How well do you understand your dog's body language?
Here is a great Dog Body Language 101 video to start with.
Take a look next time you walk your dog and keep an eye out for things that can catch your dog's eye, start to create tension in their face or their body, and lead to a reactive episode.
Are you stressing your dog out?
It sounds strange, but tension can "travel down the leash" and affect how your dog reacts in stressful situations. Learn more about how it works here.
Have you ever had one of those weeks where every dog walk becomes some sort of an “adventure”
- and not necessarily the fun kind?
You aren't alone! We’ve had challenges with reading the body language of other dogs, both on my part and on Rowan’s.
After he’s been attacked by multiple dogs over the years, he tends to “jump to conclusions” when a dog isn’t offering typical “friendly dog” body language.
You gotta love hiding behind vehicles to get through a walk without his behavior escalating!
The problem with Black Dogs…
It's a common challenge with animal shelters that black dogs get adopted at lower rates than other colors, in part because they are challenging to photograph well.
That's not the only challenge that darker colored dogs have!
I think it’s been almost 3 years now since our encounters with a specific black dog on the neighborhood trail.
Hard stare and hackles…definitely not a “friendly” dog…
Unfortunately, it is common for dogs to have difficulty reading the body language of black dogs. A dogs vision isn’t as good as a human’s vision, especially in low light.
Encountering this dog in the shade of the trees made it very difficult for both Rowan as well as me to read his body language. The dog’s human wasn’t interested in giving us sufficient space to pass without Rowan feeling threatened.
Now I keep an eye out for ALL black dogs, just in case it’s this specific dog. The owner has repeatedly shown a complete lack of interest in giving us space.
I also work with him to reinforce the fact that not all black dogs are scary.
This week my management of a “selectively” reactive dog meant having to work with Rowan so that he doesn’t flip his lid when he sees another pup just minding their own business. Unfortunately they seem to be a perceived threat just because they’re black or a darker color…
Thankfully Mr. Hard-Stare & Hackles hasn’t been off leash any of the times we’ve encountered him, but he does run off leash when there aren’t other dogs around (which is against the park rules…), so I always keep an eye out for him, and keep Rowan as far away as physically possible…
