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Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide: Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog
Ever wish you could talk to your dog? With this guide you can learn to. Well-organized and loaded with photos and detailed explanations, Canine Body Language helps you interpret your dog's emotions and, indeed, thoughts.
370 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
February 14, 2019
So, I had to send this back. Library and their rigid rules about due dates and such. Maybe I'll get it again. Maybe I won't. But I should do this book some justice.
It was really quite interesting. You'd think it might be dated, that there might be something revolutionary that's happened in the dog world since 2005, but you'd probably be wrong. People really aren't that great at advancing understanding of animal behavior. Aloff's contribution to understanding was to take a ton of pictures, and use a bunch of pictures from owner and trainer friends, for a very wide compilation of some of the subtleties in dog expression and what they seem to mean.
Each aspect or subtlety of behavior has a bit of written explanation and is then followed by three or four pictures. So this book is very much a visual dictionary, with perhaps a small paragraph accompanying each picture. It isn't really meant to be sit down and read through, the way one might read through Patricia McConnell's interesting dog-related books (such as The Other End of the Leash), but it is kind of hard to stop. It's a bit like looking at a friend's family album--do I recognize this expression? Have I seen my dog do this?
I've been living with dogs my entire life (except the three years in the college dorms) and as an adult, have had dogs from puppies, both 'rescued' and breeders, as well as well as an adopted older dog. I've consulted private trainers, attended dog training classes, and read a fair number of books, and have to say that this seemed to be a solid, well-done resource, as well as consistent with what you'll see from better quality sources.
Though this photographs are just one moment in time, Aloff does a nice job of pointing out the other small cues that help the humans understand the message the body is conveying. There's a particularly interesting sequence where her dogs and a friend's dogs are jockeying for space around the friend. How many times have the people interpreted that as "wanting to be near" their favorite people? Which it is, but there's also a hierarchy of status being played out, and that's the sort of thing that can get a group into trouble if you confuse the language of anxious status-seeking with regular human-attention-seeking. Aloff also points out how socially adept dogs might send calming signals to each other to show disinterest or calm the situation. It's super-interesting.
My largest concern would probably be photographic quality: I think Aloff mentioned she had been collecting some of these for years, and it shows in the reproduction quality. Needless to say, they are all black-and-white (cost), but I think in one or two of the fuzzy ones, the impact has been lost. A minor complaint would be that frequently the photos are of the same group of dogs, and so I didn't feel like I saw the range of expressions on a range of breeds, if that makes sense. Lots of terrier and medium-sized sporting and herding dogs, I think.
Still, I'd check it out again. Even after all this time, there's more we can learn about our best friends.
It was really quite interesting. You'd think it might be dated, that there might be something revolutionary that's happened in the dog world since 2005, but you'd probably be wrong. People really aren't that great at advancing understanding of animal behavior. Aloff's contribution to understanding was to take a ton of pictures, and use a bunch of pictures from owner and trainer friends, for a very wide compilation of some of the subtleties in dog expression and what they seem to mean.
Each aspect or subtlety of behavior has a bit of written explanation and is then followed by three or four pictures. So this book is very much a visual dictionary, with perhaps a small paragraph accompanying each picture. It isn't really meant to be sit down and read through, the way one might read through Patricia McConnell's interesting dog-related books (such as The Other End of the Leash), but it is kind of hard to stop. It's a bit like looking at a friend's family album--do I recognize this expression? Have I seen my dog do this?
I've been living with dogs my entire life (except the three years in the college dorms) and as an adult, have had dogs from puppies, both 'rescued' and breeders, as well as well as an adopted older dog. I've consulted private trainers, attended dog training classes, and read a fair number of books, and have to say that this seemed to be a solid, well-done resource, as well as consistent with what you'll see from better quality sources.
Though this photographs are just one moment in time, Aloff does a nice job of pointing out the other small cues that help the humans understand the message the body is conveying. There's a particularly interesting sequence where her dogs and a friend's dogs are jockeying for space around the friend. How many times have the people interpreted that as "wanting to be near" their favorite people? Which it is, but there's also a hierarchy of status being played out, and that's the sort of thing that can get a group into trouble if you confuse the language of anxious status-seeking with regular human-attention-seeking. Aloff also points out how socially adept dogs might send calming signals to each other to show disinterest or calm the situation. It's super-interesting.
My largest concern would probably be photographic quality: I think Aloff mentioned she had been collecting some of these for years, and it shows in the reproduction quality. Needless to say, they are all black-and-white (cost), but I think in one or two of the fuzzy ones, the impact has been lost. A minor complaint would be that frequently the photos are of the same group of dogs, and so I didn't feel like I saw the range of expressions on a range of breeds, if that makes sense. Lots of terrier and medium-sized sporting and herding dogs, I think.
Still, I'd check it out again. Even after all this time, there's more we can learn about our best friends.
November 4, 2018
What an excellent resource. When I grabbed this, I wasn’t sure if I would just page through or give it a thorough read. I’m glad I decided to go through it carefully from start to finish. Aloff’s photo essays wonderfully depict her instruction on canine body language. There’s a lot of repetition, which I found helpful for fixing this information in my brain, and the photos really help. There’s even a quiz at the end. She has a memorable, often humorous way of describing dog behavior. A couple of my favorites were when she described a dog in a photo as just wanting the other dog to “go be bizarre somewhere else,” and when she described the more intrusive, impolite version of butt-sniffing as a “Proctology Exam.”
She doesn’t go deeply into training philosophy or methodology, but the quality of her work in this book makes me want to explore other things she’s written.
I felt like I learned some new things, and I’ll be paying more attention and trying to apply what I learned to my own bizarre-acting dog.
She doesn’t go deeply into training philosophy or methodology, but the quality of her work in this book makes me want to explore other things she’s written.
I felt like I learned some new things, and I’ll be paying more attention and trying to apply what I learned to my own bizarre-acting dog.
March 5, 2013
This book is an invaluable resource for any person who shares any portion of their life with dogs - whether through a pet/companion relationship or in their work (I had a student who is a volunteer at a shelter and her family who foster shelter dogs borrow it for a time, and they also found it invaluable).
Through a series of detailed descriptions, photographs and photo essays, Aloff brings human attention to subtleties of dog behaviour - dog to dog, dog to human - and reactions that we may often miss or misinterpret. Pointing out (rightly) that dogs, being not verbal for the most part, rely on a far more detailed level of body language than do humans, she spends almost 400 pages (plus a quiz section!) helping humans to identify how dogs communicate with each other (and try to do with their humans) through their facial expressions, their movements, their body placement, and body posture/tension.
Speaking as someone who has three dogs - all of whom have been rescued from situations in which they lived in various degrees of neglect and physical abuse - I have been able to use the information in this book to start to develop a much better understanding of how to communicate with and respond to my dogs, and how to interpret and interact with the dogs as they interact with other. It's also been very valuable when I meet and interact with dogs I'm meeting for the first time (I live in the Yukon, a very "doggy" place, both in terms of the number of people who have dogs with them just about anywhere, and the number of strays you may encounter just about anywhere).
Perhaps most importantly it has been pivotal in helping to remind me just how different our "cultures" our. Jean Donaldson's excellent book "Culture Clash" does a fabulous job of that, looking specifically at thinking about training techniques, but Aloff's book reminds me to consider how some very human gestures may well appear to an animal from human-knee-height (or in the case of one of my dogs, ankle height). Further, since all three of my furry family missed healthy socialization opportunities with their mothers and in safe human homes during the pivotal 8 week to 4 month stage of life, it's helped me to recognize how that's impacted some of their 'language acquisition' in terms of their ability to speak 'dog' with each other and with other dogs. It has helped me to better manage situations in which their fears are triggered and to at least lessen stress to the dogs, to myself and to other humans and dogs they encounter.
Rehabilitating my dogs is still an ongoing process and given the degree to which two of them, in particular, were abused, it will likely be a lifelong project, but I can with certainty that the combination of detailed images and plain language descriptions in this book have been and will continue to be a key tool in my efforts to help the four of us manage to navigate communicating across species in a modern world. I would like to believe that it's helping me in my ongoing, day-to-day goal of being a better animal caregiver and companion, and in helping coach them in less stressful interactions with each other, too, which is part of that goal. At the very, very least, it's a fascinating thing to observe members of another species and think "Hey, wait - I think.... is THAT what you mean?" And to occasionally have reason to believe that the dogs have a look on their face that appears to be something like relief, something to the effect of "Finally, the two-legger gets it...geez... she's cute but it's a good thing she has opposable thumbs or seriously, we'd have to give up on her *sigh*" (and yes, there I was indeed anthropomorphizing *grin*!).
I really cannot laud this book highly enough. I particularly enjoy the "quiz" section at the back - pages of photos, where Aloff encourages readers to interpret the elements she's described so painstakingly in the book (she even provides a chart). Then, of course, she provides an answer key.
NOTE: If you are a parent who has dogs, I particularly recommend this book; read it, then interpret it for your kids. It is utterly amazing and utterly unfortunate how often kids are injured and dogs surrendered or euthanized because of what comes down to miscommunication between the two species, even (sometimes especially) with dogs who have always been "great" with kids. As much as it is important to train dogs, it's at least if not more important to dog-proof kids, to remind them that dogs are not furry humans, and that we need to respect the fact that dogs 'say' things differently than we (humans) do. Please if you have both kids and dogs, take the time to get this book, read it and teach your kids what you learn. You could save a dog's life and prevent your family a lot of heartache.
Through a series of detailed descriptions, photographs and photo essays, Aloff brings human attention to subtleties of dog behaviour - dog to dog, dog to human - and reactions that we may often miss or misinterpret. Pointing out (rightly) that dogs, being not verbal for the most part, rely on a far more detailed level of body language than do humans, she spends almost 400 pages (plus a quiz section!) helping humans to identify how dogs communicate with each other (and try to do with their humans) through their facial expressions, their movements, their body placement, and body posture/tension.
Speaking as someone who has three dogs - all of whom have been rescued from situations in which they lived in various degrees of neglect and physical abuse - I have been able to use the information in this book to start to develop a much better understanding of how to communicate with and respond to my dogs, and how to interpret and interact with the dogs as they interact with other. It's also been very valuable when I meet and interact with dogs I'm meeting for the first time (I live in the Yukon, a very "doggy" place, both in terms of the number of people who have dogs with them just about anywhere, and the number of strays you may encounter just about anywhere).
Perhaps most importantly it has been pivotal in helping to remind me just how different our "cultures" our. Jean Donaldson's excellent book "Culture Clash" does a fabulous job of that, looking specifically at thinking about training techniques, but Aloff's book reminds me to consider how some very human gestures may well appear to an animal from human-knee-height (or in the case of one of my dogs, ankle height). Further, since all three of my furry family missed healthy socialization opportunities with their mothers and in safe human homes during the pivotal 8 week to 4 month stage of life, it's helped me to recognize how that's impacted some of their 'language acquisition' in terms of their ability to speak 'dog' with each other and with other dogs. It has helped me to better manage situations in which their fears are triggered and to at least lessen stress to the dogs, to myself and to other humans and dogs they encounter.
Rehabilitating my dogs is still an ongoing process and given the degree to which two of them, in particular, were abused, it will likely be a lifelong project, but I can with certainty that the combination of detailed images and plain language descriptions in this book have been and will continue to be a key tool in my efforts to help the four of us manage to navigate communicating across species in a modern world. I would like to believe that it's helping me in my ongoing, day-to-day goal of being a better animal caregiver and companion, and in helping coach them in less stressful interactions with each other, too, which is part of that goal. At the very, very least, it's a fascinating thing to observe members of another species and think "Hey, wait - I think.... is THAT what you mean?" And to occasionally have reason to believe that the dogs have a look on their face that appears to be something like relief, something to the effect of "Finally, the two-legger gets it...geez... she's cute but it's a good thing she has opposable thumbs or seriously, we'd have to give up on her *sigh*" (and yes, there I was indeed anthropomorphizing *grin*!).
I really cannot laud this book highly enough. I particularly enjoy the "quiz" section at the back - pages of photos, where Aloff encourages readers to interpret the elements she's described so painstakingly in the book (she even provides a chart). Then, of course, she provides an answer key.
NOTE: If you are a parent who has dogs, I particularly recommend this book; read it, then interpret it for your kids. It is utterly amazing and utterly unfortunate how often kids are injured and dogs surrendered or euthanized because of what comes down to miscommunication between the two species, even (sometimes especially) with dogs who have always been "great" with kids. As much as it is important to train dogs, it's at least if not more important to dog-proof kids, to remind them that dogs are not furry humans, and that we need to respect the fact that dogs 'say' things differently than we (humans) do. Please if you have both kids and dogs, take the time to get this book, read it and teach your kids what you learn. You could save a dog's life and prevent your family a lot of heartache.
January 21, 2011
Excellent book on understanding dogs through their body language. The pictures are incredible in illustrating the text and are indispensible in learning this subject. I've had many "ah ha" moments going through the book.
May 22, 2009
Brenda - Kudos to the photography and writing to help people understand dog communications. Well done.
March 6, 2010
I loved this book! Facinating read - it really opened my eyes to all the ways dogs are speaking to each other.
September 4, 2011
I LOVED this book. A must-read for any dog person. I constantly find myself referring back to it.
October 3, 2012
I like this book better than the more scholarly book on canine body language by Barbara Handleman. The photos are excellent and the explanations make sense.
December 7, 2012
Great resource for canine body language. Terrific photographs with clear, descriptive writing. A must have for dog enthusiasts!
January 15, 2013
An excellent book to gain understanding of dog communication.
December 27, 2015
Invaluable to anyone who would like more insight into the mysterious companions we often take for granted....
February 22, 2022
Invaluable resource. This book was recommended to us by our dog trainer. We have a wonderful black lab terrier mix. The black lab part is wonderful. The terrier part is a nightmare. But she is learning slowly from tips our trainer has given us. This book explains a dogs body language which help us to understand what she is thinking and feeling. It is full of photos and explanations of dog behavior. I will be returning to this book frequently and probably will never stop referring to it as long as I have a dog.
July 11, 2021
Have had this book for a long time. Occasionally I picked it up to use as a reference. Didn't help me put the pieces/pictures together. Once I sat down to read from the beginning, canine behavior and their signals made sense. Found that dogs are not far from human behavior or vise versa. However photos are not clear so you have to rely on the authors description. Well worth the time to read this fascinating study.
December 24, 2023
While the photographic quality is low, this book compliments other canine body language books nicely. A large part of the book focuses on snapshot sequences rather than just one snapshot in time, highlighting the subtle body languages. Especially for group body language with multiple bodies present.
At the end of the book is a very enjoyable quiz that tests your knowledge. It is often one of the first books I go to when puzzling over some behaviour
At the end of the book is a very enjoyable quiz that tests your knowledge. It is often one of the first books I go to when puzzling over some behaviour
July 5, 2017
I will never be done reading this book, I don't think, even if I've technically finished it. The pictures are so helpful, she's so good at keeping things informative but with a good sense of humor. I love reading books that inform but don't come across as dry, dull text books. Anyone looking to better understand dogs or train dogs, this book is perfect.
November 3, 2021
Incredibly useful but it was often hard to make out what the author was describing in the photos as they are black and white and not great quality. Still absolutely recommend as a way to better understand what your dog is saying.
July 4, 2018
Incredibly comprehensive photographic catalogue of dog body language. The photographs aren’t great quality but it opened my eyes to the breadth and subtly of dog communications.
February 13, 2019
Having trained and shown dogs for years, this book is a valuable source of information. The pictures and captions illustrate what the author is talking about in the chapters. Wish I found it earlier.
November 21, 2019
A black-and-white photographic guide to show people what different canine body positions mean. Extremely helpful for those who want to understand more about their dogs and dog-dog interactions.
November 24, 2020
Really fascinating. I can now watch the interactions of my dogs and (sort of) know what is going on. It does help to stop things from escalating.
February 23, 2022
Pictures were super helpful and I learned so much about how dogs talk to each other!
March 7, 2023
an absolute necessity for anyone who seriously trains dogs. i even bought the book!!!
January 7, 2024
Hot damn I speak dog now!
July 29, 2024
Sometimes it got a bit verbose for my taste, but the real life pictures and explanations were exactly what I was looking for. It was a very helpful read.
August 29, 2013
Brilliant. Cannot imagine why no one thought of doing this before--a dictionary of dog language! Every dog owner needs a copy. Ms. Aloff's photo essays and commentary provide much-needed insight towards the language our dogs use to communicate, not just with us but with each other. As with humans, understanding brings not just ease of communication but also depth to the enjoyment we get from our furry four-legged companions. I've owned dogs all my life, loved them and cared for them, trained them, observed them, and thought I spoke Dog. But Ms. Aloff's guide helped bring intuition into purposeful observation, and her training tips have improved my communication with my pack--simply because now I understand so much better the subtlety. The negotiation signals, for example, were new to me. I understood at some level that the dog was trying to ingratiate him/herself, to avoid a confrontation, but it all happens so fast "in motion". In the stills of the photos, one can observe the behavior happening; we see the dog's brain working, the changes in posture, the escalation, the winding down. Action and reaction, all frozen in frames we can study at leisure, all explained by Ms. Aloff's straightforward, sometimes witty, commentary.
I borrowed this book from a trainer friend. At the first opportunity, I will buy my own copy. This is a book one wants to refer back to over and over again.
I borrowed this book from a trainer friend. At the first opportunity, I will buy my own copy. This is a book one wants to refer back to over and over again.
March 6, 2012
Read Patricia McConnell's book, The Other End of the Leash, first. It better frames a work that has a weak underpinning. Otherwise the book's content does not have penetration. About a year ago, when I first began preparing to adopt a dog (our family had been without a dog for a few years), my assimilation of Brenda's excellent material was akin to catalog page flipping.
I went back to it, after reading McConnell's book and the material became illuminated. Sometimes I found the writing style too cutesy. Sometimes I wish she had laid out framework of body cues in the beginning, before Aloff jumps to content. I would have studied the pictures with a modicum of insight, before reading Brenda's brief descriptions--sort of a self-quiz.
None the less, the book is valuable tool. No where else is there a catalog of basic canine emotional states WITH PHOTOGRAPHS. This book is 75% photos and 25% words.
I went back to it, after reading McConnell's book and the material became illuminated. Sometimes I found the writing style too cutesy. Sometimes I wish she had laid out framework of body cues in the beginning, before Aloff jumps to content. I would have studied the pictures with a modicum of insight, before reading Brenda's brief descriptions--sort of a self-quiz.
None the less, the book is valuable tool. No where else is there a catalog of basic canine emotional states WITH PHOTOGRAPHS. This book is 75% photos and 25% words.
January 2, 2016
I read this awhile ago, I do not remember the first time, but really it should be considered a reference book if you have and are working with dogs. It teaches you to "read" a dog and his behavior, and his intended behavior which is the most salient point: you may know what a dog is doing at the moment, but dogs almost always telegraph their intentions ahead of time. If you are paying attention, you will be in a position to block bad behavior before it occurs.
Reading your dogs (horses, cats, cattle,horses) should be an unbidden part of your relationship with them and this book shows you, in not uncertain detail, how to do that. An excellent addition to the library of anyone who works with dogs or wants to understand their pet on a higher level.
Reading your dogs (horses, cats, cattle,horses) should be an unbidden part of your relationship with them and this book shows you, in not uncertain detail, how to do that. An excellent addition to the library of anyone who works with dogs or wants to understand their pet on a higher level.
September 15, 2011
This was a useful book to help understand dogs’ body language. The pictures are clear and well explained but it would be really helpful to see what happened before and after and how long the signals lasted. I would love it if there was an accompanying DVD or website that was packaged with the book and gave video examples. I notice some of Brenda Aloff’s books do this but Canine Body Language apparently didn’t (or Amazon didn’t carry it). Having the ability to diffuse a tense situation with your dogs or tell when a stranger’s dog might be escalating or about to attack made this book worth reading even without video examples.
June 27, 2019
A picture is worth a thousand words. As a child I was afraid of dogs - as an adult, who in her 40s stepmom'ed a small dog, I realized after reading this book how misunderstood they are despite being "man's best friend". Some of their behavior can only be understood with an interpretive guide like this one and observation. I've read quite a few books since on dog behavior (The Other End of the Leash, The Art of Raising a Puppy: Monks of New Skete, Clicker Training to name a few) and this one occupies a unique place on the shelf.
May 29, 2012
Excellent, wonderful book about canine body language and the micro expressions used by dogs. I see many of these expressions at my job, and understand what the dogs are trying to say. I also learned more about how dogs diffuse tension, and when we should interfere, or let the dogs communicate on their own. Anyone who has multiple dogs in their household should buy this book; and anyone who works with or trains dogs MUST have this as part of their library. Brilliant.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews