Dog to Dog Communication/Barking

[Fundog]

I subscribe to a newsletter featuring all things dog. Today they sent me links to some super good articles about Dog to Dog Communication, and how to interpret barking. Here are the links:

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/the-bark-w ... newsletter

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/dog-to-dog ... page1.aspx

There are more that I haven't read yet, but I'll let you discover them for yourselves. The additional topics are at the bottom of the main page.

[Wicket]

Fundog, I read through both your links but found the second one rather simplistic when it came to body language. I'm certainly not an expert, but some of these examples made me shake my head, such as "urinating with leg lifting = dominance/defiance" compared to "urinating by squatting = deference." Is how the dog chooses to pee really determine his/her social status within other dogs or with the owner?

Example: M y Poodle, even though she has arthritis in one of her hips, lifts her leg to pee on a tree during walks or sometimes she'll squat, but will usually only squats in the back yard. Is she dominating the tree but only deferring to the grass? Or is she only dominating me (and my chi-poo) on walks but not in the garden?

I don't understand how this has a bearing on dog's social status when anatomy and health may affect how and when the dog decides to urinate as well. If the author is referencing marking in the house, there are other explanations for that other than dominance or defiance, such as a urinary tract infection or the puppy hasn't learned potty training or insecurity issues.

Another one is "humping = dominance." Well, what about canine mating? Are the intact dogs capable of being dominant since their hormones urge them to mate? It's not that I've never witnessed a dog humping another one in a non-sexual setting, but there are more explanations than "dominance" and I don't exclude this as possibility for status seeking behavior.

The last issue I had was with that Dr. Dodman didn't define what strong leadership should be with dealing with a fearful dog. I don't think he'd suggest alpha rolls but the executing the concept wasn't clear enough for me.

Here's alink from Patricia McConnell about dominance and social relationship with dogs.

Fundog, I hope you know that I'm not trying to offend you for posting this but rather my focus was on the article, not you.

[Fundog]

No worries, mate. Where you were reading more on body language, my focus was more on interpreting barking. As for your poodle lifting her leg on a tree but squatting in the grass: it has nothing to do with dominance and deference at all. Maybe you didn't know this, but female dogs also "mark" to leave "messages." When one of my girls mark somewhere, the other one will often mark right over the top of it, or as close as possible. Lifting the leg on the tree is simply easier to get the "message" onto the tree properly, whereas it isn't necessary on grass. Although my Dottie always lifts a leg while squatting, to avoid peeing on herself!

As for the humping, dogs (even puppies and neutered males and females) often hump each other in play. And they often take turns humping each other, although I have also seen many cases where a bigger, stronger, more assertive dog will do all the humping while the smaller, more submissive dog will be the "humpee," and even rolling onto her back to be humped!