If Your Dog Could Talk: Canine Communication – Dogs Are Always Talking to Us

You’re walking your dog when another dog appears at the end of the path. They look at each other for a few seconds. Your dog turns their head slightly, slows down and looks away. They lick their lips and begin to take a slight detour rather than walking in a straight line. You barely notice. You keep walking. A few seconds later, your dog growls.

“He growled without warning.”

In fact, they had been giving warning signals for some time. We simply hadn’t understood the language.

Unlike us, as we rely mainly on words, dogs communicate primarily through their bodies. The position of their ears, tail and head, muscle tension, the direction of their gaze, the speed at which they walk and even the way they approach another dog are all part of an extraordinarily rich and precise language.

Every movement has meaning. Every posture conveys information. And most of this conversation takes place in silence.

That’s why, when a dog growls, they are rarely starting the conversation. More often, the growl is one of the last messages in a long sequence of signals that have gone unnoticed.

Before that, your dog may have looked away to avoid a confrontation. Perhaps they turned their head slightly, licked their lips even though there was no food around, yawned despite not being tired, or suddenly stopped to sniff the ground as if they had discovered something fascinating. To us, these may seem like insignificant gestures or even coincidences. However, they are often part of a language dogs use to reduce tension, show that they mean no harm or try to keep a situation calm.

When two dogs meet, many of these signals are met with similar responses. One slows down and the other does the same. One turns their body slightly and the other avoids approaching head-on. It is a silent conversation in which both dogs are trying to understand each other’s intentions and keep the encounter as safe and comfortable as possible.

If these signals don’t work or aren’t respected, a dog may feel compelled to use increasingly clear messages. A growl is not usually a sign of aggression. Very often, it is an attempt to prevent the situation from escalating. That is why punishing or correcting a growl makes no sense.

Understanding this completely changes the way we interpret canine behaviour. Instead of asking ourselves why a dog growled, we begin to ask what they were trying to tell us beforehand that we failed to notice.

TThere are also gestures we often misinterpret. One of the best-known is tail wagging. Dogs don’t wag their tails simply because they’re happy. A high, stiff tail with rapid movements can indicate excitement or tension, while a relaxed tail wagging in broad, sweeping movements usually reflects a very different emotional state. The tail alone never tells the whole story.

If you live in Calvià, every walk probably brings encounters with other dogs. Learning to recognise these signals makes those moments calmer and safer, both for them and for us. Sometimes, respecting a slight detour or allowing a little more distance for a few seconds can prevent uncomfortable situations long before they arise.

Listening to a dog doesn’t mean waiting for them to bark. It means learning to see everything they say before that.

Did you know...? Dogs’ facial expressions change when they interact with people. Several studies have shown that dogs deliberately move certain facial muscles — such as those that raise the inner eyebrows — more frequently when they know a human is paying attention to them. Some researchers believe this ability may have helped foster communication between dogs and people during the process of domestication.

If you’d like to learn more... If this topic has sparked your curiosity, we recommend On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas. Considered a classic in the field of canine behaviour, this book has helped thousands of people better understand how dogs communicate and discover a silent language that, once you learn to recognise it, can completely change the way you relate to them.

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“I don’t need words to talk to you. I just need you to learn to look at me.”