Sorry this will be a bit long. You don't need to read it all. But if someone has an answer or clarifications of one or two of the parts I'd appreciate it a lot.

I've been reading quite a lot about this topic but there are still things unclear for me. In the beginning I wasn't able to distinguish the sounds of my dogs nor their body language. Meanwhile I've learned to understand some signs, but not all.

1) After her training session I tether Slippie, so she can't attack Charlie while I train him. (On an other spot, where she can't see us.)

After one or two minutes she begins to howl in all keys. In the beginning I felt sorry for her as I wasn't sure if her singsong might mean something else. I then hurried to free her. Now I let her wait until she keeps her mouth shut for some minutes Often it works, she waits calmly until I come to her. She then gets a lot of praise and her desired freedom. Sometimes though she keeps howling for an eternity. Then I go to her, don't praise, put her in an extended sit stay and then free her. Right or wrong? Inconsistency?

2) I've read that a dog's yawning doen't mean he is bored, but he is frustrated about something and we should yawn back in order to appease him.

I found this advice rather strange but tried it varios times. It didn't make any difference at all. Probably my yawning is artificial, can't rip open the throat like they do. So they understand it's a fake. I now don't do it any more, I let the yawn be a yawn and ignore it. Should I take it more seriously and how react?

3) A quote from Susan Garrett:
" A dog might try to appease another by actively seeking attention via one or
more of the following behaviors:
- muzzle and/or ear licking
- jumping up
- lowering and curving the body
- blinking
- clacking or exposing the teeth
- lip licking
- lowering the head and ears
- play bowing

Although much appeasement consists of this active body language, passive submission such as cowering and body freezing seems to be done in response to escalating fear in the presence of a perceived threat. A socially experienced dog receiving these signals will tolerate this language of appeasement and reciprocate with appropriate signals; other less experienced dogs might take advantage of this deference and attempt to control or aggress.

In addition to appeasement, dogs also commonly use displacement signals to avoid confrontation. These body signals are used to provide a distraction – a way of covering up what the dog is actually feeling. Yawning, sniffing, scratching, sneezing, and licking are all active behaviors that keep the dog calm and provide a distraction to refocus the attention of others away from him."

Is this true? If yes, how do you manage do percieve all those signs ?

4) "Front paw lifted - anticipating what will happen and what the dog should do next. " -

I've observed this when my Lab should touch a small pad with her paw she seems to be unsure what to do and holds her paw in the air above the pad. She knows to touch a big pad without problem. is this just a question of free shaping? Do I have to wait untils she gets the idea to touch by herself Of course per session only about three times) or should I show it to her or reward each approach to the pad?

5) "Mouth closed - sizing up the situation in preparation for action." True or not?

6) "Research has shown that when a dog sees someone they like, his tail wags more to the right. When he sees an unfamiliar person, his tail wags more to the left. Subtle body language like this is easy to miss." ???????????????????????

bump

I would let the dog know I'm unhappy with the howling instead of putting it on a sit stay.

Give a Quit or No command before the dog sees you and stops because your coming.

You don't have to be in view for to know if you not happy with their behavior.

Tone of voice can do the same thing.

A single tap on the window does it here.

The yawn or the foot lift can be a sign of stress or just nervousness.

I've never really looked at what direction the tail is wagging.

The whole body language can tell if they like the person or not.

I always dealt with the paw lift as nerves, and just made a training sessions when I saw a paw lift, and it quit. The Yawn with the end yowl I got from my boy Vinny all the time when he was nervous or unsure, and sometimes before a walk with bad weather. I chose to ignore it like I would with whining.
I have had a lot of anxious dogs. But all my dogs were second hand with issues, and we just dealt with it with training and removing the mind from the anxiety to something more fun. Unless it was Vinny and thunderstorms..than it was a crate and a caribou leg..only thing that stopped his freak outs was a lightly bbq'd caribou leg and a quiet room
I don't follow the tail thing..butts wiggle at diff angles, I would not even try to figure out which angle meant what lol.

Thanks Bob and Becky for your detailed answers.

I also don't draw conclusions about the left or right tail wagging, I just wondered if someone knew about this, because I read also that there exist "lefthanded" and "righthanded" dogs. like people. Until now they always loved to see humans and I always saw them wagging to both sides.

I try more to observe if the tail is stifflly upright or wagging horizontly but still in a stiff manner or if it a friendly swinging, relaxed wag. This seems to me more important, because as far as I know, it tells us a lot about the dog's mood (feeling excited, uncomfortable, annoyed, disturbed etc, But I'm not always sure if I'm interpreting the right way..

What concerns whining In the situation of Slippie I let her wait for quite a while. If I'd run to free her would mean reinforcing this behavior. Or not? She only does it as it as a sign for "let me free!", never in other siruations. And I never hear such a coloratura singing from the other ones. If they are impatient they simply bark.

But your right, Bob I should give her a message from far to tell her this is not desired. A tap on the window or something similar is a great idea, I'll try this.

Asking her for a sit stay will perhaps be asked too much patience from her, though she keeps the stay, because she knows liberty is near. I thought it is also a good exercise for self control. But this I can also train under other circumstances.

To the yawning I've never given attention, I always took it as either tiredness or boredom. If they reacted on a game or exercise invitation, I thought to know it must have been boredom. If they didn't react, I interpreted it as fatigue. But since I read about this I thought everything's wrong with my capacity of reading a dog.

"The whole body language can tell if they like the person or not." How true! And I think this goes for other situations too. I must concentrate on observing the signals of the whole dog. But this I find rather difficult as it is quite complex.

Mouth, teeth, ears, eyes, neck hairs, tail, paws, backside, body position, sounds. and not to forget:While I'm trying to read them, they read me too. Much quicker and preciser! Darned!

Connie, what the heck does "bump" mean. I googled. They say a collison, a blow, a bulge, to snort a drug. .... It all doesn't make sense. Can you give me a tip?

 Quote: Christina Stockinger

Connie, what the heck does "bump" mean. I googled. They say a collison, a blow, a bulge, to snort a drug. .... It all doesn't make sense. Can you give me a tip?

It's when someone adds a new post to a thread that has gone out of "current" status in order to "bump" it back to current status so it will be seen again.

Oh, thanks for the explanation

But am I getting dumb?

Have I really posted this before? I just recently read about those things I mentioned like yawning etc. Sorry, if I made the whole club yawn.

No, I mean that your post had fallen out of the 24-hour category that many people look at. Bumping a post that has fallen out of "current" puts it back into "current."

Oh, so relieved! Everything clear now, Thanks! Aleady had great concerns about my loss of memory.