Yawning as a sign of stress: Dog behavior is often misunderstood

Dog videos are popular on social media. But in many cases, the animals shown are not as comfortable as many viewers apparently think, experts warn.

Worryingly, the dog’s stress often goes unnoticed – apparently not even by the owners, which can lead to critical situations. “We advocate for more education for both adults and children about communicating with dogs,” a research team explains in the journal “Applied Animal Behavior Science.”

Dogs have an extensive repertoire of body language, signals and vocalizations to communicate. However, many people often misunderstand these instructions or do not even notice them, it goes on to say. In many of the videos presented on social media, the dog is visibly unwell, but viewers still expressed a “like” with their like.

The team led by Elizabeth Ann Walsh from the Irish Cork Pet Behavior Center analyzed 190 highly liked videos on social media platforms. The videos show dogs being played with or being petted and cuddled. The signals the dogs send out about their mood through their behavior were recorded.

The animals often exhibit discomfort, fear, confusion and anxiety – which the people who interacted with them obviously did not notice, the researchers explain. Typical stress indicators include turning the head, blinking, freezing, yawning, licking the person, laying the ears back and panting.

It is concerning how people interact with their furry companions without understanding their body language or vocalizations. A typical example in videos is hugging and holding, which is sometimes difficult for dogs to interpret and understand: When dogs put their paws on another dog – analogous to hugging people – this is often experienced as intimidating.

Submissive, on the other hand, often means licking the mouth – and is not always a sign of love and affection. People often find it funny when a dog yawns heartily, flaps its lips or turns its head away – but these can be signals of discomfort, stress, anxiety or nervousness.

Often the people seen in the video, as well as the video viewers, have of course not noticed how unhappy or uncomfortable a dog actually feels in the situation shown. This not only means suffering for the dog, but also a risk for the owner, because in some cases the animal may at some point react aggressively if it feels too harassed by hugging and pressing. (rbu/sda/dpa)