Reading dogs
Paradigm shifts in the dog-training world in the last decade have led dog owners and trainers to pay closer attention to the observation, interpretation, and understanding of canine body language. Norwegian dog trainer Turid Rugaas identified more than 30 body gestures that dogs make in social settings – whether with members of their own species or with humans – that, she postulated, demonstrated an intent to get along with other “pack members.” Rugaas coined the term “calming signals” to collectively describe these gestures and their purpose, and the term has found acceptance and everyday use as dog owners and trainers discuss dog behavior. Clumped behind that deceptively simple phrase, however, is a complex constellation of behaviors that accomplish many more purposes than just “calming.”
Rugaas has asserted that dogs purposely use “calming signals” to calm the other being with whom the dog is interacting. The suggestion is that the behaviors brought under this broad umbrella are deliberate.
Today, many ethologists (people who study animal behavior) speculate that the communications now popularly identified as calming signals are often hardwired, automatic responses rather than deliberate ones, and are far more complicated than a simple attempt to calm a dog’s social partners. They likely have more to do with the presenter’s own state of mind and/or an end goal to affect the behavior of the other dog or human for the purpose of self-preservation – rather than a deliberate intent to change the state of mind of the other being.
Communicative behaviors are adaptive in nature, helping canids maintain peaceful pack relationships without resorting to violence. Ethologists suggest that nonthreatening canine behaviors are more important in keeping the peace in packs than dominance behaviors – that relations are primarily maintained by deference behaviors exhibited by subordinates toward high-ranking members, not dominance displays by the alpha member. Canine social groups may more appropriately be described as deference hierarchies rather than dominance hierarchies.
As such, the dozens of behaviors that have been dubbed calming signals might more appropriately be separated into several subgroups called appeasement (active submission), deference (passive submission), displacement, stress signs, and threat (dominance) displays.
By observing dogs, learning to recognize and respond to the various behaviors in this constellation, your relationships with canines will become richer, and your translations of dogspeak more accurate. Let’s start by taking a closer look at the submissive/subordinate behaviors. We’ll examine other classes of behaviors in future articles.