I'm sorry your thread was pulled by a few selfish posters behaviour Brittany. I hope your family is feeling calmer and beginning to recover from your awful ordeal
Below is a very timely post from the wonderful Kris Glover and a video link showing very clearly dogs body language that may be useful to others. (No way am I saying that this was missed by Brittany) But it may help other dog owners with children to feel more in control of a situation.
Thursday Tip: Why it’s important to learn to read your dog
Humans are a very vocal species and tend to convey a lot through words. However, people also use body language to a large extent. While it doesn’t come naturally to everyone to read human non verbal behaviour, it is definitely easier than reading other non-human animals such as dogs.
Dogs, on the other hand, use vocalization for only a fraction of the time when they communicate and yet being human we concentrate on it an awful lot. So we don’t tend to see stress in dogs until they growl or bite, or don’t notice that the dog is distressed until it cries out. If we only focus on what the dogs “verbalise” we miss out an awful lot of information, which not only impoverishes our relationship with our pets, but can also be quite dangerous if we miss out on some warning signs from a dog that is behaving in a threatening way.
So while we will never be able to appreciate the olfactory communication that plays a vital role in how dogs talk to one another, we can definitely learn to watch and interpret their body language.
One of the most important things you should learn about your dog is how he communicates that he is stressed/uncomfortable and how he conveys that he is happy/contented. If you can distinguish between these two states you will be able to make sure you don’t put your dog into a stressful situation unnecessarily and inadvertently by assuming he is fine while in fact he is not enjoying it at all.
Your dog’s face will be able to tell you a lot. His ears back and plastered to his head, yawning, licking his lips, a closed mouth and tense muzzle, panting even though he isn’t hot, the visible whites of his eyes, loads of blinking, a furrowed brow and “worry wrinkles” going from the corners of his eyes towards his cheeks will all indicate that he is uncomfortable.
Then look at his tail – if it’s tucked under his belly or even held down, your dog is quite worried (this will of course be very breed specific!). But a stressed dog ready to defend himself might as well hold his tail up and wag it stiffly – remember that a waggy tail does not always equal a happy dog. Many dogs will wag their tail furiously while showing territorial aggression so don’t assume that just because the tail is wagging, everything is fine.
Watch your dog’s body posture, too. A dog that is quite stiff or moves slowly, turns his head away from what it considers threatening or stares at it intently, is worried. If he lifts his front foot up, or rolls onto his back and stays there in quite a stiff position, possibly licking his lips and averting his gaze (as opposed to a splayed legs akimbo position) he isn’t happy and it would not be wise to come up and give him a belly rub.
Now, a happy dog is a completely different story. A happy dog is loose – his ears are floppy and relaxed, his eyes are soft, his mouth might be open and the tongue visible. His tail will be horizontal and sweeping. A very excited dog might wag his tail furiously and the whole body will wag with the tail, too.
Below you will find a link to a video which we posted before but which is really useful when you want to learn how to successfully read your dog.
Written by the team at Pets in Practise, "where positivity and determination, works!".
Thanks to the gorgeous Gato Korzeniowska for being such a superb model too.