Your dog claims his favorite chair, turns around twice, gives one enormous sigh, and melts into the cushions as though the day has been absolutely exhausting.
Usually, that little tongue peeking out is just relaxation meeting anatomy: the jaw and lips loosen during sleep, and the way your dog’s mouth is built helps determine how much tongue escapes.…
Yes, a dog’s breathing can speed up during perfectly normal sleep. The rate isn’t fixed from the moment she closes her eyes until the moment she wakes, and a short spell of quicker breathing can happen without anything being wrong.…
It’s quiet under your desk until your sleeping dog gives one soft little whimper.
His paw twitches. His muzzle moves once. You look down, wondering whether he’s upset and whether you should wake him.…
Snoring is basically a vibration. As air moves through the upper airway during sleep, relaxed tissues in the nose and throat can flutter. The narrower or more changeable that passage becomes, the easier it is for ordinary breathing to turn into a snuffle, rumble, or surprisingly impressive little chainsaw.…
Yawning usually feels easy to explain. Your dog curls up after a long afternoon, blinks slowly, stretches his jaw wide, and yawns. He’s tired. Nothing mysterious there.
Then you check into a hotel after a quiet drive.…
A tucked tail means a scared dog. That’s one of the first pieces of canine body language most people learn, and plenty of the time it works. A stranger reaches toward your dog too quickly, his body drops, and the tail disappears between his legs.…
Watch the same dog at two points in one day. At breakfast, the kibble scoop comes out and his tongue slips across his lips before the bowl even reaches the floor.…
You find your dog in the bedroom closet with her back against a row of shoes and her nose pointed toward the doorway. Down the hall, the family gathering is still going strong.…
When a dog’s body senses danger, it stops treating digestion as a priority. Blood shifts toward muscles that might need to run or fight, saliva production changes, and the digestive tract slows down.…
Your dog is perfectly happy in the basement as long as you’re there. She comes down behind you, circles twice on the rug, and drops with a sigh near the sofa.…