Avoidance Language in Dogs.

Dogs instinctively want to avoid uncomfortable, stressful, or dangerous situations. These could also be because they have had a bad or adverse experience in a similar situation previously and so, according to (Farricelli, Understanding Approach-Avoidance Behaviors in Dogs, 2017)”… feels relief when he's presented with an unpleasant situation and removes himself from” it. By understanding a dog’s body language, one can recognise the signs and take appropriate action before matters escalate. Jolanta Benal describes this as “taking care both of the dog and of ourselves”. (How to Tell When Your Dog Is Stressed). Essentially the dog is telling us that it would like to get away from the situation. This could be as simple as a whistle to get to the dogs’ attention and in doing so bring the behaviour that is causing stress to a stop. Remember always to act without force or dominance, and to manifest the qualities of a benevolent leader.
Avoidance behaviour can start with simply by looking or backing away. Often avoidance behaviours are normal behaviours but out of context. However, bear in mind that the dog my simply be “calming his nervous system, lowering his stress, and dealing with an environment he deems threatening”. (Paws & Reward, 2014) and will relax in short measure.  An anxious dog will have the ears back, the eyes narrowed, the mouth slightly agape, hold the body tense and slightly lowered and whine or moan in a low voice. (Clarke, 2017).  The dog “causing” the stress may respond with appeasement “in which the dog causing the stress responds to the stressed dog showing passive submission”. (Stilwell, n.d.).
If the situation is not addressed, either by the dog or owner diverting the stressful behaviour, or by removing itself from the situation, the dog may go from anxious to fearful and we are closer to “fight” as “flight” has not worked. If the situation continues the dog may show a final warning by taking an aggressive posture before taking action to defend itself from a perceived or actual threat.

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