The Collective Canine, LLC

Let’s talk body language during play! It can be hard to decipher what is happening while dogs are playing, especially between dogs who are vocal while they play. Body language GREEN flags- dogs are both having fun, everyone is relaxed: ✅ sneezing ✅ “shaking off” (shaking their body as if they had water on them) ✅ pauses in play, aka breaks ✅ role reversal, which is when dogs take “turns” being on top/bottom ✅ self handicapping (in the event of a size difference, the bigger dog will lay down to make themselves “smaller”) ✅ loose, wiggly, bouncy body Body language YELLOW flags- these might be signs to interrupt play and remind them to take a break: ⚠️ infrequent or non existent breaks ⚠️ one dog constantly on top or bottom ⚠️ increase in vocalization ⚠️ really rough play ⚠️ whale eye (aka moon eye, when the whites of the eye are visible and the dog may be glancing from the side) ⚠️ piloerection, aka hackles: I often see this understood to be tied to a dog being “aggressive” and a fight breaking out. However, a dog’s hackles raise while in a state of arousal and this does not always mean a fight will happen. If the dog shakes off and “re sets”, this is a good sign. However, f the arousal continues to increase without the dogs voluntarily disengaging or a human intervening then a fight MAY occur. It is important to look at the whole picture!! Body language RED flags- time to break them up and stop play: 🚨 one dog is beginning to get uncomfortable and the other dog does not give them a break 🚨 tail tucking, snarling, snapping 🚨 posturing/towering: one dog is standing over the other, head “hooked” on the other dogs neck/back 🚨 mounting 🚨 pinning Movement from the human is a wonderful tool to encourage fluidity and to encourage dogs to take breaks on their own! Can you identify any of these signs in this video?

Excuse my messy house but I wanted to share this video with some really GREAT body language. You can see Grizzly, the brown dog, is attempting to engage in play but is being a little inappropriate about *how* he is engaging in play. He’s overstimulated and you can see this in his forward posture, eyes are wide open and ears are little further back than where they naturally sit. Callie, the border collie, is very obviously uncomfortable with his attempt to play and rolls onto her back, lifts her front paw up, looks away from him, but when he doesn’t listen to her letting him know she isn’t comfortable with this interaction, she gives him a solid correction by air snapping at him and snarling. I called Callie off and gave her some pets because I want to make sure I am not punishing her for correcting (this was an appropriate correction because Grizzly listened and stopped what he was doing) but I don’t wan’t this interaction to escalate either. Yes, dogs communicate well and it’s important to give them the opportunity to do so but it’s also our job to know when to step in. They are now comfortably laying on the couch, totally relaxed. This is the reality of living in a multi dog household and while this doesn’t happen every day, living with 4 dogs who all have different personalities and characteristics has it’s perks and it’s consequences. Overall my dogs are wonderful together and as you can see, this interaction didn’t turn bad but had the potential to if Callie had over corrected him or if I had not stepped in to call her away. Our abilities to provide for and set up our dogs for sucess can go a long way with a little knowledge about body language!

0/10 hand eye cordination, 10/10 effort. Hobbs is the cutest 🥰