Understanding Human and Dog Greetings
Dogs view the world in very simple terms. To our dogs, things are either familiar or unfamiliar to them. When a dog returns to our facility several times, you’ll likely see his / her body language and his / her behavior to you change. This is because the environment is now familiar to the dog.
World Viewed as “familiar” or “unfamiliar”
- Familiar makes dogs feel safe
- Familiar – calm state with relaxed postures
- Unfamiliar – more to alert state
Exercise caution when meeting new dogs and go at a pace that is comfortable for them. Be aware of their own personal space requirements as this will vary by each individual dog.
In this lesson we are going to discuss truths versus myths of our interactions with dogs and take a look at the four key views of life from a dog’s perspective that are going to help you understand the dogs better. We are also going to read about meeting and greeting dogs in a way that, you’ll be surprised, will probably make a big difference in how you greet the dogs.
Common Myths
Myth
A wagging tail means the dog is friendly.
Truth
One of the most frequent myths we hear about dogs is that it’s okay to pet him…he’s happy, and you can see that because his tail is wagging. As discussed in our previous lesson, a wagging tail can indicate a wide range of emotions depending on the speed of the wag, the tail carriage and the relationship with the other human/animal.
The dogs in these images are doing bite work and they generally have a wagging tail when bitting.
Myth
A quiet dog who accepts petting is fine with people.
Truth
A quiet dog may be enjoying the petting or he may be just tolerating it. A dog who is tolerating the attention can eventually reach his tolerance level and growl, snap, or bite.
Myth
Dogs love to be hugged and kissed.
Truth
Humans love to hug and kiss dogs. Most dogs merely tolerate those interactions from people they know well. Look at this photo and think about who looks happier…the boy or the dog?
Dogs are going to tolerate hugs from those they know well but most dogs really don’t enjoy it. Does the mean you shouldn’t hug or kiss your dog? It depends. I do hug and kiss my dogs. I know they don’t like it but I also know they have a strong relationship with me and will tolerate me extending this type of affection to him. However, I seldom hug and kiss a dog I don’t know, and I don’t let other people hug and kiss my dogs. Please exercise caution when hugging and kissing the dogs that are entrusted to our care at K9 Club.
Myth
Non-family member can do the same things to a dog that family members can do.
Truth
Dogs tolerate much more from those they know than from those who do not live with them.
This one picks up where the previous myth left off. We often think about dogs and say that just because I can do something somebody else can do it too. That’s not entirely true. I will tolerate a lot more from my husband in terms of how close he can stand to me and whether or not he can touch me than I’m going to accept from any other man that I don’t know as well. Dogs are the same way. They are going to tolerate things from the people they know and love much better than the things that they are going to tolerate from a stranger.
So when a dog is dropped off at K9 Club and the pet parent says…”Oh, he lets me put drops in his ears with no problem,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that the dog is not going to be a problem for you. You will want to handle that dog with caution. It doesn’t mean the pet owner is lying and it doesn’t mean the dog is bad. It means that the owner can do things that you can’t necessarily do because you don’t know the dog as well.
Myth
Supervision is the key to keeping dogs and humans safe.
Truth
Supervision only works if the person supervising knows what the dog is saying.
That is partially true. An example we often use is, if I went to the hospital and a friend of mine happened to be hooked up to IV’s, tubes, and monitors and the nurse came in and said, Okay, Mary…you just watch these monitors and I’ll be back.” Well, I can watch the monitors all I want, but I’m not a nurse and I don’t know what any of them mean.
In that situation, my supervision is not going to count for anything because I don’t know what I’m looking at. The same thing is true with dogs. If you don’t know what you’re watching, then supervision isn’t that important. We want you to learn what you’re looking at, and then supervision becomes critical. That’s the whole point of learning about dog body language and that is the whole point of the remaining lessons in this course.