During the month that I've had Breeze, a few people have attempted to greet her by doing what is traditionally thought to be proper puppy greeting behavior. The people have bent over, crouched down, and/or sat on the floor while "baby talking" Breeze. This confuses the heck out of Breeze, causing her to hit the floor and belly crawl up to the people. However, once I ask the people to stand up, act normal and talk to me (in fact just ignore her for a minute), Breeze jumps up, her tail is out and she is happily jumping up on their legs asking for attention.
Why?
Belgians (females in particular, even the puppies) are masters at reading body language. When greeting someone new -- that they believe they should respect (such as humans and other adult dogs -- see the photos with Breeze and Stella, below) -- many Belgians will show subordinate body language. This can be something as subtle as putting their ears back a little and/or lowering their tail a bit. I see this as a good thing; it means the puppy has been taught respect by its mother, littermates and breeder.
Unfortunately, the humans often read the puppy's body language as fear, so the humans become even more fear-inducing by also acting submissive. (Getting down low and talking in a high pitched voice equals submissive body language.) Then the puppy doesn't know what to think! Instinct and experience tell the puppy to show respect. When the puppy does show respect, and the human responds inappropriately by lowering his or her body to the ground and whining (baby talking), the puppy says "Oh my goodness, I thought this person was confident and dominant, and my job was to show them respect. When I tried to show them respect, they became submissive to me. Help! I don't understand! I don't know what to do!!!"
When the person (or dog) the puppy is greeting reacts in a neutral fashion, the Belgian puppy takes that as an invitation to come closer and say hello. This is how I want people to first meet Breeze: Ignore her. Stand up. Talk to me. Ignore Breeze.
What happens then, is Breeze reads the body language of the person I'm talking to. We both appear neutral. Neutral to a Belgian puppy is an invite to investigate. It only takes a second or two for Breeze to assess the situation and realize I'm talking to another normal human. She will then want to join in on the conversation. She is allowed to make contact first (I do allow her to jump up on adult friends at this point). Then, when the humans do turn to talk to her and pet her, her understanding of body language is reinforced. One meeting is all it takes to become Breeze's friend for life.
In addition, I'm teaching Breeze to "bait" off the judges for the conformation ring. Because her breeder introduced the word "treat" for puppy stacking (ears up, stand still & look adorable), I am using that with people who are pretending to be my judges. I say to Breeze, "Look...she has a treat..." and then I have my helper wiggle their fingers (that's holding a treat). When Breeze stands still with her ears up, my helper feeds her a treat.
I'll share a couple more greeting examples with Breeze and my other dogs.
Flame (10 year old Belgian Sheepdog) is a very dominant bitch that I bred. I know her like the back of my hand. Flame has no tolerance for young puppies. Breeze has known from day one that Flame is the alpha bitch in this pack. Breeze sees Flame giver her "the look" and immediately stops what she's doing. She's reading Flame's body language and the "the look" means "Watch your step, you brash little puppy!" Flame's look gets her what she wants (respect and distance), so that's all Flame needs to do. If Flame followed "the look" by getting low to the ground, whining while still showing dominant eye contact and ears, Breeze would be totally confused. She'd wonder if Flame was setting her up to be womped on! That's what some humans mistakenly do when greeting puppies! (Alternately, if Flame gave Breeze "the look" and Breeze responded with respect, but then Flame became more aggressive, that could cause Breeze to doubt her ability to read dog body language. That could result in Breeze becoming fear aggressive.)
The parallel with Flame's body language (above) and Breeze greeting humans would be a strange human, staring directly at her, with dominant body posture. That person's body language would be saying "Don't approach. Freeze." Wisely, Breeze would not approach. This has happened a couple of times when Breeze was in her x-pen at the training center. A person approached, head on, strong eye contact and dominant body language. Breeze froze in her x-pen. Then the person got down low, baby talking, but still giving strong eye contact. Breeze was so confused. But once I had the person change, Breeze immediately changed.
Tory (5 year old Belgian Sheepdog neutered male) is a goofy, happy-go-lucky boy. Hard to believe but he's Flame's son. I bred him. Tory loves everyone and he was the least dominant of the boys in his litter. It's only been in the past year or so that Tory will stand up for what he wants (such as a bone or toy if Flame attempts to steal it). He's always been at the bottom of the pecking order, and he's happy with that. Tory flirts with dogs and people, using his playful and inviting body language to get attention. When Tory gives Breeze this body language, she looks at him as a playmate -- not someone to respect. Tory does not get down on his belly; he is upright, grinning and "mirroring" back to Breeze the body language she offers him.
The parallel with Tory's body language (above) and Breeze greeting humans would be a friend who's casual and acts "normal" -- as though Breeze is just another one of my dogs. "Oh hi, how are you doing? How was your day? Want to go grab some dinner?" That's the way I want people to greet Breeze.
Walker (3.5 year old Belgian Sheepdog neutered male) is extremely dominant and self-confident. I did not breed him, but he was definitely one of he dominant puppies in his litter. I neutered him a year ago following some aggressive behavior that I did not want to see continue or passed on. Walker totally respects Flame and my 14 year old Schipperke, Journey. If Walker is in a crate and I go to let him out, Flame will go into the crate, grab Walker by the neck and haul him out. Walker totally accepts that. They then go outside to run and play together. When Flame is in the mood, she will allow Walker to rough-house with her, but as soon as she's had enough, he gets "the look" and if he doesn't stop, she pins him to the ground.
Walker doesn't know what to think of Tory. Walker shows Tory submissive body language, but being the dorky guy that he is, Tory doesn't respond as Walker's elder. Tory simply flirts with him. So, for those reasons, I don't leave them alone together unsuperivsed even though there has never been any aggressive behavior between the two males. My gut instinct is that they would get to running and playing too rough, and once Tory decided to stand up for himself, there could be an issue. Walker would rightly be confused if Tory finally stood up for himself, because Tory has never shown even the most subltle dominant posture towards Walker.
Yesterday morning in the house, I was taking Breeze out to go potty and had her on leash. Walker was in the house, walking along ignoring Breeze because he wanted to go outside as well. Breeze saw his "ignoring" behavior as an invitation so she jumped up and put her paws around his neck. It happened so fast, I didn't see it coming.
In a split second, Walker was standing over Breeze, who had flattened herself to the ground. He wasn't growling or acting aggressively; he was simply putting a stop to the unwanted puppy behavior. She responded appropriately by lying still. I sent Walker ahead outside, following with Breeze. Once Breeze was in her puppy yard, Walker arrogantly strutted past her a few times, did his business and then changed his body language to "Let's play chase." This game involves Walker running the perimeter of the play yard with Breeze chasing him from the inside. They then play bow to each other and play through the x-pen.
Had Walker given Breeze "the look" as Flame does, Breeze wouldn't have thought to jump up on Walker. In my experience, Belgian males are not as adept at the subtleties of body language. As she matures, Breeze is going to need to learn the differences in the ways males and females communicate.
To Breeze, Walker's neutral body language was an invitation for her to do what she wanted. Because she's an uppity puppy, what she did was too much. Walker told her so with appropriate body language. Breeze accepted it...but I fully anticipate she'll test the waters again.
There's been an interesting dynamic occur in my house with Flame since Breeze arrived. Flame is asserting herself as alpha more than usual, but in subtle ways that the average person would probably overlook. She will take a bully stick (chew toy) even if she doesn't want to chew on it. She will then lay it on the floor in front of her a few feet from where she actually lies down. She has put it out there as a way of saying "This is mine. Leave it alone."
That, of course, gets Walker all excited. He wants whatever he cannot have. He knows that he shouldn't try to take it from Flame, so he stands back and barks at her. He is trying to trick her into getting up to correct him for barking, so he can then zoom in and steal the stick. Flame is also choosing to take her naps in more dominant positions in the room.
I'll write about Belgians greeting children at another time, and share Breeze's experience doing a "photo shoot" last week with three very exciting children.
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