Eyes: The Windows to Dogspeak For Your Chihuahua or Bulldog

Dogs have an amazing language that is much like a dancer’s. Every movement, every glance, every turn means something. The body of a canine tells its story as it happens. Each and every moment lived by a dog is an open book, one which is eager to be read and to connect, as is appropriate for dogs, with humans. While their gestures can be obvious, like as a broad sweep of an arm, there are many smaller flicks and turns that are quite subtle and can even be overlooked entirely. To say a human often loses true meaning in translation is an understatement and the biggest culprit of this is a human’s natural lean towards humanizing everything around her, down to the rocks and the wind. How much easier then to humanize the quirk of a dog’s ear or the roll of the eye? This does a disservice to the pooch, though, because as much as a human is not a chandelier, so is a dog not a human.

Fortunately, we can teach ourselves new tricks. Dogs are often far better tuned into human emotion than we are tuned into doggy talk because they speak the language naturally. We have to be taught how to interpret such things even among our own kind. It is not as hard as you might think but it does take commitment, observation and practice. While the whole picture has to be considered to truly make sense of what beloved Doodles is trying to say, there are specific areas of interest, such as the eyes and the ears you can get in tune with. Both tell us a great deal of information about Doodles’ mood, but let us focus on those soulful eyes.

Eye, Eye Captain

Notice that the natural look of a dog’s eye when she is relaxed and happy is a soft almond shape. There is usually very little, if any, white showing even on such bug-eyed breeds as the Chihuahua. White then is an indication of something other than inner calm and balance; it lets us know that Doodles is stressed, tensed and quite possibly ready to bite. It can indicate fear, nervousness or anxiety. Pooch specialists call this phenomenon “whale eye” and it does not show in simply wide, happy eyes. It has meaning especially when backed up by other body language that is tense, or otherwise not relaxed. The position of the ears and tail will help you determine what Doodles is feeling and whether to approach her or not.

Quite often, dogs will not make eye contact with humans or for very short bits of time. This is to show deference to the higher-ranking pack members, as a human should be. They can be trained to make eye contact if the human so desires it; some feel it lets the dog pay better attention rather than casting her eyes off to the side all the time. Some dogs will make a degree of contact with their owners but will never directly challenge them. If her human seems angry or intense, Doodles will always keep her eyes averted except to periodically glance up for a nanosecond to see if the behavior has changed.

The alpha dog (male or female) will generally ignore those in her pack. This makes the direct eye contact, when it happens, all that more startling and effective. Humans feel eye contact to be a connection or understanding but that is not what it means to a dog. You will stress your dog if you force her to behave by human mannerisms. To a dog, eye contact is often a form of tacit correction.

Staring down at a dog will make her nervous and eventually very anxious to the point of severe discomfort. If you stare down a dominant dog, you may make her aggressive, and to stare at an aggressive dog is to challenge one that is already unstable. You may well provoke an attack. If you find yourself in the unenviable position of being caught around an aggressive dog that is actively snarling and challenging you with direct eye contact, lower your eyes and turn sideways. Do not stand straight on to the dog. Yawn or lick your lips (these are called calming signals and lets the aggressive pooch know you want to diffuse the situation). Keep your eyes averted and slowly but calmly walk away. Do not run, remain relaxed and do not make sudden moves. Certainly, do not lock gazes.

Dogs speak with eyes and every part of their body. If you are around dogs often it behooves you to learn how to understand and deal with them on their terms. Their instincts will not bend for us, so we have to bend for them. It is well worth every effort to do so and sweet Doodles will be much happier for it.