Reading Your Dogs Body Language

Understanding what our dog is feeling is an essential skill when assessing why dogs perform the behaviours they do and preventing bad behaviour.
Look for all the signs that your dog is under even a little stress and take appropriate action to reduce the stress and reward the dog for coping with what ever was stressing them. This will improve the performance of all dogs and prevent almost all socially unacceptable behaviours.

In this photo the dog is guarding her chew, notice she has stopped chewing, is staring hard at the person with the camera, you can see the whites of her eyes, her ears are back and she is very still.

In this photo the dog has been asked to do a dog trick, he has half done it (it is also not a natural play bow but a taught one on cue) but rather complete it he becomes stressed, note the closed mouth, worried expression and head turn away from the camera.

For more examples please look at the following two links:

This link is to the Turid Rugaas website – the person who has globally done the most research in to calming signals. http://www.canis.no/rugaas/onearticle.php?artid=1

This is another great video on body language, it can also be accessed from our You Tube site

Appropriate steps to reduce mild stress might be:

• Putting more distance between what ever is stressing your dog and your dog, i.e. move further away.
• Distracting your dog with a favourite toy or treat to take their mind off the stress.
• Trying to lower the intensity of what is stressing them. For instance if your dog was sensitive to noise try to shut out the sound of the thunder storm by shutting all the windows and moving the dog to the centre of the house. If the dog is sensitive to movement or energy levels ask children to walk not run when near the dog.
• Ask your dog to perform things you have trained them to do and reward them for it. This must be a pre-trained cue that your dog understands and enjoys.
• Comfort your dog and in some cases you could pick up your dog.
• Prevent what ever is stressing the dog from getting closer, louder, faster etc.

Appropriate steps to reduce major stress would be:

• Remove the dog at once from the situation or the thing that is stressing them.
• Remove the stressors (e.g. people, children, dogs, mower, bike, cat) at once from the dog.

Dog Training Treat Recipes

Tuna Treats
2 x 60z can of tuna in olive oil, DO NOT DRAIN
2 Eggs
1-1 ½ cups of flour (16- tablespoons)
2 Cloves Garlic/ or 2 tsps garlic puree. (optional)

Method
Mash the tuna in oil to remove any big lumps.  Put into a food pressure or liquidiser and blend adding a few drops of water if necessary to liquefy completely. Pour into a bowl and add eggs, flour and garlic. Mix well. The mixture should resemble a cake mix. Spread into a greased tin. Bake in an oven 200 , gas Mark 4 for 15 minutes. The edges should pull away from the tin when ready. Allow to cool and then cut into small pieces. Bag up in small quantities and then freeze until required.

Tuna Treats
2 x 60z can of tuna in water, DO NOT DRAIN
2 Eggs
1-11/2 cups of plain flour (16- tablespoons)
Garlic (optional)
Mash the tuna in water to remove any big lumps.

Method
Put into a liquidiser and blend adding a few drops of water if necessary to liquefy completely. Pour into a bowl and add eggs, flour and garlic. Mix well. The mixture should resemble a cake mix. Spread into a greased tin, lined with foil. Bake in an oven 350 degrees; gas Mark 4 for 45 minutes. The edges should pull away from the tin when ready. Allow to cool, remove foil and then cut into small pieces. Bag up in small quantities and then freeze until required.

Liver Cake
1 pound of ox liver, cut into small chunks
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups of plain flour (16-tablespoons)
Garlic
Follow the method below

Method
Put into a liquidiser and blend adding a few drops of water if necessary to liquefy completely. Pour into a bowl and add eggs, flour and garlic. Mix well. The mixture should resemble a cake mix. Spread into a greased tin, lined with foil. Bake in an oven 350 degrees; gas Mark 4 for 45 minutes. The edges should pull away from the tin when ready. Allow to cool, remove foil and then cut into small pieces. Bag up in small quantities and then freeze until required.

Liver Cake Mark Two

1 pot frozen chicken livers - defrosted (find chicken easier than lamb as they don't break the liquidizer!)
lots of garlic (about three cloves)
plain flour - white or wholemeal
1 v large egg or 2 large/medium ones

1. Bung chicken livers and all the blood into liquidizer and blitz, add chopped garlic and blitz a bit more, add egg and give another mix.
2. Pour glutinous mess into mixing bowl
3. Add plain flour bit at a time and mix with plastic spatula until the mixture starts to come away from the sides of the bowl - quite a thick mixture. Plastic spatula does not absorb the garlic like wooden spoon.
4. Dollop into tupperware/microwaveable container - mine are about 5" or 6" square and about 3" deep. Cover very lightly with lid or cling with holes in and microwave for about 4 mins. Time will vary according to your m/wave/size of eggs/thickness of mixture etc so trial and error until you get used to it. It usually rises up above the rim of the container but then shrinks back down as it cools.
5. Cool and cut into chunks - I cut mine into 6 pieces and put the lid on and bunged it in the freezer, then I can take out a chunk when I need it.

Liver Cake Mark Three

1 lb Liver [preferably Lambs]
1 lb Flaked oats
1 Eggs
2 Cloves Garlic/ or 2 tsps garlic puree. (optional)

Put all the ingredients into a blender until the mixture is smooth, Pour into greased 12-inch square baking tin and place in the oven [Gas Mark 4] for around 30-40 minutes. Leave to cool and cut into bite size pieces. (1/4-inch Square) It can be frozen into individual bags [enough for a couple of weeks of training]