Calming signals

Shadow will give side presentation and averted glances. He will also down. Other times, he will look at me.

ron2

Shadow will give side presentation and averted glances. He will also down. Other times, he will look at me.

I initially saw "slide presentation" and was really taken aback.   

silverserpher

I initially saw "slide presentation" and was really taken aback

With Powerpoint, even?

"Will someone please get the lights? Thank you. Now, to being with ..."

During rough play, I see a lot of couple of seconds stops with a whole body shake. Just their way to confirm, "yeah, it is still just play, nothing serious going on". When they mirror each other body shake, it usually marks the end of the playing session. In other situations, yawning, scratching and eye contact avoidance, not as many tongue flicks as others it seems.

Cressida, I actually typed Conrad when I was asking that question, but then I thought, hold on, didn't she say Conrad keeps his cards close? And I got confused and changed it. Silly me. Now that I think about it, I think I have seen this sniffing behaviour as a kind of a redirection if you like. Like when I might concentrate abnormally hard on the work in front of me when someone behind me is having a very personal discussion, or if the boss walks past. I think Pyry does this much more than Penny, but he'll be all nonchalant and like "I haven't even noticed you because I'm too busy sniffing this interesting patch of ground and now I'm just feeling a bit itchy and I'm gonna concentrate real hard on scratching myself." He also has this way of moving at the pace of death when he's feeling that there's too much excitement around for his peace of mind. He walks so slow he practically takes a nap between moving each foot, and his head swings low as if it's too much effort to look at anything but the ground. I see this a lot when I come to visit. Penny will be charging around the place barking at the top of her lungs and Jill will be bouncing around with a rope toy hoping for a game, and then Pyry comes plodding out several minutes later to look at me in greeting, maybe get a quick cuddle or ear rub, then he'll continue plodding out into the yard like a turtle. The more excited the other two are, the longer it takes him to come and greet me and the slower he moves when he does.

Penny does lift one of her front legs sometimes when she's not all that sure about something, usually it's someone right in front of her and a little in her personal space. She does it when I'm putting on her seatbelt harness where I'm really close but front on, and she does it when someone scratches her chest from the front, and when one of the other dogs is facing her and standing a little too close. I never thought of that one as a calming signal before. I always thought it was her feeling vaguely unsure, but vaguely unsure and calming signals kind of go hand in hand anyway.

I'm really enjoying this thread!

I've seen pretty much the gamut of calming signals. Yawning, looking away, turning away, tongue flick, sniffing, walking in an arc, play bow, lifting of the paw, freezing, etc. I put an emphasis on observing my dogs and watching these calming signals.

 One thing to keep in mind, is that calming signals aren't used only in times of stress. Dogs use them ALL the time when communicating with each other. I can sit and watch dogs interact and lose count of the calming signals used within a minute (for dogs that are interacting directly). It's partly why I see the term as a bit of a misnomer, as it's not just used to calm situations, but as normal dog communication. What I find more intriguing are the situations in which calming signals break down, and you can really use that to your advantage in working with dogs. If Gaci gets in a high-stress situation, she will STOP using calming signals because she begins reacting, and reacting is not conducive to proper communication. For instance tonight at the vet, she began shaking, started staring, looking around semi-wildly. Eventually she began to calm down, to the point where she would rather calmly (for her) lay on the chair beside me in a relaxed posture, and her interactions with people regained those calming signals. So I find it interesting not only to see when dogs use them, but when they don't, as it conveys equally important information. Turid, who coined the term, also talks about dogs who don't use calming signals quite a bit.

Something a bit different - has anyone else used, or regularly uses, calming signals as a way to try to communicate with their dog?

I inexplicably find myself sticking my tongue out at my dogs all the time. I started doing it almost subconsciously but then I realized I was tongue-flicking and just kind of kept it up. 

Kim_MacMillan

Something a bit different - has anyone else used, or regularly uses, calming signals as a way to try to communicate with their dog?

I blink and avert my gaze. Other times, I let my eyelids droop. Other times, in play, we may stop and I will stop alongside of him, not directly in front, unless I am trying to engage in more play.

cakana

she uses a lot of calming signals. One of them is to stop, sit down and start scratching behind her ear with her back leg. It took me awhile to see that she was using this as a tool to say "I'm busy, leave me alone" but it's very apparent now and very effective.

Hahaha, Cherokee does exactly this with me. If I'm trying to get her to do something that she doesn't want to do, she runs a few feet away, slams her butt down, and acts like her ear is itchier than it's ever been in her life. I then tell her she's a drama queen, she stops, wags her tail, and lays down.

Hey Cressida, I stick my tongue out at Cherokee all the time. Not in a "tongue flicking" way though, in a frustrated 5 year old's kind of way, like this.  I also roll my eyes at her a lot. But I'm a little nutso...

I use eye contact (or lack thereof) quite a lot. It's become a habit because it's one thing all animals I've worked with seem to understand. If I'm trying to send calming signals to Penny, I ignore her, or sit down on the ground side on to her but well out of her personal space, or I talk to myself in a happy tone (but I'm really talking to her, just not making eye contact or saying her name).

With my hare, I rely very heavily on calming signals, or what calming signals I can come up with that he understands. My favourite is shifting my weight so I'm leaning away from him. There's a sweet spot where if I do it a little he finds it believable but if I lean too obviously he seems to suddenly get suspicious and wonder what I'm up to. I never make eye contact with my hare when he's feeling jittery, and sometimes I'll approach backwards so I'm facing away, or crab sideways and aim past him because he doesn't like the direct approach. He gets nervous if it looks like I'm trying to put him at ease while coming closer, though, because he's a smart alek. I have to be careful in the way I get down to his level, too. It's best if I crouch rather than bend over, and better if I crouch side on rather than front on, and it helps sometimes to crouch slightly farther away and stretch a hand out.