Your Body is a Wonderland
- Rachel R. Baum
- Jun 12, 2010
- 2 min read
English Mastiffs don’t speak English.
Italian Greyhounds don’t speak Italian.
German Short-Haired Pointers don’t speak German.
None of these dogs speak Russian, Chinese or French, either.
Dogs speak fluent Canine, a complex patois of body language and voice tones. Meditate on this – they can talk with each other regardless of the breed or country of origin – because they are all the same species.
Humans can’t do that – we”re not born with that skill. We have to study other languages – or be raised in a house where the language is spoken – in order to talk with members of our species who are from a different country than us.
Yet dogs are also amazingly gifted at communicating with us, even though we speak a language foreign to them.
Daisy is a Rhodesian Ridgeback. No, she’s not from South Africa, she was born in Syosset, Long Island. When she greets another dog, she says “Hello, how are you?” by walking up to the newcomer daintily, politely sniffs the dog’s nose and mouth, then moves to the rear for a more thorough getting-to-know-you inspection.
Gatsby is an Australian Shepherd. Nope, he’s not from Sydney, but from outside of the Poconos in Pennsylvania. Gatsby has a bit of an obsession with Frisbees. This is how he tells his owner he wants to play. He grabs the Frisbee, runs up and chomps enthusiastically on it, and pushes it into his owner’s lap, then backs away and barks.
Sybil is a French Poodle. She’s never been to France. She’s also never been around children very much. When a child comes up to her, she backs up, licks her lips, her tail droops and twitches slightly, and her whole body begins to arc into a half-circle. She looks pleadingly up at her owner, as if to say “Help! Make this creature leave.”
Sometimes we misinterpret a dog’s body language. For example, we might think a wagging tail means a dog is happy when it might actually mean that the dog is alert and on-guard. And of course, we humans tend to believe our dogs have deep, profound thoughts on par with our own contemplations. We tend to miss clear signals that our dogs give us, like wanting us to stop petting them, or to let them outside for a call of nature, or that their bowl of Holistic Select Natural dog food is sadly empty.
Although dogs talk with their whole bodies, an upcoming post will look at dog ears and what they say to us.
Until then, what is your dog telling you?
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