Understanding Dog Communication 

When your dog yawns, looks away, licks its lips or wags its tail, is it telling you something, and do you understand what?

The short answer: dog communication works through many channels at once: posture, face, tail, voice, scent, touch and gaze. No single signal has one fixed meaning, because meaning comes from the combination and the situation. Dogs also read people closely, but they lean on tone, gesture and attention more than on words.

That answer has real limits, and the sections below explain where the evidence is strong, where it is thin, and what an Owner can do with it.

What Is Dog Communication?

Dog communication is the exchange of information between a dog and another animal, most often another dog or a person. A signal is any behaviour, sound, smell or touch that changes what the receiver does or feels. In plain terms, it is how a dog tells others what it is likely to do next, how it feels, and what it wants, and how it picks up the same from them.

Two ideas make this easier to work with.

First, communication is not the same as language. Human language has words, grammar and the ability to talk about things that are not present. Dogs do not appear to have that. What they have is a flexible set of signals that work well for the things social animals need to settle: who is approaching, whether it is friendly, whether it is safe, whether play is play, and whether to back off. Some dogs also learn the meaning of many human words, but understanding a word is not the same as speaking a language back (Pilley & Reid, 2011, reported one trained dog responding to the names of over a thousand objects).

Second, a signal and a cue are different things. A signal has evolved, or been shaped, because it changes the receiver’s behaviour. A cue is simply information the receiver can pick up whether or not the sender meant to give it. A dog that pants after a run is giving off a cue about body temperature. A dog that deliberately bows to start a game is sending a signal. Much of the confusion Owners feel comes from treating every behaviour as a message when some are only symptoms.

A single signal rarely settles the meaning; the combination of channels and the context does.Researchers usually sort the channels into four groups. Visual signals include posture, movement, the face, ears, eyes and tail. Auditory signals include barks, growls, whines, howls and other sounds. Olfactory signals are the smells dogs produce and read, from urine to skin and breath. Tactile signals are touch: nudging, pawing, leaning, grooming and play contact (Siniscalchi et al., 2018). Dogs use all four, usually together. That is called multimodal signalling, and it is the main reason that a single body part, such as the tail, is a poor guide on its own.

It also helps to separate three kinds of conversation. Dog-to-dog communication has the oldest roots and relies heavily on posture and smell. Dog-to-human communication is newer and leans on gaze, voice, gesture and attention. Human-to-dog communication is where Owners most often go wrong, because people talk, while dogs tend to track hands, body angle, tone and timing.

Finally, signals are about probabilities, not certainties. A stiff, still body with a fixed stare raises the odds that a dog will act, but it does not guarantee it. A loose, wiggly body raises the odds of friendly contact, but a dog can be loose and still overwhelmed. Good readers of dogs hold a hypothesis lightly and keep checking it against what the dog does next.

What Does the Science Say About How Dogs Communicate?

Where dog signals come from

Dogs inherited a social toolkit from wolf-like ancestors, then had it reshaped by thousands of years of living with people. The inherited part is visible in how dogs use their bodies. Most social canids make themselves look bigger or smaller, move toward or away, and use the ears, mouth and tail to show intent. These signals are cheap, fast and work at a distance, which suits animals that need to settle disputes without injury.

The reshaped part is more surprising. In a well-known set of experiments, Hare et al. (2002) found that dogs followed human pointing and gaze cues to find hidden food more reliably than wolves and chimpanzees did, and that young puppies already did so. The finding points to a skill that developed with domestication rather than one that every social animal has. A second line of evidence comes from problem-solving. Miklósi et al. (2003) gave dogs and human-raised wolves an impossible task, a food container that could not be opened. Dogs soon looked back at the person, as though asking for help. The wolves kept working at the problem and looked at the person far less. The authors proposed that dogs use gaze toward people as a communicative signal.

Expert Insight: Ádám Miklósi. Miklósi, a co-author of the 2003 gaze study and a leading ethologist of dog cognition at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, has argued over several decades that dogs’ readiness to communicate with people is a product of selection for living in human social groups, not simply of training. In his account, the “looking back” behaviour is a built-in tendency that experience then refines. (Paraphrase; no direct quote is used. Confirm wording against his published work at fact-check.)

None of this means dogs are born fluent. It means they arrive with a head start: a stronger-than-expected readiness to attend to human faces, hands and voices, and to use their own faces, eyes and voices back at us.

The body, posture and movement

Posture is the loudest channel and the one most Owners read first. The useful way to read it is as a spectrum of how much a dog is trying to increase or decrease distance, and how much tension it is carrying.

A relaxed dog moves in loose curves. Its weight is evenly distributed, its muscles look soft, and it can change direction easily. A dog that is alert holds still, leans forward and often shifts weight to the front legs. A dog that wants distance may lower its body, shift weight back, turn its head or body away, or freeze. A dog that is fearful and cornered may do several of these at once and then switch quickly to a defensive display if the pressure continues.

Stress research gives us some of the best-tested signs. In experiments that exposed dogs to unpleasant stimuli such as sudden noise or enforced restraint, Beerda et al. (1998) found that behaviours such as body lowering, paw lifting, yawning, lip licking and panting appeared alongside rises in the stress hormone cortisol and in heart rate. Their work is a main reason these behaviours are treated as stress-related. It also shows the limit of the evidence: each behaviour is a pointer, not a diagnosis. Panting follows exercise as well as fear, and yawning follows tiredness as well as tension.

This matters because of the idea of “calming signals,” popularised by the Norwegian trainer Turid Rugaas. Her observation that dogs often turn away, sniff the ground, lick their lips or move in curves when tension rises matches what many behaviourists see. The strong form of the claim, that these are intentional messages to defuse conflict, has been tested far less than the observation itself. A cautious reading is that these behaviours reliably signal that a dog is under some social or environmental pressure, and that other dogs and people often respond to them by easing off. How deliberately dogs send them is still open.

The tail, more than “happy”

The popular belief that a wagging tail means a happy dog is wrong often enough to be risky. A tail wag mainly tells you that a dog is aroused and is engaged with something. What the dog feels, and what it will do next, depends on the rest of the picture.

Three features carry most of the information. Height matters: a tail held high usually goes with confidence or arousal, a neutral height with relaxation, and a tucked tail with fear or discomfort. Speed and range matter: broad, loose sweeps that move the hips tend to go with friendly greeting, while a short, fast, stiff flick at a high position often goes with tension. Direction bias is the newest piece of the puzzle.

Quaranta et al. (2007) reported that dogs wagged more to the right side of their bodies when they saw their Owner and more to the left when they saw an unfamiliar, dominant dog. Siniscalchi et al. (2013) then asked whether other dogs notice the difference.

RESEARCH SPOT LIGHT Do dogs notice which way a tail wags? Siniscalchi et al. (2013), Current Biology. Study & method: 43 pet dogs of mixed breeds watched videos of a dog, and of a dog silhouette, wagging mostly to the left or mostly to the right while their heart rate and behaviour were recorded. Key finding: Dogs showed higher heart rates and more anxious behaviour when watching left-biased wagging than right-biased wagging. Why it matters here: It supports the claim that tail wagging carries information that other dogs pick up, which is why a wag should be read by its direction and stiffness, not just its presence. The authors cautioned that the bias may be an automatic by-product of brain asymmetry rather than an intended signal, and that the tail alone does not show what a dog will do.

The practical lesson is modest. Do not decode a tail in isolation, and do not treat left-versus-right as a rule you can apply by eye during a tense meeting between two dogs, because the bias is a tendency across many wags, not a single-wag code. What a person can safely take from it is that tails are informative, other dogs read them, and a stiff, high, fast wag on a still body is not an invitation.

The face, eyes and ears

The dog’s face is a more expressive instrument than its reputation suggests, and one of the strongest findings in recent years concerns a small muscle.

Kaminski et al. (2019) dissected the heads of dogs and wolves and found that the muscle which lifts the inner corner of the eyebrow was routinely present in the dogs but typically reduced to scant fibres in the wolves. Behavioural recordings showed that dogs raised the inner brow more often and with greater intensity than wolves.

RESEARCH SPOT LIGHT The inner-eyebrow raise Study Kaminski et al. (2019), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Study & method: Dissection of the facial muscles of 6 domestic dogs and 4 grey wolves, plus behavioural comparison of dogs and wolves producing the movement. Key finding: The inner-brow muscle was uniformly present in dogs and mostly absent in wolves, and dogs produced the movement more often and more intensely. Why it matters here: It shows that dogs’ faces changed in ways that suit communication with people, so a dog’s expression is not just a human projection. The anatomy sample is small, and the authors’ idea that the movement draws a nurturing response because it looks like human sadness is a hypothesis, not a settled finding.

The same research group found that the movement may carry a real-world payoff: in an earlier shelter study, Waller et al. (2013) reported that dogs that raised their inner brow more often were rehomed faster. A separate study, Kaminski et al. (2017), found that dogs produced more facial movements when a person was facing them than when the person had turned away, even when food was offered, which suggests the face is partly responsive to who is looking.

The eyes and ears add to this. Soft eyes with a relaxed brow go with comfort. A fixed, hard stare goes with intensity, and turning the head away often goes with a wish to lower tension. The “whale eye,” where the white of the eye shows as the head turns away but the eyes stay on something, often goes with discomfort or resource guarding. Ears are best read against the dog’s own normal. Forward ears show attention, ears pinned flat go with fear or appeasement, and loose, mid-position ears go with relaxation. Breeds with erect, floppy or cropped ears show these signals differently, which is one reason the same ear position cannot mean exactly the same thing in every dog.

The mouth is the last piece. A soft, slightly open mouth with a loose tongue usually goes with ease. A tight, closed mouth, a wrinkled muzzle, or lips pulled back go with rising tension. Lip licking and tongue flicks without food nearby are common stress-linked behaviours, in line with the findings from Beerda et al. (1998).

Voice. Growls, barks, whines and howls

Sound is the channel Owners notice most, yet for dogs it is often the last step in a sequence that began with body language. A growl usually comes after a dog has already tried quieter signals that went unnoticed.

Barks carry more information than they seem to. Yin & McCowan (2004) recorded barks in different situations, such as a stranger approaching, isolation and play, and found that their acoustic structure differed by context. Pongrácz et al. (2005) then played barks to human listeners who had never met the dogs, and found that people could classify the situations well above chance. A rough rule of thumb follows from this work: lower, harsher, more rapidly repeated barks tend to go with threat or alarm, while higher, more tonal and more spaced barks tend to go with play, excitement or solicitation. This is a tendency, not a dictionary, and individual dogs differ.

Growls are even more tightly tied to context. Faragó et al. (2010) recorded growls from dogs in three situations: guarding food, facing a threatening stranger and during play. Dogs that listened to the recordings responded differently depending on where the growl had come from, which suggests that growls carry information about the situation and are not a single “aggression” noise. For Owners, the practical point is this: a growl is a warning, and a warning is useful. Punishing growling teaches a dog to skip the warning, not to stop feeling the way it feels.

Whining and whimpering are higher in pitch and are most often tied to soliciting attention, frustration, anticipation or distress. They work well on humans because they sound like infant calls. Howling serves in contact between separated group members and often spreads from one dog to another. Sighs, groans and huffs are less studied, but a long, settling sigh with a lowered head is most often read as contentment or relaxation, particularly when the body is soft.

A less obvious point is that dogs hear much higher frequencies than people do. Heffner (1983) measured dogs’ hearing thresholds and found sensitivity well above the human upper limit. Sounds that are inaudible to us, including some made by electronics and by small animals, can therefore be part of a dog’s world and may explain some “reactions to nothing.”

Scent. The channel humans cannot see

For most of dog evolution, scent was the main long-range channel, and it still is. Dogs read urine, faeces, glandular secretions, skin, breath and saliva, and they leave messages in the same way. A single sniff at a post can tell a dog who has been there, whether the visitor was male or female, how recently they passed and, probably, something about their state.

A thorough review by Siniscalchi et al. (2018) describes scent marking and body odours as central to dog-to-dog communication. Two points in the research deserve plain statements.

First, we know less than the internet implies. People often repeat that dogs “smell your emotions” or that anal-gland odour “tells a dog everything about another dog.” What the evidence supports is narrower: dogs detect individual identity, sex and reproductive state by smell, and they respond to some human odours linked to stress and illness. The idea that they decode detailed moods from every sniff is mostly extrapolation.

Second, the vomeronasal organ, a second scent-processing structure in the roof of the mouth, exists in dogs (Adams & Wiekamp, 1984). Whether it works as a pheromone channel in the way it does in some other mammals is debated, and the claims made for pheromone sprays and diffusers vary a great deal in quality. Treat product claims with care and look for independent trials.

Scent also explains the behaviours Owners find tiresome: long sniffing on walks, scratching after urinating, and the interest in other dogs’ rear ends. Horowitz (2017) developed an “olfactory mirror” test and reported that dogs investigated their own urine odour for less time than the odour of other dogs, or the same odour when altered, which suggests that dogs distinguish self from other by smell. If that is right, walking is closer to reading the neighbourhood news than to exercise alone. Rushing a dog past every post removes its main source of social information.

Touch and play

Touch is shorter in duration than other channels but strongly tied to bonds. Dogs lean, nudge, paw and groom each other, and rest in contact when relaxed. In play, touch is part of a signalling system with rules.

Bekoff (1995) described the “play bow,” the front-down, rear-up posture, as a signal that tells a partner that what follows should be read as play. It often appears before or between rough actions such as biting, chasing and mounting, which would otherwise be read as aggression. Dogs also show role reversals and self-handicapping, for example by letting a smaller partner win, and take turns chasing and being chased. Horowitz (2009a) found that dogs adjust their play signals to whether the partner’s attention is on them: they use stronger, more visible signals when the other dog is looking away. Rooney et al. (2001) found that dogs responded to human play signals, such as a bow posture, in a way that suggests dogs treat some human gestures as play invitations.

The relevant lesson is that play contains the same behaviours as fighting, but wrapped in signals that say “this is a game.” Healthy play is mutual, varied and interrupted by pauses, role changes and play bows. Worrying play lacks those features: one dog is always chasing, always on the bottom, or trying to escape.

How dogs communicate with people

The research on dog-to-human signalling is the most active part of the field, and it is where the most careful reading is needed.

Gaze and pointing. Dogs follow human gaze and pointing readily, as discussed above (Hare et al., 2002). They also use gaze to ask for help, and they use it in everyday life to direct a person’s attention to a door, a toy or a food bowl, in a way that looks intentional.

The bonding loop and its debate. Nagasawa et al. (2015) reported that when dogs gazed at their Owners for longer, both the Owners’ and the dogs’ urinary oxytocin rose, and that this did not happen with hand-raised wolves. They also found that giving dogs oxytocin through the nose increased gazing, which in turn raised the Owners’ oxytocin, and they proposed a loop of the kind seen between human mothers and infants.

The result drew wide attention, and it also drew a published statistical critique arguing that the data did not support the claim that this loop is unique to dogs and people (see the commentary indexed at PubMed Central, PMC4826871). A balanced reading is that eye contact appears to be meaningful to many dogs and Owners and is linked to bonding hormones, while the idea that it proves a species-unique evolved loop remains contested.

Understanding our voices. Dogs listen to more than the words. Andics et al. (2016) scanned the brains of dogs while they heard their trainer say praise or neutral words in praising or neutral tones.

RESEARCH SPOT LIGHT Words and tone in the dog brain Andics et al. (2016), Science. Study & method: 13 dogs trained to lie still in a brain scanner (fMRI) heard four combinations of praise or neutral words in praising or neutral intonation. Key finding: Meaningful words engaged the left hemisphere regardless of tone, tone was processed in a right-hemisphere auditory region, and reward areas were most active only when praise words and praising tone matched. Why it matters here:It supports the practical claim that dogs track both what we say and how we say it, so a cheerful voice with a scolding word, or the reverse, sends a mixed message. The dogs were few, specially trained and tested in Hungarian, so the result shows a capacity, not how every dog hears every Owner.

Other studies show that dogs match human emotional signals across senses. Albuquerque et al. (2016) found that dogs looked longer at a face whose emotion matched a voice they were hearing, which suggests that dogs combine sight and sound to read emotion. Müller et al. (2015) trained dogs to discriminate between happy and angry human faces and found that they could generalise to new faces, using only part of the face. These studies support the idea that dogs are tuned to human emotional signals, but they are laboratory tasks, and they do not prove that a dog “feels what you feel.”

Words. Dogs can learn the names of many objects. Pilley & Reid (2011) described a Border Collie trained to respond to over a thousand object names. That is a feat of learning, but it was a single, intensively trained dog, so it shows what is possible, not what is typical. Most dogs reliably understand a modest number of words and use tone, context and routine to fill the rest.

Greetings, stares and the first ten seconds

Greetings are where several channels meet, and they show why context matters. Dogs that meet well usually approach in a curve rather than head-on, sniff briefly at the nose and rear, and break contact before tension builds. Dogs that meet badly often approach in a straight line, with a stiff body and a fixed look. The difference is not about whether eye contact occurs. A soft, brief glance is ordinary; a hard, unblinking stare with a still body is a threat signal in many contexts. That is why the claim, repeated on several popular pages, that “eye contact between dogs means aggression” is only half right: it is the quality, duration and body that go with the look that carry the message, not the look alone.

The same holds for the belly-up posture. It is often described as “submission,” yet a dog can roll over in play, to scratch, to cool down, or because it is frightened and trying to stop an interaction. Only the surrounding signals tell them apart: a loose, wriggling body and open mouth suggest play, while a rigid body, tucked tail, averted eyes and lip licking suggest fear.

Handling greetings well therefore rests on a small set of observable checks. Is the approach curved or straight? Do both dogs show looseness in the body? Does either dog freeze, and is there a pause or a break in contact within the first few seconds? Do they swap roles, sniff the ground, or shake off, which is common after a tense moment and often marks a reset? A dog that cannot do these things, or that is repeatedly held in place on a lead during greetings, loses the chance to use its own signals, and a tight lead also changes the signals the dog gives and receives, because it limits curving and distance-increasing movements.

The same logic applies to dogs and unfamiliar people. Approaching head-on, leaning over, looking straight down at the dog and reaching out over its head replicate the elements of a threatening greeting. The Kaminski et al. (2017) finding that dogs adjust facial signals to a person’s attention fits with how sensitive dogs are to this: a dog that has to give more signals to a person who is not looking, or a person who is looking too hard, is working harder to be understood.

Putting the channels together

If there is one finding that runs through all of this, it is that dogs signal with several channels at once and receivers read them together. The skill that matters most for an Owner is therefore not memorising the meaning of one ear position but learning to see clusters: the posture, the face, the tail, the sound and the situation.

A sensible reading order is: first, how tense or loose the whole body is; second, whether the dog is moving toward or away; third, the face and mouth; fourth, the tail; and fifth, the sound. Then ask what happened just before, because a signal is a response to something. Finally, watch what the dog does next and use that to correct your guess.

Two cautions complete the picture. Individual dogs differ, so your dog’s baseline is the best reference. And much of what is written about “dominance” or “submission” signals comes from older research on captive wolves, which has been revised; modern behaviourists generally describe dogs’ signals in terms of fear, arousal, comfort and intent rather than rank. When a source tells you that a signal means a dog is trying to be your boss, treat it as a flag to look for better evidence.

How Does a Dog’s Communication Change From Puppy to Senior?

Dog communication is not fixed. The signals a dog uses, the ones it understands and the ones it ignores change with age, experience and health. Four stages matter most for Owners: the first weeks, the socialisation period, adolescence and old age. Adult dogs sit between the last two, and for them the main rule is that their signals are most stable and easiest to read against their own baseline.

The first weeks. Touch, warmth and sound

Newborn puppies are blind and deaf at birth and depend on touch, warmth and smell. Their first signals are physical: crawling toward the mother, rooting, huddling with littermates, and crying when cold or separated. The mother’s behaviour is the first “conversation.” She licks, repositions and retrieves her puppies, and as they grow she uses low growls, body blocks and brief mouth contact to set limits.

During this stage a puppy is gathering what it will later use. It learns the feel and smell of a social partner, and it learns that crying brings help. Where a dog is born and raised, including how much human handling, sound and variety it meets in these weeks, affects how it later reads people. Programmes that handle litters gently and expose them to normal household sounds are usually giving puppies a better start, but how that is done in any particular programme is a matter of fact that must come from the people doing it.

The socialisation period. Learning the rules

The best-known framework here comes from Scott & Fuller (1965), whose studies of puppies raised under different conditions suggested a sensitive period, roughly from three to twelve weeks of age, in which exposure to other dogs, people and new situations shapes later social behaviour. Modern behaviourists treat the boundaries as gradual, not sharp, and stress that the weeks around eight to sixteen are especially important for learning what is normal in the world. A puppy deprived of social contact in this window is more likely to find later social situations harder to read.

Three types of communication are learned in this period.

Bite inhibition and play rules. Rough-and-tumble play with littermates teaches puppies how hard they can bite before the other yelps and stops the game. Puppies that squeal, freeze or walk away teach their playmates to ease off. This is a signalling lesson as much as a motor one.

The meaning of other dogs’ signals. A puppy that meets a range of well-mannered adult dogs learns what a hard stare, a play bow, a stiff body or a lip lick looks like and what follows each. Puppies who miss this can grow into adults who misread or miss signals, which can lead to scuffles that look unprovoked.

The meaning of human signals. Puppies pick up human cues quickly. The young puppies in the pointing tests from Hare et al. (2002) already followed human gestures, which suggests that early exposure to people shapes this skill. A puppy learns that a hand held out, a high voice or a turned back have consistent consequences.

For Owners, the main implication is that the new home is a continuation of this classroom. A puppy that is laughed at when it growls, picked up when it is trying to leave, or forced to meet every visitor is learning that its own signals do not work. A puppy whose small signals are noticed learns that signalling is worthwhile, and tends to stay communicative into adulthood.

Leaving the litter. The first days in a new home

Going to a new home removes a puppy from the only signalling partners it has known. Overnight it loses the dogs that understood its postures and the smells and sounds it was used to. Crying at night in the first days is therefore common, and it is a request for contact and reassurance, not a test of the Owner. A puppy that is settled with warmth, a predictable routine and a calm, quiet response to crying tends to learn that its signals are answered. The opposite approach, inconsistent responses that sometimes reward loud crying and sometimes ignore quieter signals, tends to teach the puppy to escalate. In these early days the puppy is also forming its first picture of each person: who moves slowly, who grabs, whose voice rises, who is predictable.

Adult dogs in the household matter as well. A tolerant adult dog will usually correct a puppy’s rude behaviour with a stiff posture, a low growl or a brief, inhibited snap, and then return to normal at once. This is normal teaching, as long as the puppy can leave and the adult is not escalating. Owners should step in when the adult’s responses become repeated, intense, or when the puppy cannot escape, since the puppy is then learning fear and not manners.

Adolescence. Signals get louder and less reliable

Between roughly six months and two years, depending on the dog and size, communication often becomes harder to read. Hormonal changes, new fears that appear in later “fear periods,” and a desire to explore all affect how often and how clearly a dog signals. Owners commonly report that a previously responsive puppy seems to ignore requests. In many cases the dog has not forgotten; it is more distractible, more aroused by the environment and more likely to show conflict behaviours such as sniffing the ground, scratching, and sudden hyper-play.

Adolescents also tend to use their own signals less skilfully. A dog may bark and lunge at a stranger, and the same dog may be showing fear, uncertainty or excitement. The answer is often the same: more distance, calm exposure and rewarding a quiet, relaxed look. It is also the age when selective neglect of signals begins to cost: an Owner who ignored the small signs earlier now meets bigger ones.

Adults. Stable signals, personal dialects

By adulthood most dogs have a reasonably stable signalling style, and Owners who have lived with a dog for a year or two can usually read it better than any article can. The point to hold on to is that this is a personal dialect: how readily a dog shows a lip lick, how high it carries its tail at rest, or whether it growls before it snaps is partly learned and partly a matter of temperament and breed. A change in an adult’s usual signals is more informative than any single signal. A normally exuberant greeter who stops coming to the door, a quiet dog who suddenly barks at night, or a social dog who now avoids contact should prompt a check for pain, illness or fear.

Senior dogs. Quieter signals and new meanings

Ageing changes both the sending and the receiving of signals. Hearing loss and failing vision mean that the dog may not respond to calls or hand signals that used to work, which can be mistaken for stubbornness. Pain, especially from arthritis, can show up as reluctance to be touched in certain places, a stiff or hunched posture, panting at rest, or a sudden grumble when approached from behind. Older dogs may also become less tolerant of puppies and boisterous dogs because they cannot move out of the way quickly, and may give clearer warnings sooner.

Cognitive changes matter too. Canine cognitive dysfunction, a condition similar in some ways to dementia, is linked to disorientation, altered sleep, more night-time vocalising, loss of house training and changes in interaction with family members. These signs overlap with pain and other illness, so any marked change in an older dog’s communication is a reason for a veterinary visit and not a reason to assume it is just age.

Hearing and sight loss deserve special attention because they change how an older dog receives signals. A dog that cannot hear you approach can startle, and a startled older dog may snap more readily than it did as a young adult. Approaching within its line of sight, announcing yourself with a gentle touch on the shoulder or a floor vibration, and avoiding waking it by touch are simple changes that prevent most such incidents. Pain also changes the meaning of familiar signals. A senior dog that now growls when lifted, or moves away when a child approaches, is more likely communicating “this hurts” than “I have become aggressive,” and a veterinary pain assessment, not a behaviour correction, is the first step.

Practical adjustments help. Use clear body-language cues together with the voice, approach older dogs from the front and let them see you, give them space to retreat from visitors and other animals, and treat any new vocalising or irritability as information about comfort, not behaviour to be punished.

What Shapes How a Dog Communicates, and What Does It Change?

Communication sits at the centre of several other parts of a dog’s life. It is shaped by some, and it shapes others. Seeing the links helps Owners decide where to intervene.

What shapes it

Genetics and breed. Breeds differ in body shape, tail carriage, ear type, coat and face length, and these affect which signals are visible. Goodwin et al. (1997) compared the signal repertoires of several breeds and concluded that retained juvenile features in some breeds reduce the clarity of certain visual signals. A dog with a very flat face, a curled tail or heavy coat has fewer or harder-to-see signals, so its Owner and other dogs may misread it. Temperament also has an inherited component, so some individuals are quicker to signal discomfort and some are slower, with little warning before a bigger response.

Early experience. As covered above, what a puppy meets in its first months determines how many signals it can read and how confident it is in sending them. Both too little exposure and overwhelming, unsupported exposure can produce a dog that is less fluent.

Health and pain. A dog in pain communicates differently: it may be quieter, more irritable, more clingy, or avoid contact. Dental disease, ear infections, skin problems and joint pain are commonly missed because dogs are very good at hiding discomfort. Sudden changes in a dog’s signals are one of the better early indicators that something is wrong.

Other dogs in the household. Dogs living together develop shared routines and shorthand signals, and they also copy each other’s reactions. A dog that barks at the gate may recruit others, and a calm, well-socialised resident dog can steady a nervous newcomer. Conflicts between housemates often come from a missed signal, such as one dog guarding a spot or toy in a way the other cannot read.

The Owner’s own state. Dogs read people closely, and there is evidence that stress passes between them. Sundman et al. (2019) measured long-term stress hormone levels in the hair of dogs and their Owners and found that the two were linked, which suggests that dogs and people in the same household share a stress pattern. The study cannot show which direction the influence runs, and it should not be read as blame, but it does support the practical point that a tense, rushed or angry household makes it harder for a dog to settle and signal clearly.

Sex, reproductive status and scent. Much of a dog’s scent message concerns sex and reproductive state. Entire males and females in season produce stronger and more urgent chemical messages, and this can change how other dogs treat them, which is one reason some dogs are greeted very differently at the park. Neutering changes some of these signals, although the effects on behaviour vary and should be discussed with a veterinarian before any decision is made.

Environment and learning. Dogs learn which signals work. A dog whose polite requests are ignored may escalate to barking, mouthing or jumping, while a dog whose growls are punished may stop growling and start to bite with less warning. Housing, noise, crowding, heat and daily routine shape how stressed a dog is and how readily it signals. [original input needed: verified South African factors that change this advice, for example local climate and heat effects on panting and activity, common household setups and local vet access; each claim to be checked against a South African source before publishing.]

What it influences

Breeding and selection. Communication is also something breeders shape, knowingly or not. Selecting for appearance without checking how a dog signals can narrow the repertoire, while selecting for sound temperament and sociability tends to preserve it. For prospective buyers, how a breeder describes a litter’s behaviour and handling, and whether they can show parent dogs interacting calmly with strangers, is useful evidence. [original input needed: this programme’s own selection criteria for temperament and sociability, stated plainly, including any gaps.]

Learning and training. Training is communication, and results depend on whether the dog can read what is being asked and whether the Owner can read the dog’s answer. Timing, consistency and clarity of cues matter more than force. A dog that looks away, sniffs, or freezes during training is often giving feedback about stress or confusion.

The Owner–dog relationship. The more accurately an Owner reads a dog, the more trust is built. Dogs whose signals are noticed and honoured tend to keep signalling; dogs whose signals are ignored may stop sending subtle signals altogether. This ties directly to the research on gaze and bonding discussed above, although the strongest claims about hormones remain debated.

Safety. Most bites follow a sequence of signals that were missed or overridden. Better reading of early signs is the most practical protection available to children, visitors and the dog itself. This is why the stress-signal “ladder” in the next section is among the most useful tools in the article.

Welfare. A dog that can communicate and is understood can ask for what it needs: space, water, rest, a break from play. One that cannot is left to cope, and chronic coping shows up as behaviour problems, which are among the main reasons dogs are given up.

How Can I Read My Dog Better and Respond Well?

This is the section most readers come for. The aim is not to memorise a chart but to build a habit: notice, interpret, test, adjust.

Step 1: Learn your dog’s baseline

Spend a week watching your dog when nothing is happening. Note how it holds its tail at rest, where its ears sit, how often it yawns or licks its lips, how it breathes when relaxed, how it moves on a lead, and what its face looks like when it is content. Film short clips on your phone so you can compare them later. Every later judgement, whether a signal is new, stronger or out of place, depends on this baseline. Many Owners find that behaviours they thought were abnormal turn out to be this dog’s normal, and that behaviours they took for granted are not.

Step 2: Read clusters, not parts

Use the reading order from the Science section. Ask: how tense or loose is the whole body, is the dog moving toward or away, what do the face and mouth show, what is the tail doing, and what sound, if any, accompanies it? Then note the context: what happened just before, who is nearby, what is the temperature, is there food or a toy, is the dog tired? Write down your best guess in a few words, and then check it against what the dog does in the next ten seconds.

Step 3: Watch for the stress ladder

Most dogs escalate in a fairly predictable order when they are uncomfortable, and the early rungs are easy to miss. A typical sequence, with variation between dogs, runs as follows.

1. Subtle signs: turning the head or body away, blinking, lip licking, yawning, sniffing the ground, slower movement.
2. Distance-increasing signs: moving away, hiding behind a person, lowering the body, tucking the tail, whale eye, trembling, paw lifting.
3. Freezing and stiffening: stopping all movement, a closed mouth, a fixed look, held breath.
4. Warnings: lip lifting, a low growl, a snarl, an air snap.
5. Biting: usually when earlier steps were ignored or when escape was not possible.

These behaviours match the stress indicators found by Beerda et al. (1998), although the ladder as a whole is a clinical model rather than an experimentally proven sequence, and some dogs skip steps. The practical rule is the same either way: respond at the lowest rung you notice. If a dog is yawning and turning away, increase distance or lower the intensity at once. Waiting until the growl means waiting for the dog’s last polite option.

Callout: When to stop and get professional help Seek advice from a veterinarian or a qualified behaviour professional if a dog (a) growls, snaps or bites without clear cause, (b) shows a sudden change in its normal signals, such as new aggression, hiding, or loss of interest in food or play, (c) pants, paces or vocalises at rest for long periods, or (d) shows any signal of pain, such as yelping when touched or limping. Do not punish growling. A growl is a warning, and removing it removes your best source of advance notice.

Step 4: Approach, greet and touch in a way the dog can answer

Many problems start with how people approach. The following sequence gives a nervous or unfamiliar dog a way to say yes or no.

1. Approach side-on, not head-on, with relaxed shoulders and a soft gaze, avoiding a hard stare.
2. Stop at a comfortable distance and wait. Do not lean over or reach out.
3. Let the dog come to you. If it approaches with a loose body, offer the back of a hand low and near its chest. If it hesitates, turns away or stays still, give it space.
4. Touch the chest or shoulder rather than the top of the head, and stop after three seconds to see whether the dog moves closer for more. That pause is a “consent test”: a dog that leans in or nudges wants more, and a dog that stays still or moves off does not.

The same test works at home. Before you pick up, hug or groom, check that the dog is relaxed, then pause and watch for a lean-in. A dog that repeatedly says no with its body, and is then ignored, tends to move up the ladder faster the next time.

Step 5: Match your signals to what dogs can read

Dogs are better at reading bodies and tone than words. Keep these habits consistent.

• Use one cue for one action, said once in a calm voice, with a matching hand signal.
• Match tone to meaning. The brain-scan study by Andics et al. (2016) suggests that praise works best when the word and the tone agree. Say “good” warmly, not flatly.
• Reward what you want soon after it happens, so the dog can connect the signal to the outcome.
• Do not hug and loom. Many dogs find hugs restraining. A relaxed, turned-away posture from you often invites more contact than an open-armed approach.
• Let dogs sniff. Build time into walks for a loose lead and free sniffing, because for a dog this is reading the news. [original input needed: the walking and exercise guidance this programme gives buyers, in its own words, adjusted for South African climate where relevant.]
• Make it easy to disengage. Give dogs a quiet place where they will not be disturbed, and teach children to leave a dog alone there.

Worked example (hypothetical)

The following is an illustration, not a real case.

Imagine a three-year-old dog called Pip who lives with a family. A visitor arrives, bends over Pip, and holds out a hand over his head. Pip turns his head away, licks his lips twice, and stays still.

What the signals say. Turning the head away and lip licking are on the lowest rung of the ladder. The stillness may be early freezing. The posture, the hand over the head and the visitor’s lean are likely contributing to the pressure. The context, a stranger at the door, supports the reading of mild stress.

Two possible responses. If the visitor keeps reaching and the family says “he’s friendly, just pat him,” Pip is likely to move to the next rung: backing away, whale eye, and perhaps a growl. If the visitor stands up, turns side-on, and lets Pip choose, he may sniff the visitor’s hand and relax within a minute or two.

What to check afterwards. Over the next few minutes the family can look for signs that Pip has recovered: a shake-off, a loose body, a normal tail position, and interest in food or play. If these appear, the intervention worked. If Pip stays tense or hides, the family should give him a rest in a quiet room and keep the next visitor at a distance.

Children and dogs

Children are the group most likely to miss signals and to trigger the bigger ones, so they need a short, concrete set of rules rather than general advice. Teach children to look at the dog’s body before touching: if the dog is stiff, turning away, yawning, licking its lips or leaving, the answer is no. Teach them to stroke the chest or shoulder, not to hug, climb on, or lean over a dog, and never to approach a dog that is eating, chewing or asleep. Adults should supervise closely and should step in early, when the first subtle signs appear, not once the dog has growled. The aim is for the child to learn that the dog’s body says yes or no, and that “no” is respected every time.

Vet visits, grooming and handling

Handling that a dog cannot avoid tends to bring out stress signals, and the vet’s room is full of them: strange smells, a slippery table, restraint. Bring treats and a mat, stay calm, and watch for lowered posture, paw lifting, panting and lip licking, which tell the vet when to slow down. Practise brief, gentle handling at home of the paws, ears, mouth and body, ending each session before the dog shows any discomfort, so that examination becomes familiar. If a dog shows strong fear at routine handling, tell the clinic in advance so they can plan a quieter visit.

A quick guide to barking

When a dog barks, ask four questions before reacting. What is the dog looking at or listening to? Is the body stiff and forward, or loose and bouncy? Is the bark low and repeated, or higher and spaced? What does the dog do when the trigger goes away? A stiff dog barking low and fast at a stranger at the gate is usually alerting or warning, and calmly removing the trigger or calling the dog away is better than shouting. A bouncy dog barking in short, higher bursts with a play bow is asking for interaction. A dog that barks at you while looking at a toy, bowl or door is making a request, and the question is whether the request is reasonable and whether quiet behaviour, rather than barking, will be rewarded in future.

Success criteria and red flags

You will know this is working when your dog starts to approach you for contact instead of avoiding it, when its stress signals are mild and short-lived, when it recovers quickly after something startling, and when you find yourself responding to the small signs before the big ones. Visitors and children are given clear instructions, and the dog has somewhere to go.

Stop and consult a professional if signals escalate quickly despite your changes, if the dog has bitten or tried to bite, if it shows signs of pain, or if its behaviour has changed sharply with no obvious reason. Do not rely on an article, including this one, to assess a particular dog.

A note on devices and quick fixes

Collars that deliver shocks, loud noises or sprays to stop barking or growling work by suppressing signals, not by changing the feeling that causes them. A dog that has learned that growling brings an unpleasant result may stop growling while still feeling the same fear, and may then escalate with less warning. If a behaviour is a problem, the question to ask is what the dog is trying to say and what it needs in order to feel able to stop saying it.

What Do People Get Wrong About Dog Body Language?

Only a few misconceptions are both common and genuinely harmful, so this section is deliberately short. [original input needed: any recurring misconceptions this programme’s buyers actually raise, in their own words, with no identifying details.]

“A wagging tail means a happy dog.” A wag shows arousal and engagement. It can accompany friendliness, excitement, tension or an intention to bite, and its height, stiffness and the rest of the body decide which.

“A guilty look means the dog knows it did wrong.” In a well-known study, Horowitz (2009b) found that “guilty look” behaviours depended on whether the Owner scolded, not on whether the dog had actually misbehaved. Dogs show appeasement to an angry person whether or not they did anything. Scolding after the fact teaches the dog to fear your return, not to behave better.

“A dog that growls is being dominant.” A growl is a warning in almost every case. The old idea that dogs are always trying to rank above their people has been largely abandoned by behaviourists, who now explain most problem behaviour in terms of fear, frustration and learning.

“A dog that rolls over is submitting.” As explained earlier, belly-up can mean play, comfort, appeasement or fear. Read the body.

“Dogs should just work it out between themselves.” Dogs can settle many disagreements without harm, but only when both can signal and retreat. When one dog is cornered, repeatedly pinned or being chased while showing avoidance, the “work it out” approach teaches that dog that its signals fail. Interrupt calmly, give the dog an exit, and check that both dogs want to continue.

Does Breed Change How Dogs Communicate?

Yes, in ways that matter for how well a dog’s signals can be seen and read. Goodwin et al. (1997) compared the visual signals of several breeds and found that breeds that retain juvenile features, or have bodies that hide parts of the signal, perform some signals less clearly than wolf-like breeds. Ear shape, tail length and carriage, coat type, eye prominence and face length all change what other dogs and people can see. A breed with a short or docked tail, or a curled one, cannot show tail height and wag the way a long-tailed dog can, and a breed with a thick face coat may hide the mouth and eyes.

Breed also shapes what dogs are inclined to do with their signals. Herding, hunting and guarding breeds were selected for different patterns of looking, chasing, voice and independence, and these show up in how readily a dog stares, barks, follows or works away from its person. Breed is a tendency and not a rule, because individual differences within a breed are large. The two breed-specific articles in this cluster take this up in detail, one for a short-legged herding breed and one for a scent hound. [original input needed: real breeder observations of how these breeds actually signal, from this programme’s own experience.]

Where Should I Read Next?

• Same cluster, breed-specific: Understanding Corgi Communication, which applies this foundation to the Pembroke Welsh Corgi.
• Same domain, Pember Diamonds: What Is Your Corgi Actually Saying? Introducing the Corgi Body Language Decoder.
• Different domain, Pember Diamonds: [LINK NEEDED: confirm a live article from another domain, such as one on early socialisation, from the Master Tracker.]

Check yourself before the FAQ

• Can you describe your dog’s baseline for tail carriage, ears and breathing when relaxed?
• Can you name three signals that come before a growl?
• Can you explain why a wagging tail alone does not prove a dog is friendly?
• If your dog turned away and licked its lips when a visitor reached out, what would you do in the next ten seconds?

Frequently Asked Questions About Dog Communication

1. How do dogs communicate with humans? Dogs communicate with people mainly through gaze, body posture, facial expression, voice and touch, and they read our tone, gestures and attention in return. Words matter less than most Owners assume. Dogs follow pointing and gaze (Hare et al., 2002), look back at a person when stuck (Miklósi et al., 2003), and respond to both the word and the tone of praise (Andics et al., 2016). They also learn what works: a dog that is fed when it stares at the bowl will stare more. The best way to understand your own dog is to note which signals it uses to get things and how reliably those predict what it does next.

2. What does a wagging tail really mean? A wagging tail shows arousal and engagement, not guaranteed friendliness. Height, stiffness, speed and the rest of the body tell you which emotion is behind it. Broad, loose sweeps with a soft body usually go with a friendly greeting, while a high, stiff, fast flick on a still body can go with tension. Dogs in one study showed higher heart rates when watching left-biased wags than right-biased wags (Siniscalchi et al., 2013), but that does not work as a single-wag rule. Judge the tail with the posture, face and context.

3. Why does my dog lick its lips and yawn? Lip licking and yawning without food or tiredness nearby are common signs of mild stress or conflict, though they can also be ordinary. Both appeared alongside rising stress hormones in experiments on dogs under unpleasant conditions (Beerda et al., 1998). Check the context: a vet’s table, a visitor leaning over the dog, a raised voice or a crowded space suggest stress. If the dog is simply waking up or about to be fed, they may mean nothing. When you see them in a tense moment, increase distance or lower the pressure, and watch whether the behaviour stops. Repeated, intense licking or yawning in everyday situations is worth mentioning to a vet.

4. How do dogs communicate with each other? Dogs communicate with each other mostly through posture, movement and smell, with sound as a back-up. They approach in curves, sniff, check each other’s body tension, and use play bows to mark play (Bekoff, 1995). Scent marking adds long-range information about who has passed (Siniscalchi et al., 2018). Disagreements usually start with quiet signals such as turning away, stiffening or a hard stare, and only later become growls or snaps. Healthy dog meetings show breaks, role changes and loose bodies, and dogs that know each other often use a shared shorthand; worrying ones show a fixed stare, a straight-line approach or one dog repeatedly trying to leave.

5. Can dogs understand human words? Yes, to a point: dogs can learn the meaning of many words, and one trained Border Collie responded to over a thousand object names (Pilley & Reid, 2011). Brain scans show that dogs process both word meaning and tone, and that praise works as a reward most when the two agree (Andics et al., 2016). Most pet dogs understand a smaller vocabulary and rely heavily on tone, routine and body language. If you want your dog to learn a word, use it consistently, pair it with the same action each time, and keep the tone matched to its meaning.

6. Why do dogs growl, and should I stop it? Dogs growl to warn that they are uncomfortable and want something to stop, so a growl is information you should keep, not remove. Growls differ by context, such as food guarding, play or a threatening stranger, and dogs listening to recordings respond differently to each (Faragó et al., 2010). Punishing a growl does not remove the feeling behind it; it can teach the dog to skip the warning and go straight to a bite. When your dog growls, calmly stop what you are doing, create distance, and work out the cause with a vet or qualified behaviour professional.

7. What do a dog’s facial expressions mean? Dog faces show tension, comfort and attention. A soft eye, relaxed brow and slightly open mouth go with ease, while a hard stare, tight closed mouth or visible white of the eye go with tension. Dogs also have a small muscle that raises the inner eyebrow, which wolves mostly lack (Kaminski et al., 2019), so the “puppy eyes” look is a real, communicative movement. Dogs produce more facial movements when a person is facing them (Kaminski et al., 2017). Read the face together with the body, because the same expression can mean different things in a different posture, and breeds with heavy brows, flat faces or dark masks can be harder to read.

8. Is it normal for my dog to turn away from me? Yes, turning away is a normal way for a dog to lower tension, say “that is enough,” or give itself a break. It is often seen when a person leans over, stares or reaches toward the dog. It is not rudeness or disobedience. If the turn-away happens often, look for what comes just before it: a hug, a loom, a loud voice or a long stare. Responding by easing off and allowing the dog to choose to return is usually enough to keep the interaction friendly and prevent the dog from needing louder signals.

9. Why does my dog stare at me? Dogs stare at their people for many reasons, including asking for food, a walk or attention, seeking guidance, or simply bonding. Gaze appears to be a meaningful part of dog–human communication: dogs look back at people when they need help (Miklósi et al., 2003), and one study linked dogs’ long gazes to higher oxytocin in Owners, although that finding is debated (Nagasawa et al., 2015). A soft, blinking stare with a loose body is usually friendly. A fixed, hard stare with a stiff body, especially over a toy or food, is a warning and should be treated as one.

10. How do dogs use smell to communicate? Dogs leave and read messages in urine, faeces, glandular secretions and body odour, and these carry information about identity, sex and reproductive state (Siniscalchi et al., 2018). Sniffing posts and grass on a walk is therefore a form of reading, which is why a walk with free sniffing tires and satisfies a dog in a way that a fast, straight walk does not. Claims that dogs read exact moods from smell are overstated. If your dog seems to ignore you on a walk, it may be absorbed in a message; a brief, cheerful call and reward for coming back is more effective than a tug on the lead.

11. What are calming signals, and is there evidence for them? Calming signals is a term from trainer Turid Rugaas for behaviours such as turning away, sniffing the ground, lip licking and yawning that appear to ease tension. The behaviours themselves are widely observed and, in the case of yawning and lip licking, are linked to stress (Beerda et al., 1998). The stronger claim, that dogs send them deliberately to calm others, has been tested much less. It is safest to treat them as reliable signs that a dog is under pressure, and to respond by reducing that pressure. Whether other dogs respond to them as messages is plausible but not well tested in controlled studies.

12. Why does my dog bark at nothing? Dogs hear frequencies well above the human range (Heffner, 1983) and smell far more than we do, so a bark at “nothing” often has a trigger that you cannot sense, such as a distant animal, a sound from electronics or a smell. Barking can also be learned, anticipatory or a sign of boredom. Note the time, the place and the dog’s body when it happens, and see whether a pattern emerges. If barking is sudden, new, or comes with restlessness at night in an older dog, mention it to a vet, as pain or cognitive change can be the cause.

13. Can dogs tell when I’m sad or stressed? Dogs appear to notice human emotional signals and respond to them. In experiments, dogs matched emotional voices to faces (Albuquerque et al., 2016) and learned to tell happy from angry human faces (Müller et al., 2015), and dog and Owner long-term stress hormone levels were found to be linked (Sundman et al., 2019). None of this proves that a dog understands why you feel the way you do, only that it picks up on cues such as tone, posture and routine changes. Your dog may become clingier, quieter or more watchful when you are upset, or may simply be reacting to the change in your voice and movement.

14. How can I tell the difference between play and fighting? Play has features that fighting lacks: loose, bouncy movements, play bows, role reversals, pauses and a mix of chasing and being chased (Bekoff, 1995). Fights show stiff bodies, fixed stares, low growling, no breaks and one dog trying to leave. Exaggerated, noisy growling is common in healthy play. The check that matters most is whether both dogs choose to continue. Interrupt briefly by calling one dog away. If both come back keen to play, it is play. If one stays away or hides, the game has stopped being fun for that dog. Size mismatches and very rough play need closer supervision.

15. What if my dog’s communication suddenly changes? A sudden change, such as new irritability, hiding, clinginess, more barking or avoiding touch, is a reason to check for pain, illness or fear before assuming a behaviour problem. Dogs hide pain well, so behaviour is often the first sign. Dental disease, joint pain, ear problems, hearing or sight loss, and cognitive change in older dogs can all alter how a dog signals. Write down what has changed and when, film an example, and take it to a veterinarian. Treat the change as information about how the dog feels, not as a test of your authority. Early checks often prevent a small problem becoming a large one.