On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals

Strongly recommend this book for better understanding of your dogs. Especially helpful if like me, you don’t feel you intuitively understand dogs. I had a severe dog phobia most of my life and this book was one of the keys in overcoming my fear of dogs and helping me bond with the dogs who ultimately joined our family. It is short and fast to read but very insightful.

I have 4 dogs and while I work on training, things are far from perfect more often than not. I am always looking into ways to keep improving and stumbled upon this book by accident (or AI interference lol). I have so much less time in life that to be honest, I scroll straight to the page count of a book before I even consider it. Like a dog, I need to set myself up for success :) This fit the bill, seemed to address an issue I have going on, so I bought the print version over the digital version. Glossy pages (my favorite), enough photos, and short enough I could get through. So I jumped right in. WOW. Simplified. This is perfectly simplified, you aren’t getting lost in deep explanations and then forgetting what the lesson was, and the examples are helpful enough to give you just that: an example. I learned or gained more insight out of this book than I have the mountains of dog books I own, which is not because those books aren’t any good, but information is only helpful if a person has time to read that many pages and absorb it. I have immediately started applying this “to the point” guidance in trying to communicate calmness with my dogs, but more importantly, I have suddenly woke up up to being better at observing them communicating. Mind blown! As soon as I finished this book, I immediately ordered the other 2 by Turid Rugaas that were relevant to me and I am looking forward to diving into her insights!

Short book, quick read, and interesting insights into an aspect of dog behavior - that is, the use of calming signals to defuse a situation or encounter. While I enjoyed Rugaas' personal narratives about experiences with her own dogs to illustrate various points, as well as the photographs included, I think much of what was said could have been condensed into a pamphlet or video format. Nevertheless, it has made me much more aware of how my dog is communicating with me, and how I respond, which is both exciting and useful. I feel that given Rugaas' obvious experience and knowledge of dog behavior, that she could have given a more comprehensive overview of dog behaviors and signals - including fear, threat etc., some of which are discussed and diagrammed in Patricia McConnell's The Other End of the Leash. I hope to get this from Brenda Aloff's Canine Body Language and Sarah Kalnajs DVD The Language of Dogs - based on their favorable reviews.

I love dogs (and animals, in general) and happened across this book while searching for a training guide for a friend and her new puppy. Although this isn't actually a training guide, it provides an invaluable insight into the actions and responses I've observed in dogs throughout the years. The concept backing the author's understanding appears to be the same as that of Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer. Creating a relationship with a puppy or dog should never be about domination or punishments, it should be formed through understanding and love. Turid Rugaas helps to clarify, simply, how uninformed people with good intentions create the problems we usually see in dogs. One of the enlightening understandings which I gained from this book involves the popular thinking among people that, in order to train a dog, a person must establish themselves as the "Alpha" member of the pack. To many, that idea implies that the human should dominate the dog, or even subjugate it. To truly understand the (healthy) relationship which humans should foster with their dog(s), we must understand the nature of being the "Alpha" and the implications. To be the Alpha is to be the PARENT in the pack, not the "Boss." When we fail to establish our self as the Alpha member of the dog's pack, the dog will, by nature, assume that role for his/her own protection and the protection of the pack. This places a great deal of stress upon the dog and erodes both feelings of security and peace of mind, which will lead to behavioral issues. Ms. Rugaas clarifies the gentle nature of the pack, and the discipline that is enforced. Dogs, by their true natures, try to avoid conflicts, and thus the title of this book. A problem which often arises as the direct result of the human not assuming the proper role of parent (Alpha) begins when the dog feels the need to assume the role, by (genetic) default because of the human's lack of leadership. Always responsible for the pack's safety and security, the Alpha can come and go as desired, but pack members cannot. Knowing this genetic rule of the pack, imagine the mental chaos and stress created by human pack members when they come-and-go without permission, breaking the rules of survival. It is no wonder that some dogs suffer from "separation anxiety" and tear things up. It is the human's lack of understanding that creates "problem dogs." This book is small, and a very fast read, but it is a game-changer for anyone wanting to gain a clearer understanding of what is going on with dogs and how they think. I have purchased copies for friends, and have my personal copy out on loan. The information it contains is worth learning, and makes a great deal of sense.

Excellent book for dog trainers and dog owners who want to learn how to "talk dog." Dogs have a communication system and we can learn quite a bit from Turid Rugaas to increase our ability to understand our dogs and not give wrong signals because we don't know their language. She has a great DVD too! I have been a dog trainer and behaviorist for 32 years and highly recommend her.

There is SO MUCH great information in this book that is amazingly accurate and saved my butt several times as an animal welfare worker. If you learn how to read a dog's body language and what they are trying to tell you, you can prevent bites, aggression, fearfulness- all by using calming signals. Yawning, lip licking, looking away- these signals can be used by humans to calm dogs down and show we're not trying to be a threat. You can also learn to observe dogs giving you calming signals which is so important when you're handling dogs without knowing their backgrounds or temperaments. I know the information in this book works by the thousands of dogs I've had to work with over the years. You don't have to work with dogs to get something out of this book either. I love that I can read my dog's body language and understand what he is trying to tell me, not just "I want food" or "I want to go out" but emotionally how he feels. And the ability to use my own body language to "talk" to him gives us such a stronger connection and bond. What you learn is also great for when you encounter dogs while you're out and about. You'll be surprised by how much they are trying to tell us that we have never recognized, especially if your dog is meeting with another dog. It's interesting to watch them communicate with each other. Of course you always want to be careful with dogs you don't know- even ones you do know- all animals can be unpredictable. This book will not make you the zen master of dogs but it will help you understand their language better. I believe this information is priceless for those who work with dogs and for those who love dogs.

Calming signals are genetically inherited canine language used for communicating with each other to maintain healthy social hierarchy, since dogs, like their wolf ancestors, are pack animals dependent on sensory input, such as olfactory, auditory, and visual perceptions. Accordingly, dogs communicate with themselves through body motions, such as turning their heads to the other side (as a goodwill gesture in greeting between two dogs), lifting a front paw (showing peaceful intentions), yawning (as a way of reducing stress), bowing (releasing tension), etc. In this book, Ms. Turid Rugaas, an internationally acclaimed Norwegian canine behavioral counseling trainer, primarily focuses on the needs of understanding these signals from dogs as their way of communicating to and with their canids and humans alike. In the context of regarding the essence and importance of calming signals from dogs, this book offers a visual glimpse of what they are like with pictures of the dogs in each accordant motion, which I find helpful to perceive it. However, the book does not provide the reader with more in-depth knowledge on the calming signals on the grounds of scientific terms; rather it is more of a pamphlet introducing the basic concepts of the calming signals. In fact, this book of less than 100 pages recounts the author’s personal experience with her beloved dog Vesla, who had been her faithful and effective assistant in helping other dogs’ behavioral problems solved, in her close observation of their calming signals expressed and exchanged. It is needless to say that such personal experience saturated with her firm conviction in positive training of dogs is deemed highly valuable and thus contributes significantly to the purpose of this book, which I wholeheartedly appreciate as a kindred spirit. But it is also equally tantalizing to whet my desire of discovering more about the origins of the calming signals, the comparison with those of wolves in terms of evolutionary aspects, and more examples thereof. All in all, this book is a lovely quick read about dogs’ calming signals at a glance. In addition, the reader cannot help agreeing to the author’s view of dogs not as her subordinates to be trained with dominance but as her “children” who need love and patience because dogs as being of conflict-solving nature want to keep us in their company by trying to speak to us through calming signals. So if you just want to see what these calming signals are about in a nutshell, this is an informative and affectionate read.

This book is a game changer for me. I have a Malinois aka land shark, maligater,🫣she is the 5th dog I have had, we’ve been together almost a year now and I was thinking I can’t do this this dog is too much ( I am 70 ) out of desperation I ordered this and a few other books, and the thing that changed our entire relationship was the way I approached her, my body language. For the last week after reading just half of the book we’ve had no altercations, I look away, yawn, half close my eyes when we get eye contact, and I calm her after a good game of fetch by sniffing the ground, she always joins me in the sniff😃 Going from on guard all of the time to just having to check myself for body language is amazing ❣️❣️❣️I love this little girl 🥰