you can tell when your son or daughter is worried or upset from across the room. It’s the same with your dog, the only difference is you’ve never learned how to read what your dog is saying to you. 

 

Dogs communicate with other dogs and other animals. They use body language and it’s very interesting and fascinating to many people. Not all communication is about stress. We’ve all seen what our dogs look like when we come home from a long day at work. They greet us at the front door, their tail is wagging and their body is soft and wiggly. And we all know what our dogs look like when they realize we’re at the vet’s office. 

 

You already know how to read your dog in certain situations, but when you can read your dog’s stress signals you can PREVENT barking, lunging, biting snapping or growling. 

 

Now I know a lot of uneducated dog trainers will tell you to discipline, correct or punish your dog from bad behavior, but the real goal of dog training is to prevent those from happening to begin with. If you can’t predict when your dog is going to bark by watching his body language, well then you’re 10 steps closer to having a calm dog that listens to you. Wouldn’t that be great? 

Why do you need to know dog body language/stress signals? 

 

I get a lot of questions from people who say, Sherry, what do I do when my dog is lunging and barking at a dog. Well, that’s like saying what do I do when I’ve yelled at my husband and said things I didn’t mean. It’s too late after the fact. There’s not a lot you can do in the heat of the moment, it’s too late. You can’t take it back, you can’t undo it, you can’t have a do-over. It’s too late, your emotions got the best of you. And when you let your dog’s emotions get the best of him, there’s nothing you can do. You can’t change your dog’s behavior the moment he’s lunging and barking. It’s too late! And no, giving him a treat when he’s lunging and barking isn’t going to work either. That’s not using positive reinforcement correctly and it’s not counter conditioning. 

How will this help you? 

 

Knowing and understanding will help you predict what your dog is going to do. You can watch your dog and know if he’s going to bark, lunge, bite, snap or growl. 

 

Another way that understanding your dog’s stress signals can help you is when you’re trying to figure out WHY your dog is doing something. For example, anytime I go into a consultation with a new client, I have to diagnose the problem. I use a process called the Smart Training System which you can learn about in my free Masterclass that will be released soon. The first step in the STS is to identify the root cause of your problem. You see, most struggling dog owners NEVER identify the cause, they stay stuck on the symptom. Let’s use reactivity as an example. Reactivity is when your dog lunges and barks at other dogs. Most struggling dog owners focus on lunging and barking. They look up How-To Videos like How to get my dog to stop barking, etc. The problem is barking and lunging is a symptom of the problem. When you only address the symptom and not the cause, another symptom will appear. If you fracture your ankle and take aspirin to ease the pain, you may experience some relief but the pain will come back until you fix the broken ankle. It’s the same with your dog. 

 

You need to find the cause of the problem, change and the symptoms like baking will go away on their own. 

 

Emotional issues, such as fear, stress, and anxiety are some of the main causes of behavior problems in dogs. The easiest way to figure out IF your dog has an emotional problem is by being able to recognize their stress signals. 

 

So what are the 5 most common stress signals in dogs? 

What are they? 

1. Tongue flicking

2. Freezing or stopping during a walk

3. Staring

4. Turning their head away – I don’t see it, avoidance 

5. Not eating food or treats outside

We shared a video on our Instagram page so that you can see them in action. Head over there now and let me know if you’ve seen these before. If not, now you can look for these them to see if your dog is worried.