What Your Dog’s Expressions Really Mean

What Your Dog’s Expressions Really Mean

Have you ever wondered why your pup looks at you sideways when you talk to him, or why he looks up at you with that puppy-eyed look? The doggie behavioral experts at Wag tell us that dogs can communicate with humans in a way we can understand and encourage. Did you know that dogs have about one hundred expressions, so sit back and start scrolling to learn about the most common dog’s expressions and what they really mean. 

Dog’s Facial Expressions

You might not have known your doggo has so many facial expressions, sans bulldogs and pit bulls, due to their breeding. Because of this, these breeds easily get misread by other dogs and, therefore, get into fights. You may also not know that most of dog’s expressions involve their ears. Dogs usually don’t understand their owner’s language, contrary to what you may think. However, they DO understand their emotions, so they communicate the only way they know how, through facial expressions and sometimes by their voice, via whining, whimpering, growling, and barking.

Eye contact between humans and dogs is essential for social interaction between the species. Dogs establish eye contact with humans when they can’t solve a problem on their own. It also helps them determine whether communication is relevant and directed at them—this because dogs usually ignore human pointing gestures when the human eyes aren’t visible.

With that said, enjoy all these expressions your puppy makes and finally understand what they all mean! 

Head tilting

When your pup tilts his head, you may think it’s incredibly cute, but that look tells you that he’s genuinely interested in what you’re saying. If you say something that doesn’t include a trigger word they’re used to hearing like “come,” “sit,” “stay,” “