Reconciliation signals are a term introduced by Norwegian trainer Rugos Turid as part of her work studying the more subtle signals of dog communication, i.e., within the “language” of dogs.
Dog Communication Systems
Dogs use three main communication systems – sound, visual and olfactory.
Sound communication encompasses a wide range of sounds (whining, growling, barking, etc.).
Olfactory involves analyzing information based on received smells, which is highly significant for dogs since the nose is an incredible organ for perceiving this world. They have up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses compared to our 6 million, and the part of the brain responsible for analyzing smells is roughly 40 times larger than humans’. In her book “Inside of a Dog”, Alexandra Horowitz, a researcher of dog cognitive functions from Barnard College, writes that while we might notice if a teaspoon of sugar was added to our coffee, a dog could detect a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons (roughly 3.8 million liters) of water.
Visual communication – poses that a dog can use to express fear, aggression, submission, stress, and so on (just like us).
Dog poses are available for analysis by us, humans. Reconciliation signals are signals demonstrating the dog’s more subtle feelings, its state. Understanding these signals will be more than useful for a dog owner to communicate with it, because knowing that your dog is tense and stressed from your actions – a loving owner will try to reduce the pressure on their beloved friend and calm them down.
Examples of Reconciliation Signals
Flickering Tongue
– licking the snout, sometimes so fast that it’s barely noticeable to a person (but quite noticeable to another dog).
Yawning
A signal that’s not hard to spot, often you can see it when a person leans over their dog, or takes a picture of it, and the dog finds it uncomfortable when someone points a lens at them.
Turning Head Away
This could be a slight turn of the head or a full body turn in the other direction (so that the back and tail are facing the other dog). This signal is observed very often, especially when a person hugs a dog – it turns away (hugging is quite uncomfortable for dogs, because dogs don’t hug).
Sniffing the Ground
– might look like just a quick nose-to-ground motion, however, you can often see that in a stressful situation a dog (if it’s nervous itself or sees that another dog is nervous and needs to show “chill, no aggression from me, bro”) persistently and determinedly sniffs the ground around it for several minutes.
Play Bow
This pose is an invitation to play – also a way to show another dog that no aggressive actions are planned.
Slowing of Movements
A fast approach of one dog to another – can scare the other dog, so “according to etiquette” approaching another dog slowly – means not threatening it.
Approach in an Arc
It’s also polite in the dog language to approach another dog not straight on, but in an arc. A straight-on approach is more aggressive for dogs, so conflicts between dogs often occur that are forced to approach each other straight on, for instance, on a narrow road, or on leashes.
Freezing
The dog freezes – this signal requires more detailed examination in each specific situation, as it signifies that the dog is tense, and the message of this pose is to ask the opponent (a human or another dog) to move away or stop the actions that are happening. This pose will precede the following warning stages in dog language – baring teeth and a warning air bite.
For example, if you’re passing by your dog’s bowl and the dog freezes – it’s better to move further away and not push your dog to the necessity of showing teeth, and then separately address the issue of why your dog feels uncomfortable when it’s eating and you’re passing by.
Other Reconciliation Signals
You can read more about reconciliation signals in Rugos Turid’s book “Dialogue with a Dog.” The book is small and has photographs, reading it is important for every owner to understand a large part of other signals, such as:
- softening the gaze (looks like squinting)
- sitting (the dog can sit with its back to you or another dog)
- lying down
- “smile”
However, there are also threat signals that include:
- intense stare (it’s a harsh look *_*)
- approach in a straight line
- showing of teeth
- growling
- threatening bark
- a warning air snap (this kind of bite often passes in front of a person’s face, which usually scares people, but often not enough to deter them from the dog before a real bite happens)
It’s vital to understand that all these signals are a dog’s language. The dog doesn’t hate or disrespect its owner; it’s merely communicating in its language while still loving them. So, if your dog growls at you, it’s time to think about several things:
- You missed the previous signals, the dog tried to tell you a while ago that it feels uncomfortable in some situations
- Your dog feels uncomfortable in a certain situation
- Need to figure out how to make the dog comfortable
In the book “The Other End of the Leash” by Patricia McConnell, she cites a well-known video in the USA where a dog bites a journalist during an interview, and the video breaks down the dog’s warning signals. The journalist tapped the dog’s head; the dog showed signs of discomfort such as turning away its head and a flickering tongue, the dog tried to tell the man, “what are you doing, man, we didn’t drink to brotherhood and we are not so close,” then the man loomed over the dog and what naturally followed (such a bite “in the face” is not an attempt by the dog to kill a person, but an attempt to more harshly tell the man to back off, a more stern signal in dog language).
“Rehabilitation” dogs
In the USA, dog trainers now have “assistant dogs” who help them work with reactive dogs (“reactive” from the word “react” – reacting, i.e., a dog reacting aggressively to something).
Below is an example of such a dog, a chocolate Doberman named Bosko, communicating with another Doberman who is acting aggressively. Bosko, after several warning snaps in the air, shows the other Doberman that he is not scared, but he is not planning to fight either.
Such dogs, who are skilled communicators, help reactive dogs not react so aggressively to other dogs, not imposing their communication, showing that not all dogs are complete brutes. Such dogs can be found in our country in everyday life, perhaps even local dog trainers will adopt this technique.
Human actions that can cause stress in a dog
There are typical situations with a person in which a dog will feel uncomfortable and try to communicate this:
- Person leaning over the dog
- Person staring at the dog for a long time
- Kisses
- Hugs
- Person approaching the dog directly
- Yelling at the dog
- Taking pictures of the dog (dogs often dislike when this unfamiliar object is pointed at them)
Dogs don’t feel shame
Especially strong senseless stress factors for dogs are the “lectures” by owners who come home and find chewed items – the dog did this a while ago, has already forgotten about it, and its human comes home and starts scolding or punishing the dog, who doesn’t even understand why its human is angry.
On the internet, you can often find videos of “dogs feeling ashamed of what they’ve done” or “dogs feeling guilty“. Whereas every owner should study appeasement signals and realize that the dog doesn’t understand why it’s being yelled at, it’s scared, it’s trying to calm down its inexplicably scolding human.
In these videos, the dog is just very scared, it’s not ashamed, there’s no point in needlessly exposing your dog to such stress. All this behavior can achieve is to help the person vent, but it’s not only inhumane and unfair to regain emotional balance at the dog’s expense, but it also spoils further understanding with the dog.
In conclusion
Appeasement signals not only allow the owner to understand when their dog is stressed, but also allow the owner to use appeasement signals to be polite in dog language, avoid conflicts, and help their dog relax in a stressful situation.
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