Camera Shy Dogs

Max Doesn't Like Photos

Many dogs don't like their photo taken. This includes many of the dogs you see in super cute photos. If you think about it, most photography involves looking directly at the dog - or to put it directly staring. For some dogs, a camera lens (sometimes even on a phone) feels like another eye as well. Staring is rude in dog language and that naturally makes many dogs uncomfortable. Some of the behaviours that commonly show up in photos are dogs looking away, whale eye, nose licks, various facial positions (see Max in the photo for some good examples) and holding themselves in various postures that express stress like a rounded topline.

This doesn't mean that you should never take photos of your dog, but you should work with them to make it more enjoyable.

Whale Eye

Whale Eye is the name usually used in the dog world for moving the eyes so that the white shows. This can be used for the same type of communication as when we humans roll our eyes or side eye someone. But it can also be a sign of fear or distress.

Stress Signs - Chasing the Tail

Dogs chasing their tail are a staple of humor. However, it isn't always funny. It can be a sign of pain in the back and tail area. Max has structural issues around the base of his tail and will pull on his tail when he is overdue for a chiropractic visit. More often it is a sign of stress. It is possible that there is truth to some of the jokes and that stress may be due to boredom. But it is stress none the less.

As far as I have seen, some dogs may use chasing their tail to comfort themselves, but it doesn't seem to de-escalate or calm things with other dogs, so I would not consider this to be a calming signal.

So, check for health issues (including fleas and ticks!), but consider tail chasing another sign of stress.

Stress Signs - Shedding

Max's Flank With Patch of Loose Hair

Some dogs, and Max is a prime example, will shed when they are nervous. Most often this will show up as a pile of hair left where the dog was or hair almost flying off a dog. But as the photo of Max's flank shows, this can also result in loose hair similar to what you would see during shedding. For Max, this is the result of having several stressful days, in this case our legal fireworks season. Like other stress signals, this type of shedding or losing hair is a signal to us that the dog is stressed and intervention on our part is likely necessary.

Why Stress Signs Matter

Why do we care about whether or not our or another dog is stressed? There are a bunch of reasons:

• Too much stress isn't fun, it is well, stressful.
• Every being deserves a life where stress and anxiety aren't the primary factors.
• Your dog can't learn if it is stressed.
• If you can't recognize stress signals, you might not realize that your dog has gotten stressed to the point of shutting down and that "good behaviour" is in fact physical and emotional shutdown.
• Stress and fear set off the fight or flight reaction and in today's world dogs don't usually have the opportunity for flight so they end up biting, fighting and exhibiting other dangerous behaviour.

While some dog behaviours can be either a sign of stress or attempting to calm the situation down (or both), other behaviours are generally just a result of stress. We'll look be looking at stress specific behaviours in future posts.