How Do Dogs Communicate?

Our furry pal is an excellent communicator. Although most of the communication is soundless this does not mean that it's not occurring. There are many ways that can be classed as communicating which could be any of the following:

Smell - Sniffing: Unlike humans, dogs do not sweat through their skin but they can and do sweat through their paws. This is helpful to other dogs that follow as it leaves messages behind every time the paw touches the ground.

Marking with urine is another way in which dogs communicate. There are owners of male dogs who are amazed at how many times that their dog can lift its leg and place but a few drops of urine for others to trace but what they are really doing when they lift their leg is a way of raising the scent.

Female dogs are known to mark in the same way as a way of marking territory. There is little wonder why we are unaware of the scents that we omit when we are scared or excited. We really should not be surprised when our dogs react to these types of emotions.

The importance of sniffing: Sniffing is a real must for any dog as it provides them with much-needed information that we cannot comprehend. When taking your animal for a walk it is constantly taking in scents and learning what is going on around him. It is really unfair to deny your dog of these fact-finding opportunities.

It is not really necessary for a dog to stop to sniff at every tree or post but there should be times factored into your walk that would allow him to take as much time as necessary. In a dog world, sniffing can be likened to watching the news and discussing it with friends or reading the morning papers.

Noises Dogs Can Make include:

The most obvious is barking and this can mean different things for instance, for attention, aggression towards a threat or another dog or just to raise an alarm. After a period of time, an owner will get to interpret the different barks. Barking can mean anything from hello to go away.

Whining: Frequently a young puppy will let out this noise to let you know that something is making it unhappy, it's a cry for help, which usually gets the attention that they are after.

Yelping: If you hear a dog yelp it is normally associated with a cry of pain rather than classed as communication.


Low Growling: This usually means that the animal is unhappy and is a warning about the situation.

Howling: This is a primal sound that some dogs will make and it is a purely social activity. There are dogs that will howl in response to certain sounds they hear on TV or musical instrument.