Quote: Christina Stockinger

Very nasty this behaviour to a newbie! The door of the stabel was very low and I feared to hit my head and fall down. Poor animal, I held myself with my arms around his neck, the horse must have felt near to be strangled!

LOL, I think that newbie-savvy horse was "laughing to himself" and secretly HOPED you might get knocked off going through the barn door What Ed Frawley says about Dogs is also true of HORSES: They know what you Know, and they KNOW what you Don't Know (!!!)

Animals read people and other animals like a book.

The first time I went to watch a herding trial it was so apparent what dogs would handle unruly stock the min they walked on the field/pen.

There were five sets of six cattle that rotated to keep them fresh with each new dog.

There always seemed to be one set that had a real dog wrecker. That particular young steer would go out of it's way to punk the dogs and many of the dogs flunked the exercises yet with some dogs it hardly put any effort into it.

This one tiny little BC walked in like she was king of the hill and had this evil set under control and going through it's paces with little to no need for nipping heels or heads.

The stock just knew and the dog certainly did.

Candi! Bob! Once again, very nasty! How can they? Slowly but surely those beasts are getting very creepy for me! . What can I do! Don't like everbeast being able to read my mind. Some privacy should be left. Do you know perhaps some book or DVD or any tricks how to hinder those monsters to see through me? Or at least how I can see through them better.

 Quote: Christina Stockinger

Candi! Bob! Once again, very nasty! How can they? Slowly but surely those beasts are getting very creepy for me! . What can I do! Don't like everbeast being able to read my mind. Some privacy should be left. Do you know perhaps some book or DVD or any tricks how to hinder those monsters to see through me? Or at least how I can see through them better.

LOL, animals have X-RAY vision, and it's all about THEM

Poker Players and Psychics are masters at reading human "tells" (subconscious tell-tale signs that telegraph their inner secrets, even when folks try to HIDE them from others) -- Right now I'm reading, "Your Dog Is Your Mirror", by Kevin Behan ... Its somewhat unconventional thesis conveys a lot of truth, IMHO, whether or not one agrees with every detail of the author's proposal

I've got a bit of reservation about too many x-rays. But I guess dogs use a better technique. The whole sounds extremely interesting. Always worth to read such a book. Something new - whether we will believe in it or not - we will decide afterwards. Thanks a lot for the input!

Kindest regards also to your wonderful doggish x-rayers!
Christina

Ditto on the tells!

Animals survive by awareness of their surroundings. That includes other animals.

Humans do it to a lesser degree.

A dog walks up to you very stiff legged, tail up and looking you in the eyes.

That dog is gonna bite if you not very careful.

A dog runs around you yapping and moving away when you step towards it. Don't turn your back but chances are the dog will keep it's distance.

The farmer walks in a field of cattle and the bull starts pawing at the ground. Suddenly the tail goes straight up. You better have excellent foot work.

Not a big fan of to many x-rays either.

I do believe in dog's greater awareness of their surroundings. But how they are able to quase "x-ray" our momentary mood or whatsoever I don't understand. And we humans did we have this capacity once and lost it during evolution?

 Quote: Christina Stockinger

I do believe in dog's greater awareness of their surroundings...

But how they are able to quase "x-ray" our momentary mood or whatsoever I don't understand...

And we humans did we have this capacity once and lost it during evolution?

Dogs communicate in terms of BODY LANUAGE because they are a Non-Verbal animal -- They pick up on (and likewise transmit themselves) the minutest of subtle details in our gaze & gait, etc... Dogs also SMELL & HEAR things about us of which we may not even be very aware, such as an Adrenaline Surge or Altered Respiration (!) A few people are actually much better at observing these "signs" than most other folks (especially with some training) but virtually everything that goes on in our MIND does have Detectable Effects on our BODY

I always thought to be a non-verbal animal to a certain extent, although - (Mark will confirm) - I produce sometimes too much words. But one thing is certain. with dogs I cannot compete!

One of the many must dos in dog training is to be consistent with what we try to teach the dog.

Some dogs more then others are very tuned into their human's body language.

I've had dog's that could tell me it's a bad day for training no matter how I tried to hide it.

If I'm stressed for whatever reason both my dogs can see if I work them but react differently.

Thunder is a very forward and confident dog. He can just give me a look as if to say "Get it out of your system old man and we can accomplish something here.

He can easily snap me out of whatever and get me back to training because HE shows ME what we need to do.

With Trooper, a very handler soft dog, he can almost shut down no matter how "HAPPY" I present myself.

With him I just stop what were doing, sit on the ground and give him a good belly rub. That mellows us both out because he is very forgiving.

That's what gets us back in gear for training.

Thunder is just plain smarter then me and Trooper is such a clown I can stay mad at either one.

There doesn't have to be hardly any verbal communication for the most part.

We just read one another's moods.