20/08/2026
“I wish someone would’ve told me this years ago…” 🐾
We often expect dogs to communicate with us through barking, whining or obvious behaviours, but they are actually communicating with us constantly through their body language. Once you learn to recognise the little signs, you can start to understand what your dog is trying to tell you before things ever escalate.
Something as simple as lip licking, yawning or showing the whites of their eyes, known as whale eye, can be a sign that your dog is feeling uncomfortable, worried, stressed or overwhelmed. Of course, context is incredibly important. A dog licking their lips because they’ve just had a tasty treat is very different from a dog repeatedly licking their lips while being handled, approached by another dog or placed in an unfamiliar situation. Likewise, a yawn doesn’t always mean your dog is tired. Dogs can yawn as a way of coping with stress or communicating that they are uncomfortable with what is happening around them. Whale eye, where you can see the whites of the eyes as your dog looks away while keeping their eyes fixed on something, can also be a subtle sign that they would like more space.
Lip licking or lip smacking can be referred as self soothing behaviours, and they can be easy to miss because they don’t always look dramatic. Your dog may be trying to communicate “I’m not sure about this,” “I’m uncomfortable,” or “Please give me a little more space.” Learning to recognise these signals means we can step in earlier and help our dogs before their stress builds.
And then there’s growling, one of the most misunderstood behaviours in dogs. A growl does not automatically mean a dog is nasty, aggressive or dangerous. A growl is communication. It is often a very clear warning that a dog is uncomfortable and wants a situation to change. They might be saying “I don’t like this,” “I’m scared,” “Please stop,” or “I need you to move away.”
This is why growling should never simply be punished. If we punish a dog for growling, we haven’t necessarily changed how they feel about the situation. We may have only taught them that using their warning signal gets them into trouble. Punishing growling can also teach your dog that if none of these small signals are listened to, they will just straight to a snap. The emotion is still there, but the communication may disappear. That can make it much harder for us to recognise when a dog is struggling.
Instead, we should listen to what the growl is telling us and look at why the dog feels the need to growl. What happened immediately beforehand? Are they being handled, guarding something, feeling frightened, overwhelmed or asking another dog for space? Understanding the reason behind the behaviour is far more valuable than simply trying to stop the behaviour itself.
The really important thing to remember is that no single body language signal tells us everything. We need to look at the entire dog: their eyes, ears, mouth, tail, posture, movement and the situation they’re in. A single yawn doesn’t automatically mean a stressed dog, just as a wagging tail doesn’t automatically mean a happy dog. Context and the individual dog matter.
Our dogs spend their entire lives learning how to understand us. They learn our routines, our voices, our expressions and our habits. So let’s make the effort to learn their language too. 🐶🧡
Because sometimes the quietest things they do are saying the most.
Save this post for later and share it with someone who loves their dog and wants to understand them a little better. 🌿🐾
