Despite sharing our lives with dogs for years, it is often the case that we are unaware of the many ways that they are constantly communicating. Dogs are communicating all the time—with each other and with us. In human communication, we rely heavily on non-verbal communication to convey and understand the messages. This includes tone of voice, body postures, gestures, and subtle shifts in our bodies that we are barely aware of. Dogs speak through nonverbals in much the same way: vocalizations (whines, barks, howls), postures, and other signals conveyed through their bodies. Dogs are actually much better at reading our
body language than we are reading theirs. There is increasing evidence that their ability
to read us evolved through the domestication process. Their survival and well-being depends on people, so they watch all the time. They observe extremely subtle human
gestures. Something I find fascinating and extremely useful in regards to relationship building is dogs are not capable of deceit. Their body language tells us exactly what they are feeling. We just need to be able to “hear” the message and understand it accurately. All of that to say... learning to work and have a loving relationship with an animal has far more benefits than just knowing what they are saying. You can learn to really connect, empathize, and use metaphors to relate to our own feelings and reactions.
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