Calming signals is a term describing specific dog body language signals displayed by dogs to either calm another stimuli (dog, person, another animal) or situation down or to calm themselves down after having experienced a stressful or uncomfortable situation.
It can also be used as appeasement meaning a way of communicating that the dog means no harm and comes in peace when interacting with others, a form of negotiation used in the early stages of a new interaction. The aim with performing appeasement behaviours are gestures the dog does to reduce potential threats and avoid conflict.
Calming signals covers over more than 30 different body language signals, such as sitting, lying down, lip lick, head turn, turning the body away, freezing, yawning and sniffing.
The term was created by Turid Rugaas, the writer of the book “On Talking Terms With Dogs, Calming Signals“, after having spent many years observing dog body language.
In this blog we will look into when calming signals are used as appeasement.
Appeasement behaviour is often confused by humans as the dog looking guilty or apologizing for something. That is not the case. The dog is reacting to the uncomfortable situation and tries to avoid conflict.
In a study done by Horowitz (2009), they tested if dogs really feel guilt when showing these behaviours. They had the owner give their dog a treat and ask the dog to leave the treat and not eat it. The owner then left the room and the experimenter either took the treat or the dog ate it. The owner was always told that the dog ate the treat when re-entering the room. The owner would then ask the dog if they had taken the treat. Immediately the dog showed appeasement behaviours such as ears pinned back, lip licking and shrinking body no matter if they had taken the treat or not.
Here is a short Youtube video of the testing, based on a viral video about a dog looking guilty:
(142) Is Denver Really Guilty? – YouTube
Why would dogs show appeasement behaviour if they are not guilty?
Dogs respond to their surroundings and are very fast in picking up differences in the tone of voice and of course also the direct confrontation makes them very uncomfortable. This is why they are showing appeasement behaviour – to calm down their human and the whole situation, as they feel very uncomfortable and threatened.
The behaviour of course escalates if the owner keeps confronting the dog. In fact in the study done by Horowitz it was found that if the owner started scolding the dog, the appeasement behaviours would escalate more and what is even more interesting, if the dog was innocent and had not taken the treat the appeasement behaviour would be shown to a higher degree then if the dog had actually eaten the treat.
Unfortunately, many people still find this behaviour funny or cute (just make a Google or Youtube search and countless videos of “guilty” dogs will come up) when in fact it is a highly stressful and uncomfortable situation for the dog.
How to respond to appeasement behaviour?
Take a breath and regulate your emotions (Even if it is not the dog you are annoyed at). Then start to think about how you can prevent this behaviour from happening again in the future, not confronting your dog about what the dog has done being of course the first step.
Can you set up your dog’s home environment differently preventing temptations in the environment?
Is your dog bored from being left home alone?
What are you doing for both his physical and mental exercise? Including enriching your dog to give him/her the opportunity to perform natural behaviours such as digging and chewing?(Read more about enrichment here)
Or is your dog maybe doing it because they suffer from separation anxiety? (Read more about Separation Anxiety here)
Or is your dog a sensitive soul that is extra alert to high noises or changes in his/her routine? (This can be specially true for senior dogs, and just having a busy day where you might run around in the house can make your dog show appeasement behaviour).
It is of course important to mention that to completely avoid your dog doing appeasement behaviours is close to impossible. They are part of your dog’s language and can be very useful and necessary when navigating communication with other stimuli in the dog’s environment. What I am talking about is how not to provoke our dog’s having the need to show us appeasement behaviour after they have done something we disapprove of.
Below you can find a series of dog’s showing different appeasement behaviour and an explanation to what they are showing. If you are interested in learning how to read dog body language, then check out Life with a Dog’s Dog Body Language Library here.
