(87) Tell me what you think Beeks

So much to communicate and so little time. So let me get started. I was reading an article this morning about the many ways dogs communicate with us. The article is from The Bark Magazine No.41, March/April 2007,titled, Translating from Puppy to English: Understanding 35 things Dogs Say. This is something that gives me great excitement, as I want to know more accurate ways to bridge communication with my pets. Some of the examples the article gave were common place and most of us have experienced them before. Behaviors such as the "bow' that i have mentioned before which communicates the invitation and desire to play. This gesture also means, "the actions to come are not serious, please don't take them seriously". Beeker bows a lot when he wants to engage with Max. Other examples of communications were behaviors that I have often wondered about but "were afraid to ask?" So let me begin. First, let me preface this conversation by reminding all of us that we humans, use language as a primary mode of communication. Dogs on the other hand use sensory as basis of their communications. This may seem like a simple difference but it is not. We think that eye contact and verbal instructions are easily understood by our pets and really when I think about it, the fact that they do understand our words (or so we think) is a tribute to their keen intelligence and observational skills. They are able to perceive small cues and interpret our wishes or directions. Again, that relates to communication from our perspective but what about communication from the dog eye view? Here are some of the interesting ways dogs communicate to other dogs and to us about their view of the world. I want to highlight the communications that were the most interesting to me as including and discussing all 35 goes way beyond the scope of this blog so I encourage you to look up the article and read it in its entirety.Here are the highlights for me:
Circles the mat before going to sleep
Beeks does this every night and also whenever he settles down to rest. Turns out this is an ancient genetically encoded primordial sequence. (translation: its in their genes)dogs in the wild use to flatten down the grass to create a comfortable nest...nesting behavior.
Blinks
I haven't noticed Beeker or Maxie blinking at any special time but now I will be more observant on this one. This is what a dog will do when he is thinking hard. I guess I should have noticed this when Beeker was working hard to jump through the hoop. Or working to conquer a puzzle.
Yawns
OKay, I have noticed this one when the two dogs play together at a fairly high level of energy. This is explained as an indicator of stress displacement. This is a dog / animal neutral behavior. It is the release of pent up stress. Remember the Olympic speed skater that yawned during trials and practices? Apolo Ohno, was his name I think. He talked about the use of yawning.
Licking his lips
This is a sign of nervousness. Max does this more often than Beeker
Licks you
My sister's dog, a Springer Spaniel, Jesse James does this a lot. This is an attention seeking behavior, kind of like when puppies want attention from mother dogs when they have food for them. The dogs will lick and get positive feedback from people because we identify it as kissing so the dog will continue to lick.
Paws and scrapes the ground after eliminating
Rather than understanding this as trying to cover up the scent of the "deposit" it is to accentuating gesture to increase or mark the deposit by using visual(unearthed dirt) and personal scent(olfactory emphasis) by the sweat glands in the paws. This is a direct advertisement.
Rolling over in disgusting stuff
Beeks did this when he found the squirrel remains in the back yard and when he found coyote droppings. The article suggests that this is to mask the dog's personal smell so he is less detectable from predators OR it could be to let other animals know what kind of a great day he has had. When Beeks runs around on our walkabouts in the mornings, he will return to the house to be smelled profusely by Maxie. Max is intent on finding out where Beeks has been and "what the news is".
Eats Grass
Okay, Brad and I have an ongoing discussion about the reasons for this gesture. All of our dogs have loved to eat grass. Brad contends that the result of grass eating is that the dogs throw up and so it is bad for them. I contend that the dogs need to eat grass if they seek it out. It is like lettuce, greens are good for digestion. The article says that dogs eat grass for different reasons, all of which are harmless. It suggests that some like to eat grass to self medicate(read, need to eat it to throw up) and others throw up because they eat too much. Beeks eats grass every time he goes outside, and doesn't throw it up.
Chases his own tail
This is a behavior that we have seen in Max, Beeker and one of our past Newfies, Beau. Max and Beeker don't do this behavior much any more but once in a while we do see Beeks chasing his tail. It is hilarious to see if you haven't seen it before. This is described as not normal behavior and is believed to start in dogs with high predatory drive that have no natural outlet for their instinct. It is believed that one day out of boredom, the dog spies his tail from the corner of his eye and tries to pounce on it.
Takes food out of the bowl then arranges it or takes it to another room to eat it.
Beeks sometimes takes food we give him,like treats to another room. We assume he is hiding it to protect it from Max. Belle, our past female Newfie use to arrange three pieces of food on the floor before eating the food in the bowl. We use to jokingly say she was paying homage to the dog gods. The article says that dogs lower down on the pack line will protect their food from higher ups. Trying to protect their allotment of food. This doesn't explain the arrangement of food. I still think this is wierd behavior.
I hope you enjoy these few communications from our dog pets. They answered many of the questions we have been asking each other while we have been observing and laughing at our dogs behaviors. Don't you wonder which of our behaviors dogs find humorus?

From Home and Away
I was so warn out from the garage sales yesterday that I came home from work today and had to take a nap. It could also be that my sinuses are reeling from all of the barometric pressure changes that I also felt the need to sleep it off...
As I mentioned yesterday, we watched Crazy Heart, with Jeff Bridges. I'm a huge fan. I got so carried away with Bridges' ability to act like Kris Kristofferson, I couldn't get the image out of my mind. The movie plot was easy to believe and just and enjoyable movie. (okay, so the drunk to sober transition was a little too easy ) ****

I looked on the Montana State University website today and the blog for Ash's(my son's trip to China)group is on their main site. The group is hosting a blog and Ash tells me he will be working on one of his own as well. I haven't heard yet what his site will be but for those of you who are interested the official school blog is: http://chinadinodig.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/10/
Just now got a google talk message from Ash and they have made it safely to Shanghai!