page_title: Dog communication
section_title: Visual
hierarchical_section_title: Dog communication / Visual
caption_attribution_description: English: A Chihuahua baring his teeth at the threat of having his bone taken away.
context_page_description: Dog communication is the transfer of information between dogs, as well as between dogs and humans. Behaviors associated with dog communication are categorized into visual and vocal. Visual communication includes mouth shape and head position, licking and sniffing, ear and tail positioning, eye gaze, facial expression, and body posture. Dog vocalizations, or auditory communication, can include barks, growls, howls, whines and whimpers, screams, pants and sighs. Dogs also communicate via gustatory communication, utilizing scent and pheromones.
  Humans can communicate with dogs through a wide variety of methods. Broadly, this includes vocalization, hand signals, body posture and touch. The two species also communicate visually: through domestication, dogs have become particularly adept at "reading" human facial expressions, and they are able to determine human emotional status. When communicating with a human their level of comprehension is generally comparable to a toddler. Humans can artificially alter how dogs communicate with other dogs and with humans by surgically cropping their ears and docking their tails.
context_section_description: Dogs communicating emotions through body positioning were illustrated in Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals published in 1872.
  In her book On Talking Terms with Dogs, Turid Rugaas identifies around 30 signals that she calls calming signals. The notion of dominance and submission is much debated. In her book, she does not use these terms to differentiate behaviour. She describes calming signals as a way for dogs to calm themselves down or other humans/dogs around them. These are some of the signals she identifies:
  Licking/tongue flicks
  Sniffing the ground
  Turning away/turning of the head
  Play bow
  Walking slowly
  Freezing
  Sitting down
  Walking in a curve
  Yawning
  "Smiling"
  Wagging the tail
  Urinating
  Soft face
  Fiddling
  Lying down
  By moving different parts of their bodies, whether facial expressions or postures, dogs can express a wide range of emotions and signals.
caption: Dog with ears erect means it is alerted,[1]:130 and baring its teeth is a warning signal[1]:116
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