Calming Signals
Calming signals are used to prevent things from happening, avoiding threats from people and dogs, calming down nervousness, fear, noise and unpleasant things. The signals are used by dogs to calm themselves when they feel stressed or uneasy. They are used to make the others involved feel safer and understand the goodwill the signals indicate. They are also used to enable dogs to make friends with other dogs and people.
Calming signals include:
Yawning, lip / nose licking, head turning, sniffing, soft eyes, freezing, play bow, walking slowly or doing overly slow movements, curving, splitting up, the position and speed of the tail wag, a paw lift, lying or sitting down.
What to do when you observe a Calming Signal?
This is your dog politely asking for some space so back up and give space. You can always see if they are ready to continue what was happening a few moments later but it’s important to listen to these before they have to escalate to say a growl, bark, bite.
Likewise if you see other dogs not listening to your dogs calming signals, help your dog create space from the other dog until the situation calms a little.
ALSO REMEMBER TO NEVER PUNISH A GROWL. This is a warning and it would be dangerous to extinguish a warning. Instead recognise your dog is past calming signals, so ask them for an alternate behaviour like ‘Watch Me’ and use it to help move them away from the stressor whilst reinforcing an alternate option, other than growling.