Scared puppy?

What do I do if pup is scared of something and how will I know if they are scared or stressed?

If they become scared of something or spooked, do not pull them toward it, give them some space and time to decide if they can overcome their fear and be more inquisitive and praise any movement toward the item/object/person. If they are pulling away from it then take them to a distance that they can observe but are more relaxed and not pulling away. 

If you have a phobia of spiders, someone pulling you closer to a spider is not going to make you any less fearful, if anything you would become more fearful and start to distrust the person who pulled you closer. 

Be your pup’s advocate and if something scares them, help them by protecting them and making them feel safer, this is often by moving away. If you can then give them the time and option to make bolder choices, if they don’t that’s ok too just try again another time. 

How do you tell if they are scared or happy?

Dogs are giving signals as to their feelings and emotions. Not just by using their tail either. If we can learn to listen/read them the easier life will be with them. 

A wagging tail isn’t always a happy one

A dog’s tail wagging doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re happy.    

If it’s very upright and very short, stiff wags. That can be high alert, and that can then progress into aggression or grumbling, being vocal, but not what we want. They’re all signs to say they’re not happy. 

If its short stiff wags but low and almost between their legs this means they are unsure, scared and insecure.

Loose, big rhythmic wags that are mid-level – neither very high nor very low is a sign of a happy dog. 

Again, this is breed-depending. This is very good for, say, if you’ve got a Labrador or a German Shepherd, but if you’ve got something like a Tibetan Terrier, for example, they have a very upright curly tail, so it’s a lot harder to read this. They all have a different relaxed tail placement.

With a curly tail – they will hold it in different ways and move it in different ways. It’s about learning to translate this to that type of dog.

The shake-off

Dogs will do a whole-body shake. Like if they get out of the river or out of the bath, for example, they’ll do the whole-body shake to shake the water off. We all know what that looks like, but dogs will do this quite regularly anyway throughout the day, even when they’re not wet. Now, what this is called is an adrenalin shake-off, and it basically means they’ve got so excited or so anxious about something, depending on what’s going on, that they know that they absolutely stink of adrenalin, at least to other dogs, and they shake it off, and it calms them down.

It’s a bit like if we’re in a stressful meeting, for example with work, and then you walk out the door, you shut the door and you have to take a big sigh, like ‘Hooo,’ and that’s you calming yourself down and you’re kind of like, ‘Right, okay. Yeah. Okay, I can go back in now.’ The shake-off is the same in the dogs. Start to take a mental note of when they’re doing this. It’s quite common that when you go to put the lead on, and then they shake off as you’re about to leave for the walk, or as you’re locking the door as you’re leaving for the walk, or after a big play session that you’ve had with them.

Again, it can be excitement, but it can be adrenalin because they’re worried or anxious. I always tell my guys, and I’m always telling clients, that when they shake off, I always go, ‘Good dog,’ because I like to acknowledge it. That makes me take a mental note of what’s just gone on beforehand. What’s made them do that? Have I made them do that? Have I leaned over them too much? Especially if you’ve got little dogs, if you’re leaning over all the time, they’re kind of like, ‘Whoa, big person leaning over. Not good.’ It can be perceived as a little bit threatening, and quite often, you’ll find that they shake off after.

If they’re shaking off a lot, then start thinking about what’s stressing them now. 

I always tell them they’re good, because it’s so much better that they’re calming themselves down, rather than us trying to teach them how do this. But just start to take a mental note of how often this is happening.

Let’s have a look at a few basics of dog body language. The paw lift, the yawn, lip lick, look away, turn away, are all calming signals, as in they will use these signals to calm themselves, you or other dogs down. They will do all of these things, like very minor stress signals, but all things to look for. All things that you’ve probably not really noticed that much.

Yawning – of course dogs will yawn because they’re tired, just like us, and they’re the only other species that we can catch yawns from and that they can catch them from us, but they will yawn due to stress as well.

Stress signals – forward, upright stance, suspicious, maybe a bit anxious, scared, tucked under, quite small, low. Sweaty paws. Dogs do sweat through their pads, so if you’ve got, say, stone floors, then you’ll be able to see when this starts to happen. 

Stress release

Shake-off, the ground sniff and the scratch, usually of the collar when you walk in, and it’s so annoying and you want to just carry on. They’re all things that will help them calm down. You might find that they’re ground sniffing because they want to sniff. It’s all about context, but all things to start looking for.

Breed or breed type matters. Dogs are racist. Black dogs get a real bum deal. I love black dogs. I love nothing more than having a good cuddle with a big black dog, but because their whole face is in shadow, other dogs cannot read them as well. They can’t tell what they’re saying. So you’ll probably find that if your dog’s reacting badly to other dogs, they’re going to be the worst with black dogs.

If your dog has folded ears, so what I mean is they’re droopy ears. All of my guys have got droopy ears, but they can’t communicate quite as well. If you think about the typical German Shepherd ears being very upright, you can see when they start to swivel, and if they’re fully forward and very interested in something, or if they’re pinned back and they’re not very happy. Their ears do tell us a lot. If you’ve got a dog with folded ears, you will be able to see them twitching and moving and changing position, but obviously the other dogs can’t read them as well as if they had upright ears.

Docked tails

A tail is a key way that dogs communicate with each other, so if they’ve been docked, for whatever reason … No judgements here; if your dog’s been docked and other dogs are reacting to your dog, a part of it could be that. If you’ve got, say, Bulldogs or dogs that are born without much of a tail, then that’s restricting their ability to communicate. Short muzzles, so brachycephalic breeds such as Pugs, Bulldogs, Boxers, etc. they have very short muzzles. Their facial expressions are hard to see, they’re on the back foot, so your dog might be worse with those kind of dogs, or if your dog is one of those dogs, other dogs can’t read them as well.

Threatening or fearful possibly aggressive dog body language 

Stiff slow movement, fast stiff short wags of the tail with it very high or very low.

Growls, snarls, front teeth showing. 

Submissive, insecure, appeasing gestures (common in puppies under 16 weeks)

Rolling onto back showing belly, crawling on belly

Front paw lift 

Lip licking the other dog

Low level stress signals 

Yawning, panting, lip licking (own lips)

Mid/low level stress signals 

Turning head away

Turning body away 

Moving away 

Rude behaviour when greeting (encourage away from another dog as they may get told off).

Going over the shoulder blades of the other dog

Jumping on the other dog’s face or body

Barking in their face 

Humping 

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