Biology: Dog communication

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The dog is showing signs of heavy aggression.

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Here are some things dogs try to express and how they express them. These are often used in dog to dog communication but you too can use these and the others found at the source to understand a dog. (See the bottom of the post under "Sources".)

Happiness/excitement

• Large fast wags of the tail.
• Panting with lips relaxed covering the teeth (not to be confused with a snarl where the lips are retracted showing the teeth).
  
• Stamping its feet, alternating from left to right.
• Short sharp barks.

Playfulness

• Panting with lips relaxed covering the teeth.
• Large fast wags of the tail.
• Intense growl, without showing any teeth.

Anger/Aggression

• Lowered head.
  
• Lowered body.
  
• Raised back hair.
  
• Ready to pounce.
  
• Foot pointing.
• Focused attention.

Just remember LLRRFF. See photo at top of blog post.

Other signs are:

• Soft, low-pitched growl.
• Showing teeth.
  

Fear/Timidness

• Tail down or between legs.
• Ears down.

You probably noticed that some signs are mentioned more than once, that's because, like human expressions, these body movements and vocalizations can have more than one meaning, it all depends on the context.

Sources: Wikipedia