What Your Dog Is Trying to Tell You | Dog Knows

Rooted in reality and science, and woven into an engrossing narrative, Dog Knows handles the enigmatic world of dog communication and intuition with great sensitivity. Written by renowned canine behaviourist Sindhoor Pangal, this book navigates the journeys of several dogs through life, embraces their vulnerability, and helps us decode their nuanced communication strategies and messages. Read this excerpt to understand what your dog may be trying to tell you:

Another way to alter an animals’ behaviour is with rewards, but the animal may be showing the behaviour as a way of expressing an internal state. Not getting to the bottom of what is causing it may leave the underlying issue unaddressed. The behaviour may also simply be part of a dog’s normal ethogram. An ethogram is collection of behaviours that is considered normal for free-ranging members of a species, in their natural habitat. Simply put, this is just normal behaviour, and while it may seem inconvenient to us, not allowing the dog to engage in these behaviours may have dire consequences on the mental well-being of the animal. I have a few examples to help me discuss this idea.

1. Dogs may express fear through distance-creating signals such as lunging, snarling, growling or trying to run away. Several skilled professionals may be able to extinguish these behaviours, but the catch is that there really is no evidence that changing the behaviour can change the underlying emotion. Furthermore, in some cases, this fearful emotion may be coming from hidden physical discomfort. A dog may be nervous that certain interactions could trigger pain, so the behaviours we see may be defensive reactions. However, if we just change the behaviour, then we do not know if the internal state changed. In my work, behaviours are like a meter that indicates the internal state of the dog, and altering the behaviour is like rigging the meter, depriving us of valuable information.

2. Consider the behaviours of destruction or chewing of objects. This is, in fact, part of a dog’s ethogram. Sometimes, dogs may chew excessively, which could be an indication of something else going wrong. One reason could be that the animal is stressed, and chewing helps it ease this stress. Another could be a dog using the sensory input from the mouth for better sensory integration in uncertain situations. There also seems to be a correlation between ulcers and oral stereotypies. When I encounter this behaviour, the first thing I do is to try to meet the needs of the dog in as healthy a way as possible. In the meantime, I also launch an investigation to get to the bottom of what may be causing excessive chewing.

3. Consider the example of dogs wanting to sleep on our beds or sofas. This may not always work for us, but what can we observe of normal sleeping behaviours of dogs? Sleeping on elevated surfaces, sleeping in bursts and moving between Dog Knows 239 these bursts seems to be part of their ethogram. Dogs may prefer elevation to keep a lookout, a behaviour they do not need in our homes but is simply one they carry as part of their ethogram. I only speculate here on what may be resulting in it, but what we do know is that organisms need to feel comfortable in where and how they sleep. If that does not happen, it can compromise the quality of sleep, which in turn impacts behaviour. Therefore, instead of locking dogs in crates, giving them very limited options, could we instead consider taking away access just to the sofa or the bed we consider off limits, but still leave them with sufficient options that can cater to their preferences?

Dogs have many behaviours that we may not always understand and many ways of learning things too. Yet, the lives of our dogs are heavily controlled by us in terms of access to almost all the resources necessary for survival and welfare, such as food, water, social contact, sleep and movement. It is easy to end up being the primary driver of their behaviours, and therefore, it is imperative to be mindful of what we are asking of them. Should we be modifying their behaviours or trying to alter the internal state that drives a certain behaviour? Are some behaviours serving important functions in the dog? Should we even consider extinguishing those or 240 Sindhoor Pangal just finding ways of engaging with them in other ways? Should we be aiming to teach them everything they know, or can we give them access to environments and other members of their species from whom they can learn? Should we give them opportunities where they can engage in some amount of safe trials and errors, and give them the pleasure of figuring out some meaningful life-lessons on their own?

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