Dog Behavior & Training Glossary
Dog behavior can be confusing, especially when the same behavior gets described ten different ways online. Search by term, category, or the signs you are seeing.
66 terms found
Behavioral Issues
Reactivity
Reactivity is an intense response to a trigger that may include barking, lunging, pulling, freezing, spinning, or difficulty disengaging.
Canine Communication
Recovery Time
Recovery time is the period a dog needs after stress, excitement, frustration, fear, or intense activity before returning to a more functional baseline.
Training Concepts
Reinforcement History
Reinforcement history is the accumulated record of outcomes that have made a behavior more or less likely over time.
Behavioral Issues
Resource Guarding
Resource guarding is behavior used to maintain access to something a dog values, such as food, toys, resting spaces, stolen objects, or occasionally a person.
Household Behaviors
Scavenging
Searching for and consuming discarded food, trash, animal remains, or other edible material.
Behavioral Issues
Separation Distress
Separation distress is a strong emotional response to being left alone or separated from a specific person.
Canine Communication
Shake-Off
A shake-off is a full-body shake that may appear after tension, restraint, intense play, or a stressful interaction.
Canine Communication
Slow Recovery
A prolonged return to normal breathing, movement, attention, and behavior after a stressful or exciting event.
Canine Communication
Snapping
A rapid bite motion that may or may not make contact and often functions as a warning or distance-increasing behavior.
Training Concepts
Threshold
Threshold is the point at which a dog becomes too emotionally activated to respond, learn, or recover in the same way it could at a lower level of intensity.
Training Concepts
Trigger
A trigger is a person, animal, object, sound, movement, place, event, or internal sensation that changes a dog’s emotional or behavioral state.
Training Concepts
Trigger Stacking
Trigger stacking occurs when stressful or exciting events accumulate before a dog has fully recovered.
Canine Communication
Tucked Tail
Holding the tail low or under the body, commonly associated with fear, uncertainty, discomfort, or appeasement.
Household Behaviors
Urine Marking
Depositing small amounts of urine on vertical or socially meaningful surfaces.
Canine Communication
Warning Signals
Warning signals are behaviors that communicate discomfort, concern, or a need for distance before a dog feels forced to escalate further.
Canine Communication
Whale Eye
Whale eye describes a visible crescent of white around a dog’s eye when the head turns away while the eyes remain fixed on something of concern.
Vocal and Attention Behaviors
Whining
A high-pitched vocal behavior that may occur with anticipation, distress, frustration, attention seeking, pain, or uncertainty.
Canine Communication
Yawning
Opening the mouth widely and inhaling, which may occur with tiredness but can also appear during stress or social pressure.