Why does my dog blink slowly at me? The Ultimate Guide

A few notes to consider when observing dog body language:

Interpretations should be offered only once you have observed the complete interaction and taken note of the wider picture. To offer an unbiased interpretation of the body language, observe and take note of the situation, taking into account the dog’s whole body, the body language signals and environment first before offering an interpretation. List all the body language you see in the order that it occurs; try to be descriptive as possible without adding any emotional language. For instance, saying a dog looks happy is not descriptive and would be seen as an interpretation rather than an observation.

You could however list what you observe: ears to the side, eyes almond shaped, slight shortening of the eye, mouth open, long lips, tongue out, body moving loosely, body facing side-on, tail wagging at a slow, even pace at body level.

From the observation I could interpret that the dog seems relaxed or comfortable. I still prefer to say relaxed rather than happy, as I feel you will truly never know exactly what the dog may be feeling on the inside emotionally. It is quite likely the dog may be feeling happy, but I prefer to comment on how the dog is behaving in response to the situation rather than presuming internal emotional states.

Here are a few examples of situations where a dog may offer blinking:

Two dogs are within close vicinity of one another in an open dog park. Suddenly, the one dog draws his attention towards the other dog. He does a three-quarter turn towards her and looks slightly tall, with his ears moving forwards and his tail up. He gazes over to the other dog and their eyes meet momentarily. Her reaction to the sudden eye contact is to turn her head marginally to the side, and, squinting her eyes slightly, she blinks a few times. He responds by blinking and turning his gaze away too. The other dog is trying to negotiate by blinking and turning her gaze away. She is saying she does not want to cause trouble and does not wish to interact.

A dog that is sitting on the ground is being scolded by his guardian. The dog’s mouth is closed, and his ears are back and flat to his head. He turns his head to the side, then he turns it back to face his guardian and does a lip lick. His eyes are squinted when facing his guardian and he yawns. He continues to face his guardian with ears back and eyes squinted; then he displays a succession of quick eye blinks, followed by further lip licks and more eye blinks. This is the typical body language that is misinterpreted as the ‘guilty look’. The dog is showing appeasement with his body language; he is responding to his guardian’s aggressive sounding voice and body postures. By using appeasing body language, he is trying to calm the situation down and communicating to his guardian he means no harm. Here is some further reading explaining the guilty look and a study conducted by Alexandra Horowitz, proving ‘the look’ does not correspond with the dog’s knowledge of the ‘bad’ behaviour.

This is an observation of a dog new to the shelter. She has only spent a couple of days in this unfamiliar environment and is fearful of the new surroundings and strangers at the shelter. A volunteer is trying to gain the dog’s trust and is sitting quietly across from her. The dog remains seated on the opposite side of the room and is keeping her distance from the person. The dog’s body is hunched over, with her head slightly down and her mouth closed. She seems very still, apart from occasionally turning her head slightly away from the person and giving a few blinks. On the previous occasion when the person spent time in the room, the dog’s eyes were wide and fixed on the person, and she displayed the same frozen looking body language. Although this dog is still frightened, the blinking is progress, as she is at least showing signs of communication and expressing herself. She is trying to communicate that she means no harm and does not want to be harmed. Taking into account the observations of the rest of her body language, it is apparent that the dog is still feeling fearful.

A dog is sitting in front of her guardian, who is filming her. There seems to be no tension in the dog’s body as she sits. Her tail is wagging in circles low to the ground. Her mouth is closed with no tension in the face muscles. Her ears are pointy, and they are in a neutral position, held up but ever so slightly positioned off to the side. As she looks up at her guardian, who is pointing the camera at her, the dog blinks at quite a rapid rate and does a subtle small movement of the head to the side. The tail wag and the relaxed body indicate that the dog seems comfortable with her guardian, but because the guardian is standing over her with a camera, and most probably facing front on to film the dog, she feels the need to blink as a calming signal. The pressure of having all the focus on her in such a direct manner may have gotten her to respond with blinking.

A person pets a dog, which sits in an enclosed cage. As the person leans into the cage area, the dog has no way of escaping and presses himself into the corner; he is sitting hunched over with his one paw lifted. His mouth is closed, and his movements are slow; he seems quite still. His ears are pulled back against his head, and he turns his head away and blinks as the person pets him on the shoulder. The dog does not feel comfortable and is slightly fearful of being petted. His discomfort is revealed by the combination of all his body language – the paw lift, the stillness of the dog, his hunched position (as he makes himself as small as possible), the blinking, and the way he backs himself to the rear of the cage.

A dog is sitting on the ground. His body is relaxed. His guardian asks him to do something. He responds by turning his head away and doing one slow blink. He may be feeling a bit of pressure at the guardian’s request and is indicating this by responding with the head turn and a slow blink.

These are just a few examples; there may be many more. Start observing to see if you can notice any blinking in different contexts. As discussed below, interpretations such as the above examples should not be attempted without careful observation and consideration of all aspects of the situation.

Is it OK to stare into your dog’s eyes?

Is it bad to stare a dog in the eyes? It can be bad to stare a dog in the eyes as it can scare them and be perceived as a threat. However, scientists have discovered that making eye contact with your own dog can strengthen the bond between owner and canine.

Affection: There’s a pretty good chance that your dog is licking you because it loves you! It’s why many people call them “kisses.” Dogs show affection by licking people and sometimes even other dogs. Licking is a natural action for dogs. They learned it from the grooming and affection given to them as.

Yes, blinking at them. “Blinking is always a good sign. If a dog is blinking faster than normal, blinking slowly or holding the blink, it is intentional communication: ‘See my eye contact is friendly. ‘ It indicates non-threatening intentions as well as showing the dog is relaxed,” says Aloff.

Why Do Dogs Wink? What Does It Mean Exactly?

When it comes to reading a dog’s body language there are many movements and gestures to pay attention to. Some of the gestures are easy to understand. A growling dog is sending a clear message and very few people will mistake the intention of that message. It means that the dog is uncomfortable and you should immediately back off or back away. The growl will likely also come with other gestures like standing forward, ears pointing forward and possibly raised fur. A broad wagging tail is also a clear sign usually associated with happiness and alertness. These gestures are immediately understood by other dogs and humans because they are so demonstrative and ‘in your face’.

There are however, many subtle gestures that will likely go unnoticed by most humans unless they know a little bit about dog behaviour. Blinking is one such behaviour. For humans, blinking mostly just keeps debris out of our eyes and keeps our eyes moist. Although humans in North America don’t pay too much attention when other humans blink, blinking still has the potential to be a great communication tool when needed. A person that has suffered a trauma, and cannot communicate in a regular fashion, can blink once for ‘yes’ and twice for ‘no’ when asked a question. In a similar fashion blinking patterns can spell out letters of the alphabet. More common than that is the half blink or a wink from one eye.

It should come as no surprise that other animals including dogs use blinking to communicate and this makes good sense. Dogs blink automatically and in a similar fashion to humans (less frequently though) in order to moisten and clear their eyes, but they can signal other intentions as well. The ‘wild’ is a dangerous place and sometimes a vocalization can alert a predator. Blinks (and slow blinks in particular) are silent and are thus great communication tools when another animal is in close proximity. Dogs live in social groups with 1 leader and different ranking members. When dogs deliberately blink to one another, this is seen as a pacifying or submissive gesture to the dog receiving the blink. These simple blinks are used to signal that there is no threat and are used to avoid conflicts and fights.

In a similar manner to blinking, yawning in dogs, can also convey a similar intent. Yawning to humans signifies fatigue and dogs also yawn when they are tired. However when dogs yawn to one another, it normally means something different. Yawning can be seen as a pacifying or submissive gesture by the yawner. This tells the dog ‘receiving’ the yawn that everything is OK and no conflict is forthcoming.

Humans can use these subtle gestures to their advantage when they find themselves in strange situations with dogs that they don’t know. Some strange dogs can be scary and humans can yawn a few times to signal that they are no threat. They can also blink slowly a few times to the dog to indicate that they are not a threat. Given that direct staring and direct eye contact IS a threat to some dogs, it makes good sense not to look directly at the dog when blinking or yawning; turn your head slightly to the side while doing these actions. If dog behaviour is intriguing to you, then you could ask your vet or trainer for some good books on the subject.

Pet podcast #53 is our first video podcast with dog trainer and animal behaviourist Sherry Bedard. Effective immediately, Sherry will be helping us put together short videos that offer quick tips to pet owners. This first video (about 5 minutes …