Calming signals

If you are willing to learn about calming signals it will give you a better understanding of your dog and a lot of misunderstandings between you and your dog can be avoided.

Calming signals have been seen in wolves pack first but for a long time nobody realist that those signals were used by domesticated dogs as well.

Turid Rugaas is the leading expert in this field. She is a Norwegian dog trainer and has studied calming signals for over 10 years.

So what are calming signals? Calming signals is a body language used by the dog
-To calm himself if he feels scared, threatened or feeling uneasy
-To calm other dogs or humans if they are nervous, scared or feeling uneasy. This way the dog is trying to say, everything is going to be ok.

Unfortunately a lot of people do not recognize the signals and therefore don�t react to it which can lead to the dog not to use them anymore and probably start having trouble to communicate with other dogs.

There are about 30 different calming signals. Not every signal is used by every dog. Calming signals are for example: Yawning, sniffing, licking, walking in a curve, walking slowly etc. But it�s always important to see the context. For example when I get ready to take Snoopy out for a walk, he will get very excited, like jumping around and so on. But he also starts yawning a lot. This means he is calming himself because he is so excited. If he would just slept on the couch, wake up and yawn. Then of course he is just tired.

Another situation where you will see calming signals a lot is when the dog gets hugged or picked up. While this gesture shows love toward the dog, the dog might feel not very comfortable and sends calming signals in form of yawning, licking his nose etc. Now that you know about calming signals you can react to it and give the dog some space. You can also teach your children about calming signals.

A lot of times when dogs meet each other, they won�t go straight forward in a line but do a curve, for that reason it is always important to not hold the dog on a short leash but give the dog some room to do the curve.

For more detailed information about calming signals please see the article on the Website of Turid Rugaas. Turid Rugaas has also written several books about the subject and on her website there is also a question/answer section.

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