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Dog Training - Your Dog's Facial Expressions & What They Mean

If you have just brought a new dog home and your dog training has gone underway, you might have come to wonder how you can communicate better with your dog and vice versa. Although some people swear by looking right into a dogs eyes for behavioral cues, it's still quite difficult for most new dog owners to decipher what their dogs are thinking. It is much easier to read a dogs expression by watching for its body language and more importantly, its facial expressions.

Dogs who look about with dilated pupils and a wide-eyed look are usually frightened while dominant or dogs with an aggressive stance will have an unblinking fixed eye stare towards its target. It is important to be able to notice the difference between the two and you can easily tell from other facial factors.

For instance, when a dog gets aggressive, it barrs its teeth and the lips are pulled back exposing its canine teeth. Growling often follows as well as snarling. Dogs have evolved as family pets but at the core, they are still predators similar to wolves. Do not ever stare an aggressive dog in the eyes as this will provoke the dog and it might attack you.

If you have young children and a dog, you will need to be extra careful as most dog related injuries are caused by the fact that young children cannot tell the difference between a frightened dog and a happy one, and one can can easily be mistaken for the other.  You see, children four years and younger have not developed the ability in recognizing and interpreting dog behaviors like adults can. So be extra careful with dogs around your children.

Other tell-tale signs you can look out for are dog's ears. The ears give very important cue as to the dog's intent. When your dog is giving you its full intention or has noticed something of interest, it will perk its ears up. In an aggressive encounter with another dog, the more dominant one will have its ears erect as well as pointing forwards while the submissive dog will flatten its ears or point it slightly backwards as a sign of fear. Of course, this is only apparent in dogs with short ears than in floppy ear dogs. Dogs with longer and bigger ears that flop also do this but it is more subtle and you will need to pay more attention in order to notice it.

What about friendly facial expressions in dogs? Dogs who are happy and invite the presence of human has a neutral relaxed face. They might show signs of a smile (which is more like an opened mouth grin without teeth barring), and their ears will be relaxed. Other body language signals might be a wagging tail.

In conclusion, being able to read your dog's facial expressions is crucial to successful dog training. With this information in mind, teach your children and other family members the distinction between a fearful or aggressive dog versus a friendly one.

Amy Chan is an author and publisher for several online blogs and websites which focus on children's and women's health, shopping and nutrition. She also writes content for house and kitchen decor magazines. Check out some of her new topics about modernizing your kitchen with electronic kitchen scales and also how futuristic digital bathroom scales can help you build more muscle and lose fat.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amy_M_Chan



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