The caregiver should look at the WHOLE dog, in context, but sometimes an observer can break the dog into body parts and over a few minutes take note of the following.
This list can help caregivers recognise stress, and I suggest caregivers get familiar with these signs in their own dogs and note the triggers that cause these reactions:
Mouth/Expression – look for
- Tight brow, furrowed – ear position can signal this
- Pulled back commissures of lips, grimace – anxiety, stress
- Closed mouth
- Panting – commonly a short dry pant, some dogs however can hypersalivate
- Baring teeth – distance increasing signal – threat – the more teeth shown the more defensive the dog
- Turn head – polite withdrawal, social withdrawal, asking for space
- Lip lick
- Stress yawn – often repetitive
- Licking persons – anxiety, seeking information, can be a reinforced behaviour
Eyes
- Dilated pupils – fear
- Whale eye (white showing) – fear, asking for increased distance by turning head NB breed differences, eg Cavalier King Charles, exophthalmic breeds
- Darting looks – hyper-vigilance, anxiety
- Not comfortable with eye contact, therefore looking away, averting gaze
- Hard eye – stare, usually accompanied with freeze (you feel this!)
- Squinting/blinking/closing eyes – can sometimes indicate stress, anxiety
Ears
- Ears back against head – appeasement, fear
- Ears forward – arousal, interest, alertness
- Ears – position dependent on breed, not all dogs move ears as much
- Ears twitching – hypervigilance
Tail
- Tuck – fear, sometimes extreme so tip of tail touches belly
- Held high – alertness – dependent on breed
- Fast wagging, held high – can signal alertness, bite can be about to occur
- Wagging – willing to engage – not necessarily indicative of happiness
- Hackles near rump – fear, alertness
- (the only true tail wag I trust is a whole body tail wag eg “helicopter tail”)
Movement
- Slow movement or fast movement – both can signal anxiety
- Failure to rest, lie down after 20 minutes in a room is suggestive of hypervigilance
- Jumping on, pushing on people – seeking information, provoking response, anxiety
- Curving body on approach shows appeasement, breaking off of conflict
- Forward approach – offensive, also breed differences in greeting style
- Avoidance, or hiding, slinking – anxiety, asking for distance
- Seeking owner attention – fear, anxiety
- Fiddle behaviours – eg scratching, sniffing the ground, genital check
- Sweaty paws – stress
Body
- Hackles – physiological arousal – adrenalin release – flight or fight response
- Paw lift – appeasement, unsure
- Look at body weight – forward or back? forward – interest, back – withdrawal, fearful. Can be both – sign of conflicted response
- Muscle trembling/shivering – fear response
- Startle response – an involuntary response to fear – seen to benign objects is a sign of over reactive fear response
- Roll over – expose belly – can be a signal to ask for space, cut off engagement
- Loss of hair, coat dander – anxiety
- Shake off – seen after something stressful, usually social engagement people or dogs, look at what happened just prior to shake off
Vocalisation
- Barking – usually a distance increasing signal or designed to alert caregivers although caregivers can distinguish between attention seeking and play barks in known dogs
- Low bark with growl undertone – WooWooWoo – fearful bark, designed as distance increasing signal – give me space
- Barking – separation distress – generally monotonal – bark…wait…bark, repetitive.
- Growling – distance increasing signal, take note
- Whining, crying – distance decreasing signal – seeking caregivers
- Howling – distance decreasing signal – seeking caregivers, sometimes stimulated by sirens etc in some dogs, some breeds more inclined
Dr Nicole Lobry de Bruyn
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