The focus of this lesson is to understand the emotional state of dogs and how to best respond to them. You’ll learn to recognize the different states by traffic signal color. You’ll also learn how to transition a dog that’s in a yellow state back to green.
We will also discuss ways to prevent a dog you see in the yellow state from going to red…which is not safe for you to handle. You are encouraged to take notes as go through this material.
Green Emotional States
As before, we’ve learned that green means go. These are the dogs that, for the most part, are safe to approach and to handle.
Emotional State | Posture and Movement | Ears | Tail | Facial Expression | Vocalization |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Neutral and Relaxed | Balanced Relaxed Loose and curvy | Natural for canine Loose and relaxed | Natural for canine Lower than horizontal Loose and relaxed | Soft eyes Mouth relaxed and open slightly | None |
Curious, Eager, or Excited | Normal Possibly wiggle or stand on tip-toe | Perked up Forward | Up Fast, small wags | Wide eyes Mouth open Teeth covered Possibly panting | Short bark "ruff" Whining |
Friendly | Normal Stands still or rear end wiggling | Perked up | Up or out from body small wags | Wide open eyes Alert Mouth relaxed and slightly open | High-pitch bark Short bark Champing |
Playful or Happy | Relaxed Play-bow Excited Bouncing Circling | Perked up Forward Relaxed | Wagging Large circle wagging | Wide open sparkling eyes Mouth relaxed and open slightly Teeth covered Panting | High-pitch barking Play growling |
Natural and Relaxed
What do you think about the body posture, the tail carriage, and the overall appearance of this dog?
This dog is in a neutral and relaxed state. Previously, you read about learning English. You take individual words and you learn those and then after you learn those words, you learn to put them into sentences and then put sentences together in a paragraph. That’s the way you’ve read about learning dog body language. You’ll see in this lesson that we’re going to start putting it all together.
So let’s look at the overall picture of the dog. If you look at his ears, his eyes, and his mouth, each individual word is saying something. Overall, this makes the dog have a balanced, loose, comfortable position, with an open mouth, and relaxed ears. This is an example of a green state dog that would be safe to handle.
Curious
What about this dog? What does it look like he might be up to?
This dog looks a little bit more alert than the previous dog. His posture is still balanced, he’s standing on all four paws, his tail is up but it’s not high or curling over his back and his mouth is open. This dog is probably looking at something down the beach. Overall, this dog is in a green posture.
Friendly
What about this dog?
You probably think this dog looks very similar to the last doge we saw who was curious. If we were watching them on video, there might be slight differences in their body movements or types of tail wags. This friendly dog is relaxed and balanced, so it is very similar to the previous images.
Playful
What about this playful dog?
Notice the curves in the dog’s body, even his paws have curves in them and his body is a little curved at the shoulder. The playful postures have the most curves. Playful dogs are safe to approach and handle because they are in the green state.
Yellow Emotional States
In the yellow management state, dogs become more cautious and aroused. You will notice in their body language that they are more stiff than what you would see in a green management state. In order to keep yourself safe, you are going to want to approach these dogs with caution and remain calm. The key is not to trigger them to go into a red state which is definitely not safe to handle. You’ll want to use proper human to dog greeting postures.
Emotional State | Posture and Movement | Ears | Tail | Facial Expression | Vocalization |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alert | Normal Slightly forward Possibly on tip-toes | Up Turning to hear sound | Up Possible slow wag | Normal to wide open eyes Mouth closed or slightly open Teeth covered | None Rapid bark Low whine |
Anxious | Tense Lowered slightly | Partially back | Partially lowered | Slightly narrowed eyes Mouth closed or slightly open Lips pulled back | Low whine Moaning bark |
Aroused | Tense Forward Still legs | Up Forward | Up Bristled Stiff wag | Wide open eyes Hard staring Mouth tense Possible lifted lips Possible panting | Rapid bark |
Chase (beginning stage) | Tense Crouched low Legs bent to run | Up Forward | Extends straight out from body | Wide open eyes, alert Mouth slightly open Excited panting | None |
Confident | Tall Hackles may rise | Up Forward | Up or straight out from body | Wide open eyes Staring Mouth closed or open slightly | Low growl |
Fearful | Tense Crouched Shivering or trembling | Low on head Flattened | Between legs | Narrow eyes, averted Possible half-moon eye Lips drawn back Teeth showing | Low yelp, whine, growl, bark or scream |
Subordinate | Low Paw lift Lies on back, belly up | Low on head Flattened | Between legs | Narrowed slit eyes Possible half-moon eye Lips drawn back Teeth showing Face licking | None Low whining or whimpering |
Just as humans cannot be angry and happy at the same time, a dog cannot live in two conflicting emotional states. If you can change the body posture by avoiding eye contact or getting the dog to be interested to play with a toy or to eat a treat, then you may be able to move them back to a green emotional state. This is where we want our dogs to be, in that continuum right in the center where they are balanced.
Alert
Can you identify the slight difference between this dog and the Golden Retriever we looked at in the green management state?
Take a moment to look at the words that make up his posture. Once of the first things to look at…and is the most obvious signal and clue is that his mouth is closed. He also has unsure ears and his body posture is slightly forward and it’s also more stiff than the curious dog we saw that was in the green state.
Anxious
What’s different with this dog over the previous image?
With this dog, the tail is down a little bit lower, the ears will start to go back as the dog gets a little more anxious or worried. And if there were a video, you would see the movements begin to get slower and a little bit more stiff as the dog becomes more anxious.
Aroused
Notice the indicators that signal a state of arousal
Arousal is a high state of energy or excitement that could be some type of friendliness and just over excitement. Arousal and aggression are linked. Anytime we see a dog that is in a high state of arousal, there is always a level of concern that the arousal might get out of control.
Arousal and aggression are similar in dogs to what we see in something like a hockey game, where the fans get really charged up about their team and they are really excited, and then suddenly a fist fight breaks out in the stands. It’s kind of the same thing with dogs. When you’re looking for arousal, you’ll see the eyes get wider, the tail carriage becomes higher, and the ears are starting to go forward. It’s often confused with friendliness.
Friendliness vs. Arousal
Friendliness = 2 seconds or more of soft, friendly interaction.
With a friendly dog it’s usually a dog that will have social interaction with you for two seconds or more of soft friendly interaction. With an arounds dog their contact is generally not soft and they generally don’t stay for two seconds or longer. So you might have a dog that jumps up on you and then moves away quickly. That’s probably a dog that’s aroused, not necessarily a dog that’s looking for attention because he’s friendly. The important thing to remember about arousal is that it is linked to aggression.
Confident
How does this dog vary from some of the previous dogs we’ve been looking at in this lesson?
This dog is carrying his whole body weight forward and his legs and tail are very stiff. It is likely to hear a growl from a dog in this state.
Fearful
Look carefully at the body posture of this fearful dog.
We’re now moving to the other end of the continuum. You are going to start noticing that the body postures are moving back and getting lower. When you see these body postures, you do need to be very aware of what’s going on because it’s very easy for a dog in a fearful state to transition into red.
Subordinate
Look at the words that make up this posture.
The subordinate emotional state we can be equated to nervousness that we fell when we’re not sure what’s going on. You notice that the tail is down and between the legs and the ears are very flat and far back on the head. Again, the postures are going back or down. Even the lips are drawn way back to the back of the mouth. You definitely need to proceed with caution when you see these words in the dog’s body language. The important thing is to focus on the traffic signal colors and whether the dog is in a green, yellow, or red state.
Red Emotional States
Now we’re going to look at the red management states. Theses have a high risk of showing aggressive displays or behaviors. The most important thing to remember is if you see any of these emotional states in dogs, you need to stop your approach. Seek help from a supervisor and definitely do not proceed on your own. There is a high risk of biting.
Emotional State | Posture and Movement | Ears | Tail | Facial Expression | Vocalization |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aggression, offensive | Up and forward Tense Hackles up on neck | Up Forward | Straight out from body Fluffed Stiff slow wag | Hard staring eyes Snarl or C-shaped lips drawn forward Teeth showing | Snarling Long deep growl Loud bark |
Aggression, defensive | Low and back Tense Hackles up on back and tail | Flattened | Very low or between legs | Narrow eyes Possible half-moon eye Lips pulled back Teeth and gums show Wrinkled muzzle | Snarling Growl-bark |
Flight (beginning stage) | Low Tense Shivering Ready to run | Back | Low or between legs | Wide open eyes Possible half-moon eye Mouth slightly open Possible drooling | None Possible whine |
Guarding | Up Tense, freezes Hackles may rise | Up Forward | Straight out from body Rigid Possible fluffed | Wide open, alert Mouth slightly open Teeth showing Possible snapping | Loud bark Growl Snarl |
Predatory | Low Ready to spring forward Rigid May sniff air | Alert Forward or back to catch sounds | Low Straight out | Wide open staring eyes, focused Mouth closed | None |
The main thing you are going to focus on is to look for changes you can make to the environment or to your own postures to move the dog out of the red emotional state with assistance from your supervisor.
Aggression – Offensive
Offensive aggression is definitely one that’s easy to see and that you won’t miss.
Unfortunately, dogs are very fast. If you think about pushing the play button, this dog would close the gap between you and him very, very quickly. So it’s important to notice these things early. In offensive aggression, notice how everything is forward, the ears, the mouth, and of course the body movements…but it’s still very stiff. You will probably have very strong vocalization that this dog has been giving us a warning signal.
Aggression – Defensive
We want to contrast that to defensive aggression. The aggression is for a different root cause and the defensive dog is scared but will defend himself.
Take a moment to look a the words that make up the defensive aggression posture and how that varies from the Boxer we saw in the previous image. You’ll notice that the posture of this dog is much lower but the dog is still showing teeth. However his lips are farther back than the Boxer in the previous image. This dog has just as much a risk of a bite as a confident dog. So you will follow the same steps, stop your approach and get help.
Flight
Looking at the emotional state of flight…this might happen when a dog is in play and obviously dogs like to chase one another. But the flight we’re discussing here is really an emotional state when a dog is scared and he wants to get away.
We just talked about the fight response. This is the other end of the extreme where the dog wants to try to bolt from you in panic. In this situation if you have a dog outside and he becomes panicked, it’s not uncommon for him to try to bolt away, or bolt to the end of the leash and just start running.
Guarding
Resource guarding is another emotional state that we talk about that is very, very specific and it’s heard towards a dog that is willing to defend something that he considers valuable
In this image the dog is guarding a little toy ball. But it can be anything the dog considers valuable. That includes toys, food, people (a dog could guard the person that’s standing nearest to him), or it can include locations such as beds or a kennel run or a certain area of the room. So it’s not just objects such as toys. You really want to be able to identify what the resource guarding emotional state looks like. Normally, if we can do something to take them away from the object they are guarding, you can usually very quickly change the dog to green. However, if you just reach in and try to take the object from the dog, the will usually trigger an aggressive behavior.