Dog and Wolfdog Behavior: Calming Signals

Avoidance 
Sniffing 
Paw Lifts 
Slow Walk or Slowly Approaching
Yawning
Shaking It Off 

Calming signals are a form of communication between dogs. The signals are universal, and all dogs big and small will understand them. They are different from self-soothing behaviors that dogs use to calm themselves, like pacing.

Calming signals are used by a dog to calm another dog or group of dogs to avoid conflict.

Dogs will also use these same calming signals on humans. Unfortunately, people don’t always recognize or understand the signals. Failure to react to calming signals can cause conflict between a handler and dog or increase the anxiety of the dog.

For example:

There’s dog poo on the carpet, the owner calls his dog in anger. The dog tiptoes slowly toward the owner who is yelling at him. The dog sits a few feet away and turns his head away. This enrages the owner who thinks the dog has chosen to not listen to his rant.

Since the calming signals aren’t working, the dog may go into fight or flight mode when the owner goes to grab him.

Aside from the owner’s pointless rants and bad behavior, the owner didn’t know the dog’s slow walk and head turn were signals the dog used in hopes of calming his owner down.

While there are many calming signals, most dogs have a few they use regularly based on what has worked in the past.
 
Links to calming behaviors:

Avoidance 
Sniffing 
Paw Lifts 
Slow Walk or Slowly Approaching
Yawning
Shaking It Off