Dog Body Language

Shay is a very quiet dog. She rarely barks or growls. Once in a while she will make a little purring sound to say, “I am pleased with you.” For the most part she has developed a few poses which tell us everything she wants us to know.

Her favorite pose is one where she stands on her green bed with very good posture with one foot in front of the other. Paris models could learn a thing or two from her stance. This position is almost always made after she has finished eating the chicken in her dinner bowl, but not the kibble. She stands there to say, “I would like more people chicken or cheese before I can continue to eat that god awful kibble.”

You can ask her if she wants to go out, but the answer is always the same- she stands her ground, not changing position.

Once you have adding just a little cheese and she has eaten to her satisfaction she will lie on her bed with her head on her toy snake, which is alway on her bed. Other toys travel throughout the house, but not the snake. It belongs on her green bed.

Shays other well rehearsed position is standing on the bath rug in our master bath looking out the door towards our bed. This means, “I want you to pick me up and put me on the bed because for some reason I am too tired to jump up there.” Now she jumps up on the bed all the time, but maybe after her dinner she might be feeling a little to heavy and doesn’t want to attempt to jump and fail.

She has us so well trained that when she is in these positions in the exact spot we know what she wants and give it to her. I would like to train my people as well.