Are you a first-time rescue dog owner or a veteran with your own pack? Learning to communicate with your dog will bring happiness and peace to your home. Check out these dog communication tips. You’ll love how they help you, and your dog understand each other better.
Communication Tips For The Pack Leader
No matter your age, you must assume the pack leader role to best communicate with your rescue dog. As they are born to either follow or lead. And without a consistent set of rules, they try to become the leader, which can create a wealth of behavioral problems. Therefore, you—and all humans in your home—need to be similar and consistent in your obedience practices.
Set your house rules and walk them out calmly and consistently. Everyone in the family should use the same tone and gestures, if at all possible. And remember to praise your dog’s good behavior. He will be much more comfortable in a pack with structure and will bond more quickly to you and his new home.
How To Communicate Hello
If you’re anything like me, you love greeting dogs, even ones you don’t know. But here’s something we all need to know to help our four-footed friends feel safe.
Consider the greeting from the dog’s point of view. Liam Crowe, CEO at Bark Buster USA shares, “Well-socialized dogs, meeting for the first time, will be making assessments based on canine behavior. They see a dog and assess its body language from a distance. Then they may go towards the other dog and stop, still assessing its body language for signals to indicate whether it’s relaxed, friendly or anxious, nervous, wary or a threat.”
Listen To Your Dog’s Body Language
credit: DogTales
You can tell a lot about the receptive nature to your greeting by the way a dog’s body is reacting. Pay attention, is his tail up, ears pricked, head up, proud stance, hackles raised, or maybe tail down, ears sideways or down, head lowered and even looking away?
All of these postures are speaking out loud how your dog is feeling. If your dog is one who immediately drops to the ground rolling on his back in submission, be glad. He’s less likely to get into trouble.
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