A dog’s body language is about more than wagging its tail or showing its teeth. It is a form of communication that allows others to know who they are, their position in the pack, and much more.

Dogs not only communicate vocally, but also use and interpret body language. They use their entire body to communicate from a tilt of the head to a wag of the tail.

Start taking note of your dog’s actions and learn to understand them.

The more you understand your dog, the more he will know how the messages he sends you are understood.

Take a trip to the dog park and watch the dogs interact with each other. Learn how one dog’s body language communicates and reacts to another dog’s body language.

Notice the position of his ears and the expression on his face from the frown on his forehead to the tightness around his mouth and muzzle. How its weight is distributed and how it supports its tail. You will begin to learn if you are relaxed and / or dominant in a certain situation or if you are submissive or even fearful.

A dominant dog is not an aggressive dog, he trusts himself and his position. Likewise, a submissive dog is not a scared dog. In fact, they also rely on knowing where they are in the grand scheme of things. They know their position and are content with it.

A dog’s body language can show that he is submissive to a higher rank but dominant to a lower rank. In fact, it is within these mid-ranges that most fights occur because they are continually competing for position.

A pack leader doesn’t need to stoop to fight.

When in the park, watch the dogs playing together, but more importantly, watch the first-time ones. How do you react to each other, do you both react the same? Does one dog show dominance over the other?

When you observe them, observe their general behavior and then try to distinguish the subtleties of the behavior. Are you both tail-up and wagging, relaxed or stiff? Look at the eyes, ears, mouth, and hair, especially along the neck and back.

Dogs are naturally pack animals with keen senses. They can hear, see and smell things long before we can. They always look at each other and also at what is going on around them.

They use their body language as a means of communication and will very often observe yours and interpret your movements. Knowing this, we can use it to our advantage by doing two things; learn the body language of our own dog and learn to use it in their training.