Dog Behavior Explained 
There can be an entire stretch of empty carpet available, and your dog still chooses the backpack. Or the jacket you dropped beside the couch. Or the folded laundry you meant to put away twenty minutes ago.…
Wolves, the closest living relative of the domestic dog, barely bark at all. Researchers who study wolves generally describe barking as a relatively uncommon part of adult wolf communication.…
Dogs experience the world in ways that are very different from people. Their senses are sharper, their curiosity is constant, and many everyday behaviors reflect how they investigate sounds, scents, objects, movement, and the people around them.…
Your dog steps onto the fleece blanket you just smoothed flat, plants one paw, and drags a fold toward his chest. Then comes the nose underneath, a quick turn, two more determined paw strokes, and finally a flop into the rumpled little bed he has made.…
There is something unusually quiet about a dog placing his head on you. He walks over while you are sitting on the couch, lowers his chin across your thigh, and stops.…
A dog doesn’t have to touch you to choose you. He can settle on the floor beside your chair, leave several inches between his body and your feet, and stay there while better-padded beds sit unused across the room.…
Some dogs can identify the best seat in the house in the fifteen seconds it takes you to get a glass of water. Conveniently, it’s the one you just left.…
The room is dark except for the blue-white glow of your phone. You’re halfway through reading something when a cold, damp nose presses into the back of your hand.…
Some dogs seem to save their best head tilts for a remarkably short list of words.
You can talk through an entire story and get nothing. Then you say ‘ball,’ ‘walk,’ or the name of a favorite toy, and your dog’s head tips sideways almost on cue.…
Your dog trots past you with a balled-up sock in her mouth. She isn’t chewing it. She isn’t hiding it. She’s just carrying it, head held a little higher than usual, like she’s won something.…