Have you seen a person yawning, you know that they are either tired or bored or both. However, what does it mean if your dog is yawning? Does it mean that your dog is tired and wants to go to sleep? Before you start taking your dogs yawning personally, you need to understand why dogs yawn. Dogs’ yawn does not indicate what it indicates for humans.
Your dog may yawn even though he seems to be fully alert and awake. Understanding your dog’s behavior will help you improve training, communication, and your overall bond with your dog. If you want to learn more about dog psychology, common behaviors, training methods, care process, etc, subscribe to the happy purpose. You can also check out the YouTube channel of the happy where is our contact me directly on twitch.
Here are certain reasons that would explain why your dog yawns
Excitement
Yawning during a meeting can be considered an insult by the other party. However, amongst dogs, yawning is actually interpreted as a compliment. Dogs are most often on if they are very excited about something that is about to happen. If you notice your dog yawning when you are just starting this training session, there is a chance that your dog is yawning because he is excited to start the training. If you are in the process of taking your dog out for a walk and you get a phone call, your dog may yawn to indicate eagerness and anticipation.
Anxiety
On the other hand, your dog may also yawn to indicate negative emotions like anxiety or stress. This type of yawn will most often be accompanied by other body language cues like tense muscles, wide eyes from my lip licking, flattened ears etcetera. Humans respond to difficult situations by foot tapping. Dogs use yawning as a means to show that they are anxious or stressed about whatever is going on around them.
Confusion
Dogs also want to signify confusion. If they are confused about something and don’t know what to do, they may yawn. This can happen a lot during training sessions. Suppose you give a command, but your dog does not understand it. You repeat the command, but your dog is still confused. Thus, your dog yawns to indicate that he is not following what you’re trying to tell him.
To communicate with other dogs
Yawning is also used as a form of communication between different dogs. It can be a sign of a calming signal. And a dog may need to that other dog that he’s just playing with and is not serious about the fight. The dog may also lick his lips or walked slowly or avoid the gaze to show that he does not mean any harm to the other dog.
Contagious
As humans, we know how contagious yawns can be. One person yawns and eventually everyone follows. A similar case happens in the case of dogs as well. Or if one dog yawns, the other is most likely to follow. There is scientific evidence about this phenomenon. However, the evidence is weak, but dogs do yawn in response to another dog yawning.
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