How Dogs Communicate — And Why It Matters for Training and Behaviour

Understanding What Your Dog Is Really Saying

Dogs are constantly communicating—not just with other dogs, but with us as well. The challenge is that humans don’t always understand what they’re trying to say.

Communication in dogs happens in three main ways:

• Vocal signals

• Visual signals (body language)

• Olfactory signals (scent-based communication)

When we learn to interpret these correctly, behaviour problems often start to make a lot more sense—and training becomes significantly more effective.

Dogs Communicate Through Scent First

One of the most important but least obvious communication systems is smell.

Dogs rely heavily on olfactory communication to gather information about their environment, including who has been there, how recently, and even emotional and biological information (Bradshaw et al., 2017). This is why sniffing is not “distraction” on walks—it is information gathering and communication.

For dogs, scent is often the first layer of understanding a situation.

Vocal Communication: More Than Just Barking

Dogs use a range of vocalisations including:

• Barking

• Growling

• Whining

• Yelping

These sounds serve different purposes depending on context. Barking is often used to gain attention, while whining may indicate frustration or uncertainty.

Research shows that humans are generally better at interpreting barking than growling, which is often misunderstood or ignored (Taylor et al., 2009). This creates a communication gap that can easily lead to confusion in training or everyday life.

A growl is not “bad behaviour”—it is communication. It is often a warning signal saying “I am uncomfortable” long before any escalation occurs.

Visual Communication: The Language of Body Language

Dogs also communicate constantly through body language.

This includes:

• Eye contact or avoidance

• Mouth position (open, closed, tense)

• Ear posture

• Body stiffness or relaxation

• Lip licking or blinking

These subtle signals are extremely important but often missed by humans (Talamonti et al., 2013).

For example:

• A dog turning their head away may be avoiding conflict

• Lip licking can indicate stress

• A stiff body may indicate discomfort before escalation

While humans tend to recognise extreme emotions like fear or aggression, subtle early-warning signals are often overlooked (Bloom & Friedman, 2013).

Miscommunication Between Humans and Dogs

Because humans and dogs process sensory information differently, misunderstandings are common (Bradshaw et al., 2017).

For example:

• A wagging tail is often assumed to mean happiness, but can also indicate nervousness or uncertainty (Singh & Young, 2013)

• Hugging a dog is often seen as affectionate, but many dogs find it uncomfortable or stressful (Walsh et al., 2024)

These misunderstandings can unintentionally place dogs in situations where they feel pressured or unsafe.

Over time, repeated misunderstanding can lead to escalation in behaviour if the dog’s earlier signals are ignored.

Why This Matters for Behaviour and Training

When owners learn to read canine communication more accurately, behaviour issues often become clearer and easier to manage.

Rather than seeing behaviour as “bad” or “defiant,” we begin to see:

• Emotional states

• Stress signals

• Needs that are not being met

This aligns with a more modern, dog-centred approach to training, where understanding the dog comes before changing the behaviour.

As Wlodarczyk (2017) suggests, modern training requires us to “be more dog”—to interpret their communication rather than impose our own assumptions.

Final Thoughts

Dogs are communicating all the time. The more we learn to understand their signals, the more effective and compassionate our training becomes.

When communication is understood correctly:

• Behaviour improves

• Stress reduces

• Trust increases

• The human–dog relationship strengthens

Training is not just about teaching dogs—it is about learning their language.

references

Bloom, T. and Friedman, H., 2013. Classifying Dogs’(Canis familiaris) Facial Expressions. Psychiatric Times, 16(2), pp.45-55.

Bradshaw, J., Rooney, N. and Serpell, J., 2017. Dog social behavior and communication. The domestic dog: Its evolution, behavior and interactions with people, pp.133-159.

Singh, A. and Young, J.E., 2013. A dog tail for utility robots: exploring affective properties of tail movement. In Human-Computer Interaction–INTERACT 2013: 14th IFIP TC 13 International Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, September 2-6, 2013, Proceedings, Part II 14 (pp. 403-419). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Talamonti, Z., Fagnoni, C., Dalla Costa, E., Cannas, S., Minero, M. and Palestrini, C., 2013. How people with different experience interpret canine body language?.

Taylor, A.M., Reby, D. and McComb, K., 2009. Context‐related variation in the vocal growling behaviour of the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). Ethology, 115(10), pp.905-915.

Walsh, E.A., Meers, L.L., Samuels, W.E., Boonen, D., Claus, A., Duarte-Gan, C., Stevens, V., Contalbrigo, L. and Normando, S., 2024. Human-dog communication: How body language and non-verbal cues are key to clarity in dog directed play, petting and hugging behaviour by humans. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 272, p.106206.

Wlodarczyk, J., 2017. Be more dog: The human–Canine relationship in contemporary dog-training methodologies. Performance Research, 22(2), pp.40-47