Calming signals?
So I've been researching calming signals and was wondering if anyone actually tries to communicate with their dog with these signals? (yawning, lip licking, ect....)
I feel like every time I yawn, I am telling Toki "calm the frick down" even though we are driving in the car or watching TV, something not stimulating or stressful. Plus, Toki is super mellow as it is, so I wonder if he ever gets confused? Sometimes he watches me intently when I yawn, and I wonder what goes through his mind.
Turid Rugaas has a good PDF read which prompted this thread.
I would think that dogs have evolved to live among us and please us, so there would have to be some level on the dogs part of understanding human behavior, like smiling, or crying, or angry faces, just as much as we have developed an understanding of them.
I feel like every time I yawn, I am telling Toki "calm the frick down" even though we are driving in the car or watching TV, something not stimulating or stressful. Plus, Toki is super mellow as it is, so I wonder if he ever gets confused? Sometimes he watches me intently when I yawn, and I wonder what goes through his mind.
Turid Rugaas has a good PDF read which prompted this thread.
I would think that dogs have evolved to live among us and please us, so there would have to be some level on the dogs part of understanding human behavior, like smiling, or crying, or angry faces, just as much as we have developed an understanding of them.
Comments
To my understanding, the calming signals aren't telling the other dog to calm down. Instead, the dog using the signals is calming itself and diffusing the situation by saying "hey man, I'm cool!" I think of it like the doggy equivalent of counting to 10 when you get mad.
And yes, dogs are hardwired to read human faces. They can even track and respond to photographs and video of faces. IIRC they track the left side more than the right but I don't remember why.
Turid Rugaas also has a video that is interesting to watch.
@jellyfart - I think that may be true to a certain extent. Maybe it's one of those things that they have the ability to learn, thanks to genetics, but not every one learns it. Sort of like housebreaking or other human-centric behaviors.
@yandharr Sometimes, if Toki doesn't do what I ask of him, we have a staring contest. If I break or laugh, he doesn't do what is asked. Its rather silly sometimes, like he is questioning "is this girl serious? I really like napping. Not going outside to pee unless she seems really serious".
Also, dogs evolved with an amazing ability to read humans. It's us humans who suck at reading them. I would worry more about acting like a human and reading dogs, and less about acting like a dog so dogs can read us.
There are things that I will do around dogs to take pressure off them, like turning sideways to great, or turning my back to an uncomfortable dog, or not making eye contact. But these gestures aren't done as calming signals, they are done to reduce "presence" and to make a dog feel less pressure. It's not a communication thing, it's a "civil presence" thing.
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So hardly a scientific study, but I felt that human yawning does seem to work as a calming signal. And of course we all know not to stare at strange dogs, etc. So my point is that while I agree with Brad, I think some of the calming signals are easily transferable to humans and don't seem like us "acting like dogs" but rather may work as cross-species (at least human/canine) calming signals.
@Yandharr - Only during a full-moon! ;o)
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I have a documentary on DVD somewhere that touched on a study about how dogs observe our facial gestures. I'll have to look it up, but I do know it was aired on PBS at one point.
That being said, I think Brad hit the nail on the head. What's important is that these communication signals are properly used by dogs and properly interpreted by the dogs they are communicating with. Dogs are highly unlikely to read those signals from us, and even if they do we have no idea how they will be interpreted. Lisa's anecdote about walking her Shiba is a perfect example. It is equally likely the dogs saw her yawning and paused while thinking "what is that crazy women doing?" (No offense Lisa!)
Keep in mind that dogs domesticated themselves. The wolves that could understand and interpret what humans were doing without any effort at communication by the humans were the ones who were most likely to hang around near human settlements, and therefore have their progeny become domesticated. So, if you want your dog to relax, it's probably best to act calm yourself, and reassure it gently, as that's most likely what it's genetically programmed to understand from us.