
Curving – Dog Body Language - bookofjoe
https://www.silentconversations.com/dog-body-language-curving-silent-conversations/
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aznpwnzor
> To approach a dog politely, instead of walking straight towards the dog in
> our very human direct way, you could walk in a slight curve. On approach,
> turning your shoulder away ever so slightly can put a dog at ease and is
> polite.

This is an interesting suggestion given that in my experience, dogs do not
exhibit curving towards humans. Dogs that make eye contact with me, usually
make a beeline towards me regardless of their leash condition. It seems like
dogs have learned that humans do not curve and approach directly. This is
probably similar tho how dogs can read human facial expressions even better
than they can read dog expressions.

I would not be surprised if most dogs are socialized to humans (vs they need
to be socialized with other dogs)

~~~
clairity
my dog does that too, beelines toward people, even those on bikes and scooters
(sigh). she's conditioned to think she'll get pets and maybe a treat from
people.

on the flipside, people who dislike or fear dogs tend to try to (nervously)
walk around her (she's all of 16 lbs, but friendly and vivacious). she finds
that behavior either curious or suspicious, and in both cases, she'll go
directly toward you to investigate.

for people who dislike/fear dogs, the best thing to do when facing a dog out-
and-about is to ignore them completely, as if they weren't even there
(especially no eye contact), but human instincts defy us there too.

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DennisP
A while back I read that according to scientists, dogs interact with humans
differently than they interact with other dogs. Cats on the other hand see a
human as just another cat.

The article also said cats have only five basic interactions, and if you learn
those five behaviors you can get along great with any cat. Maddeningly, they
didn't bother describing the behaviors.

~~~
Stratoscope
Only five basic interactions? That must have been written by someone who never
had the privilege of living with a tortoiseshell cat like Tulie.

When I pet one of the dogs, Tulie runs into the bathroom, jumps up on the
counter next to the sink, and waits for me. Why? I rinse my hands after
petting the dogs to avoid allergies, and she knows I will do that. Tulie loves
water and is fascinated by it and wants to know where it goes.

That bathroom sink is missing a stopper. When Tulie was smaller, she would put
her arm all the way down the the drain to her shoulder to find what was down
there. She still loves it if I turn the water on just a little bit so it
dribbles and she can swat at it.

Tulie makes her own toys. Because of that missing stopper, I bought a little
steel strainer to fit in the drain, similar to this one:

[https://www.homedepot.com/p/203675133](https://www.homedepot.com/p/203675133)

She pulled it out and put it in the middle of the hallway where someone would
accidentally step on it and stomp it flat. Now it makes a perfect toy for me
to roll on the floor or toss over her head so she can catch it. I bought a
couple more and she did the same thing to them. She has trained me well.

When she wants me to play, she starts with the usual cat "walk by and brush
your leg with her tail". If I don't get a clue, she stops and puts one hind
paw on my foot. I usually wear Birkenstocks at home, so she finds the spot
between the straps and gradually puts all her weight on that one foot until I
notice.

Like many cats, Tulie loves to play with a bird feather wand toy. These are
the toys with a flexible wand, a string hanging from the tip, and a collection
of bird feathers hanging from the end of the string.

Tulie's "sister" Sephie also loves this toy. Tulie has studied how I operate
the bird toy for her and for Sephie. One night after I was done playing with
them, I wedged the bird toy handle into a chair in the hope that they would
entertain themselves. And they did! Here is Tulie on the chair and Sephie on
the floor:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46rROBUDPYI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46rROBUDPYI)

At one point in the video, the bird feathers happen to land on the chair.
Tulie figures out how to get the toy unstuck so Sephie can keep playing.

And then the dogs walk by to get some water, so both cats stop playing and act
real cool like "nothing to see here, move along now."

I think we have five new behaviors already! :-)

~~~
DennisP
I've never seen a cat use a dangle toy on another cat :)

I've also had cats and agree they have all sorts of behaviors. The point of
that article was more about a common cat "language." I just remembered one,
that either it mentioned or something else did: when a cat wants to show it's
comfortable with you, it will look at you and squint its eyes.

But just as humans do all sorts of interesting things besides talk, so do
cats.

~~~
pluma
> when a cat wants to show it's comfortable with you, it will look at you and
> squint its eyes.

Having grown up around cats I have to admit I routinely do that slow-blink
myself, even to other humans. My wife thought nothing of it until I pointed it
out when I caught myself doing it. Not being a cat, she didn't read anything
into it previously.

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mintplant
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190802021553/https://www.silen...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190802021553/https://www.silentconversations.com/dog-
body-language-curving-silent-conversations/)

