Let’s try to understand how a dog behaves in a society of others like itself. After all, a dog treats the human family as its own herd and communicates with the members of the herd in its own language.
A dog receives information from the world around it through its sensory organs. Everything – sight, smell, touch and hearing – is used by the dog to communicate with others like itself. The sense of smell is the most important part of close communication. When communicating at a distance, sight and hearing are used the most.
It is very important to be able to understand the signals a dog sends. In his book Dog Behaviour, the zoologist E.Bergman presents the following encoding of the signals that dogs send.
Sign
Corresponding emotion
Translation
Barking
The most common signal in most dogs. indicates alertness, fear, aggression, joy. The more aggressive the dog, the lower the barking tone; the more fearful it is, the higher the tone.
Barking
Aggression (in the absence of fear). Can be called an expression of pride. It is strongest when the dog is aggressive, butBut you can’t attack for all sorts of reasons. Howling can be a prologue to aggressive barking.
Crying
A short, strong, high-pitched sound, usually expressing pain or annoyance. A dog may cry when frightened (more likely even out of surprise). For example, if you step on a dog’s paw, it cries out.
Howling
Howling is the expression of some feelings related to being in a certain environment (dog or dog with human). A dog may feel lonely and longing when left alone (especially when the owner leaves the house. the dog may call out to him by howling). Some dogs howl to music.
If you watch your dog closely, you can distinguish its spoken words quite quickly. Dogs bark at a stranger and a person they know in completely different ways. In particular, the timbre of the voice is much lower.
The dog’s posture is equally important. For example, an aggressive posture – the dog is crouching, the fur is ruffled and the teeth are bared – can also evoke affection, especially if the dog is small. However, this posture reinforces the force and gives even a small dog an advantage. Therefore, if you don’t stop a small puppy from barking at you, it will continue to bark when it grows up, and sometimes it may even bite.
Posture, voice and other dog words have one purpose. It is a way for the dog to define its place in society. Wherever at least two animals are gathered, one of them is bound to take the dominant position. This applies to humans and dogs and to the relationship between humans and dogs. In everyday life, leadership may not continue between others, but it becomes clear that the relationship between the animals has changed for some reason or that there is competition between them.
The hierarchical position of dogs depends on many circumstances and life situations. Sometimes the position is formed depending on fierce fights and sometimes without much competition. Constant clashes between adult dogs are rare, unless the dogs are particularly aggressive.
When two unfamiliar dogs meet, they will engage in play-like behaviour.