I’ve written about and provided resources for calming signals in my previous posts. But as with anything, it’s no good knowing something if you don’t do anything with that knowledge. Knowing about and understanding calming signals in dogs is so valuable because it can help you predict and prevent fear stress, anxiety, and conflict in dogs. If you see the signals and change nothing about your approach to the situation, it will likely only result in one or many of the emotions and outcomes listed above. See the signals and respond appropriately, and you will make life a lot easier for you and the dog.

The same is true for vocalizations; ignoring them will not necessarily make them go away if you have still not attempted to understand the root cause of the vocalization. The root cause could be one or a sum of many things, such as instinct, reaction to the environment, reaction to an emotion, or even a learned behaviour (often taught to the dog by us humans without us even realizing it). First – observe, second – understand, third – address the root cause.