Dogtography. Kaylee Greer

      Turning Away

      Dogs have virtually mastered the art of living in harmony with human beings, and it is an amazing and magical thing. Dogs have teeth, but rarely do they ever actually use them in defense against humans. For the millions and millions of dogs living in households across the world today, we only hear about the tiniest fraction of a percentage ever reacting poorly and with teeth toward human beings. It’s actually remarkable if you spend a few moments pondering on it. With that said, the vast majority of dogs will give you many non-violent signs that they are uncomfortable and in a stressful situation before ever resorting to harm. This particular body language signal is probably the one I’ve seen most often at my dog photo shoots over the years. Simply looking away from the source of stress is a common route that dogs will take when they find themselves in a difficult or anxious situation. I have a lot of experience with this one particularly because it’s the body language signal that my dog Joshua gives me most often. Joshua is doing the most polite thing that he can figure to do in an escalating situation of stress. He turns his body gently away from the camera and directs his head—the cute and squishy control center—away from the stressful stimulus. His choice is to redirect his attention to something far more pleasant for him—say, watching that person walking across the street, or putting his nose to the ground to sniff for interesting smells, or even just finding interest in a swaying piece of grass. As a dog photographer, when you see this body language signal, it’s your job to read and interpret it appropriately, and then back off and give the dog the space that he is (very politely) asking for.

      Usually I find that just a five-minute break followed by a very high-value treat in front of the lens is more than enough to bring them back around into loaning you their attention for a few more minute so you can wrap up getting the last shots you might need in a given spot before moving on.

       1.10

      FIGURE 1.10 Ruby the tiny little Yorkie was clearly feeling quite overwhelmed when I snapped this photo of her with my big, intrusive camera on this riverside dock in Boston. This is a clear example of a dog who is experiencing stress and anxiety and is attempting to deal with it in the most polite way she knows how: to simply turn and look away.

      Yawning

      If we pop back into what we learned before, about anthropomorphization, we might see a dog yawn and say, “Aw, he’s so tired, he’s ready for his nap.” However, if your dog is doing this in the context of a lively photo shoot and not when just waking up in the morning, it is very safe to say that his yawn is a signal that he’s feeling anxious. We call my dog Joshua “The Rusty Hinge” because he loves to do a loud, crispy, delicious yawn each and every time we put his collar on him by the front door for his daily walk. His rusty-hinge yawn is quite endearing and adorable, but I know that the real reason behind it is less so. In those moments as we are suiting Joshua up for his walk, he’s feeling anxious. It’s an excited anxious, like can’t-hardly-wait anticipation of adventure, but it’s still anxiety. When a situation gets too overwhelming, good or bad, Joshua will do a nice, loud rusty-hinge sort of yawn, and that’s when I know to pay attention to his energy and take it easy. This same concept goes for dogs at your photo shoots. If they appear to be over stimulated and begin to yawn repeatedly, they are giving you a clear sign. If you see this body language cue, step back and give that dog time to just be a dog. Once you feel he has had ample time to cool off, you can then get back in the game and try again.

       1.11

      FIGURE 1.11 Here is the furry light of my life, Joshua, pictured in one of his favorite places on earth: The Car. As you can see, Joshua loves the car almost to a fault. He gets so overwhelmed by uncontrollable excitement that his energy peaks right into the red zone. He yawns loudly and often as a calming signal. It is a clear body language sign that he is a feeling stress and anxiety and his body is working hard to manage it.

      Ears Back

      Believe it or not, this sweet girl does have ears. They’re just pinned so tightly back to her head that she’s made them fully invisible in this particular photo. This is a clear signal that she’s likely either anxious, uncomfortable, or afraid. It’s important to keep your attention on your furry subject’s ears throughout the course of your photo shoot, because their ears are one of the most expressive features on their body. They use them to say so much. (Which is why there’s such a debate about cropping the natural ears off of dogs for the purposes of pleasing human aesthetic preferences, as it limits their communication abilities quite a bit throughout the course of their lives.) This is a body language cue that also exists in the realm of meaning one thing in one dog, but something else entirely in another, depending on breed type and natural ear shape. For example, a dog holding his ears back might not be as noticeable a cue on, say, a Cocker Spaniel, as it would be on a German Shepherd. A German Shepherd’s prominent, pointy, upright ears and their subsequent shifting positions are an obvious feature to take note of, whereas these same movements would be much more subtle on a droopy-eared Spaniel. This means that it’s super important to pair this body language cue with the additional clues that the rest of the dog’s physical body language might be giving you. Are the dog’s ears pinned back while he’s moving slowly and quite stiffly? That’s a clear sign he’s feeling threatened or uncomfortable. Are his ears pinned back while the rest of his body language is loose, wiggly and waggy in a play bow position? More than likely this means your dog is feeling frisky and is ready to play. After some time of paying attention to dog behaviors and spending time with dogs of all breeds, shapes, sizes, and personality types, reading these cues is going to become more and more natural to you until it becomes completely second nature on a subconscious level.

       1.12

      FIGURE 1.12 Through her clear and precise body language signals, Lilly the Pit Bull was communicating to me how stressed and overwhelmed she felt during this portion of her photo shoot. It was a very hot summer day in Boston and in addition to the inherent stress of the shoot, the heat was also working against us. It was clear to me to stop and take a nice, long break after snapping a couple of frames of Lilly on this dock once I noticed her ears pinned so dramatically back to her head that it almost appeared as if she didn’t have any!

      Tail Position

      A dog’s tail is one of the loudest and clearest features about a dog. And since our dog’s tails are so exceptionally endearing to us human beings, it’s one of the easiest body language cues to read. A wagging tail is a symbol to so many people across the world that happiness and joy abound—and it is the signal we read most commonly and most clearly from the dogs we share our lives with. A dog’s tail has become so synonymous with a compass for emotion in our culture that we commonly refer to emotions like shame by saying, “and he ran way with his tail tucked between his legs.” A dog’s tail can tell you a lot about how he’s feeling. Here are some different variations on tail positions and what they commonly mean:

       High

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