Best Puppy Tips: How Do Dogs Communicate With Humans?

Written by Senior Editor Peter Gehr

Best puppy tips: how do dogs communicate with humans? This is a subject that is most definitely misunderstood, and, believe it or not, your dog does not speak English, or any other human language for that matter. Surprised? Well, the fact is that dogs speak their own language, and although they learn commands and respond to them, this does not mean that they understand what the actual word means.

Best Puppy Tips: How Do Dogs Communicate With Humans?

Best Puppy Tips: How Do Dogs Communicate With Humans?

In other words, you could teach your dog to sit, by saying the word “stand” as he sits, and rewarding him for sitting by a treat and encouragement. The dog will then understand that if he sits when you say “stand” he will be rewarded, and he will know that this makes you happy—which is what he wants to do for you, i.e. to please you.

Therefore, using the above example, he thinks that “stand” means “sit” due to the fact that he is simply responding to the action you have taught him even through the command “stand,” which obviously (in English) does not mean to “sit.” Do dogs speak English? No!

Here’s an interesting article on dog communication skills:

Best Puppy Tips: How Do Dogs Communicate With Humans?

In a study put out by Friederike Range and colleagues at the University of Vienna in Austria and Paul Morris at the University of Portsmouth, they suggest dogs have a complex range of simple unpleasant emotions such as jealousy and pride, giving them a sense of fairness that has never been discovered before.

While dogs do possess emotions, they are not as complex as a human’s. Dogs do, however, feel the emotions coming from humans. They feel our emotions as energy radiating from our bodies. The dog knows if you are sad, nervous, stressed, happy, calm, strong-minded, confident, passive, anxious, hyper, meek, etc. However, what we all need to understand is, a dog does not read negative energy coming from a human in the true meaning of the emotion. The dog simply reads negative energy as weakness and react accordingly.

It is a natural instinct for a dog to have an order in their pack. When we humans live with dogs, we become their pack. The entire pack cooperates under a single leader. Lines are clearly defined and rules are set. Because a dog communicates displeasure with growling and eventually biting, all other humans MUST be higher up in the order than the dog; the humans must be the ones making the decisions, not the dogs. That is the only way your relationship with your dog can be a complete success. (Source of article)

It’s obvious that pets are sensitive to their owners in many ways, and any pet owner would tell you that to be true. They know when we are discouraged or feeling blue, and they sense danger, or have an innate sense of duty to be there for you as part of their role in life—and this is how dogs feel about us that gives them that unconditional ability to love us.

Best Puppy Tips: How Do Dogs Communicate With Humans? (Video)

httpv://youtu.be/dDK07Zg1GNA

Another study offers some thought-provoking findings:

University of Otago (New Zealand) research:

“We’re interested in whether dogs are empathic or understand human emotional expressions.”

“What this study is trying to do is figure out whether or not they’re good at picking up on human emotions as well.”

The research results could have other benefits.

Dogs are used in a number of special settings, like hospices, working with the blind and in at least one case, to help a young girl diagnosed as a selective mute, to find her voice.

Ruffman says the research may help in finding which breed of dog is most responsive to human emotion and which could then be used in nursing and old age homes.

“If there are dogs that are more responsive to humans and understand humans better, I think those breeds would be very well suited.” (Source of article)

Best puppy tips: how do dogs communicate with humans? Body language is hugely important to dogs and your energy whether positive or negative will be communicated to your pet. Therefore, just as we should be careful of our state of mind and “vibe” around our kids, we should also be mindful how we act around our pets. Our influence is very powerful as our dogs are looking to us for clues and guidance, and if it’s positive and kind then that will have an influence on the dogs interpretation of your movements, tone of voice and overall body language. There are various dog calming signals that you can use to communicate with your dog, but that’s another subject altogether and I’ll be writing about that in an upcoming article.

Turid Rugaas, internationally respected dog expert has a book that explains how you too can communicate effectively with your dog. Click the link below to see the reviews and feedback.

 

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