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It is quite easy to recognize intense fear in dogs. A tucked, squatting, panting tail, a tight mouth and a wrinkled, narrowing forehead. But my friend and co-author Marge Rogers taught me the importance of seeing the first signs. The whispers, she calls them, that precede the “screams” that come later if we ignore early warnings.
I caught a “whisper” on camera.
Explore a new object
The other day I started taking pictures of 18-month-old Lewis as he explored a newly parked trailer in front of the house next door. I have been taking Lewis for walks for a few months after having him at the end of December 2021. Lewis is fascinated by novelty, as long as he feels safe. It’s a bit of a paradox, perhaps, but we usually find the sweet spot. And he mostly investigates with his nose (no surprise!).
Since I was already photographing “Curious Lewis”, I also filmed the moment when he got nervous about something.
If you just look at the photo above, you’ll probably notice two things: the lift of the front leg and its weight shifted rearward, away from the trailer.
After looking at it in context, you’ll see at least two more. Let’s go back to when it felt better about the trailer. The next four photos show him investigating.
I took all of these photos in the span of a minute as Lewis moved along and around the trailer, exploring it with his nose. I didn’t give him treats, as I often would when a dog interacts with an object for the first time and could benefit from a positive match. I had made the call that he was comfortable and that the sniffing itself was probably getting stronger.
Lewis body language
In all of the photos, Lewis’ tail is up and curled, and his ears are in various positions but not flattened against his head, which he does when he’s scared. In the first pair of photos, while on the grass, he stands a little back from the trailer and reaches out to sniff it. In the second photo you can see that he is strengthening his hind legs. In the third and fourth photos, he seems comfortable being close.
Then it happened, also in the same minute.
The most obvious thing is now clear from the context: Lewis backed off. He created a space between himself and the trailer. The other thing that jumps out when you compare this photo to the others is that his tail is down about half mast. If you weren’t familiar with Lewis and his normal tail carriage and saw this photo by itself, it might be hard to detect.
There are two things in the picture that I didn’t notice at the time: he wasn’t putting his head forward as strongly and he had shifted his weight backwards. I didn’t notice because I got busy and gave him a treat and then took him a few steps away from the trailer. He recovered quickly and quickly wanted to check out the trailer some more, and we did. He stayed comfortable this time. We continued our walk after he sniffed everything.
What scared Lewis and how bad was it?
Of course, we wonder: what was Lewis afraid of? From time to time in this situation, I find out later. But I think this time, I’ll never know. The bag sitting in the trailer seemed like some sort of insulation; Lewis gave him a few good sniffles and moved on. The last thing he sniffed before backing up seemed to be the edge of the trailer behind the wheel. It’s also possible that the trailer moved and made noise, but I’m a hearing person and usually notice things like that. I always bet on the smell.
It would be nice to know for the future what was bothering him, but for now it didn’t matter. Anyway, unless there is real danger, I will do the same things. I’ll associate food or play with the new object, and if it’s in over his head, I’ll help him get away from it a bit.
There is another thing we don’t know. That is to say if the whisper was going to turn into a cry. But even with my limited experience, I’ve learned to take every whisper seriously.
I’ve seen Lewis get nervous, then downright scared, when he sniffs something. On his first walks, he often had a habit of freezing and getting “stuck” when this happened, growing increasingly upset as he sniffled. That’s why I took him away giving him a treat. Taking a dog out in public is full of those momentary decisions about how best to support them. Lewis is becoming more resilient, so he may not have needed my intervention. But anyway, he bounced back.
Why?
Why is it important to learn these more subtle behaviors related to fear? Because we love our dogs. We live with these marvelous creatures of another species. Caring about their well-being means learning what they say in their own language. And the more we learn about their body language, the better we can help them live a happy life.
It is imperative to hear the whispers when socialize a puppy Where working with a fearful dog. We want to notice before fear is in full bloom. If we don’t notice this early, we risk scaring them more overall instead of helping them be comfortable in the world.
Marge Rogers tells a beautiful story of dogs and puppies who whisper to us when they are worried. I decided not to reproduce it here, because it tells it so much better. I stole his phrase and used it instead! But you can read his version in our book on puppy socialization (page 65 of the pocket book).
Lewis went from cautiously curious, to comfortably curious, to worried, all in the span of 60 seconds. I missed some of it, only seeing it later on camera. But I saw enough to offer him a little support just when he needed it.
Copyright 2022 Eileen Anderson
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