To understand dog psychology, we need to understand dog behaviour, by learning to read and interpret their body language. It is a scientific fact that all species, both human and animal, have more in common in terms of physical traits than they have differences. We are all regulated by hormones and controlled by enzymes. This pattern of similarity between the species is particularly marked between man and dog, who seem to have had a particularly close symbiotic relationship developed over thousands of years.

The major difference is of course that dogs cannot speak nor truly understand the spoken word. So, in terms of patterns of behaviour, dogs are unlike humans in that they cannot be taught by telling them of other dog's experience, nor can they learn by asking questions in the way that all human children do. This makes it difficult to communicate in the normal way. If they cannot speak how can we communicate with them?

In fact, dogs have their own very sophisticated method, using body language in the same way as people do. Humans, over time, have developed an ability to identify what other humans really mean by acute observation of small changes in their facial expression, the posture of their body, and their general body language. We can identify sexual attraction by the change in size of the eye iris for example and can spot when someone is lying by their tone of voice or pattern of speech.

As with humans, so with dogs, who because they are not distracted by verbal communication have developed into acute observers of their surroundings, including their owners behaviour. It is a well known fact that dogs can detect even the smallest change in their owners attitude, even to being able to detect some human health problems. Owners often remark that dogs know when the owner is coming home or when it is bed time for example. So it is a fact observed by many people that dogs have this uncanny ability to "read" their owner without any verbal communication at all. They seem to be aware of our thoughts before we take any action.

Knowing all this, we can attempt to understand our dog better if we learn to read and interpret its body language and adapt our behaviour, both physical and verbal, in our daily interaction with the dog. The dog will become more responsive to us if our use of body language and words reflects the dog's own. Often body language and appropriate visual gestures enables us to communicate better when we teach them to behave. More than this, learning the language of dogs allows us to encourage or reinforce a dog's behaviour by a recognition that the dog places its own interpretation on our actions which it reads as praise or displeasure. Many inappropriate behaviours in dogs arise because owners inadvertently encourage the wrong behaviour at the wrong time by using the wrong gesture which the dog misinterprets as praise or admonishment. Quite often, all that is needed is to analyse exactly what the owner is doing and how the dog is interpreting it, and then stop doing it. The unwanted behaviour many times will then stop.

A dog's emotions and sometimes its intentions can often be read from observation of his stance. Look closely at his facial expression, and how he holds his tail and ears. Start observing your dog closely at the puppy stage and learn to interpret what he is saying to you. Don't forget to take account of the dog' own verbal sounds as well. Howling is usually a sound of distress, rumbling or growling a warning while a murmur in the back of the throat may be pleasure at being petted.

Some obvious signs to look out for. If the ears are pricked, this can mean the dog is alert and listening. If eyes are staring, be cautious, a challenge may be on the way. Beware if both lips are pulled back to expose teeth, aggression is not far away. If the tail is held high and wagging quickly, the dog is contented and happy. The list is endless really and the whole subject of dog body language is fascinating and will reward any interested investigator many times over by giving a better understanding of dog psychology and how it can impact on the relationship between dog and owner.