Reading Animal Body Language: An Informative Guide and Quiz

Shelter staff workers must be trained to understand animal body language and vocalizations. Body language in animals includes their postures, facial expressions, tail movements, and other subtle clues. By learning animal communication skills, shelter workers can recognize signs of stress, fear, aggression, and comfort, enabling them to provide safer, more compassionate care for the animals in their shelter.

Why Body Language Matters in Animal Care

Animals rely on nonverbal communication, including body language, scents, and vocalizations. Understanding animal body language is a critical component of shelter and veterinary staff animal safety.

Interpreting animal signals can:

Core Principles of Animal Body Language

As part of your staff training for animal handling, make sure to cover core principles of animal body language.

Common Signals in Dogs

When reading dog body language, you’ll want to note their posture, tail position, ear orientation, and facial expression. Here, we’ll focus on dog stress signals and aggression.

Anxious or Frightened Dog:

An anxious or frightened dog will have a crouched, tense posture. Their weight may be shifted backwards, or they may turn away from the source of their anxiety. You may notice raised hackles. Their tail is usually tucked, and they hold their ears back.

Frequent lip-licking and yawning are signs of stress. You may notice the white of their eyes (i.e. whale eyes), and they’ll avoid eye contact. They’ll generally have tension in their face and muzzle.

Anxious dogs may whine, whimper, or bark. This behavior can escalate to growling and snarling if the dog feels cornered.

Aggressive Dog:

The dog’s body will be stiff, and they’ll generally lean forward towards the perceived threat. They may hold their tail up or give short, stiff wags. If the aggression is fear-based, their tail may be tucked but will still be stiff.

The ears are usually erect and forward, but they can be flattened backwards if the dog is fearful. The dog will give you a direct stare, have tension in their muzzle, and show their teeth. Deep growling and loud, repetitive barking are also signs of aggression.

Common Signals in Cats

Learn cat body language signals that can indicate a cat is anxious, frightened, or aggressive.

Anxious or Frightened Cat:

An anxious or frightened cat may freeze or crouch low the ground, and they may attempt to hide. The tail will generally be wrapped around the body or held low but may puff up if the cat is very frightened.

The ears are often flattened sideways or pinned back. Eyes are held wide, pupils are dilated, and the cat may give you either a hard stare or avoid eye contact. The whiskers are often pulled backwards due to facial tension. The cat may pant or loudly meow or hiss.

Aggressive Cat:

An aggressive cat will have a stiff, tense posture and may stand sideways with their back arched and fur puffed, especially along the spine and tail. Their movements are usually sudden and fast, such as swatting or lunging. The tail will generally be held stiff and upright, lashing or thrashing from side to side in agitation.

If the cat is scared, they may tuck the tail, though you may still notice it puffed out. Ears can be flattened or rotated backwards. The cat will give you a hard stare with dilated pupils, and their face will be tense.

If the cat is ready to strike, they’ll have their whiskers forward, but a cat who is feeling defensive may still hold them back. Listen for deep growling or yowling, hissing, and spitting.

Recognizing Stress and Discomfort

Both dogs and cats will usually show subtle signs of stress and discomfort before escalating to aggression. For dogs, this may include lip licking, yawning, turning the head away, avoiding eye contact, freezing, and whale eye. For cats, this may include rapid grooming, freezing, twitching the tail, pinning the ears, or a wide stare. Stress and discomfort are common when it comes to shelter animal behavior, so it’s vital to recognize these pet behavior cues.

A stressed or uncomfortable animal may also show avoidance and displacement behaviors. Avoidance behaviors mean the animal is trying to remove themselves from the situation. Examples include:

A displacement behavior refers to normal actions performed out of context. You might think of it as fidgeting. Examples include:

Signs of Aggression and Defensive Behavior

Aside from the early animal fear signs we’ve discussed, which can escalate to aggression, you may notice the following signs of aggression in dogs and cats. These signs are warnings of an impending attack:

Dogs:

Cats:

An important component of recognizing aggression in pets is understanding the difference between defensive aggression and offensive aggression. Defensive aggression is often fear-based and is quite common in a shelter setting.

The animal will generally show avoidance behaviors before escalating to aggression. You may notice their posture is shifted backwards. Offensive aggression is focused more on asserting control or challenging someone or something.

While it’s not typically preceded by avoidance, it still comes with warning signs, such as a direct stare, stiff posture, or low growl. The animal’s body posture is shifted forwards.

It's important that shelter staff know how to respond safely and respectfully. The following tips should be incorporated into aggression training:

Positive Body Language: Signs of Comfort and Trust

It is just as important to understand positive body language as it is to recognize animal fear signs. The following are positive body language signs in dogs and cats.

Relaxed Dog:

A relaxed dog will generally have a loose body and smooth movements. You’ll notice they have soft eyes and that the whites of the eyes aren’t showing. They should not have tension around their muzzle.

Their tail will be in a neutral position, possibly with a gentle, broad wag. Their ears should be relaxed into a neutral position, though they may occasionally move to listen to sounds. A relaxed dog is generally quiet.

Excited or Playful Dog:

An excited or playful dog has a wiggly body, and their movements are loose and bouncy. They may play bow. The dog’s tail may be up or at mid-level and it will wag quickly and broadly. Sometimes the tail circles as they wag, which may cause their body to wiggle to the side.

The ears will move expressively but are usually upright and forward if they’re engaged with you. Their mouth is often open, and they may be panting or have their tongue lolled out. You may hear yipping, barking, or play growls.

Relaxed Cat:

A relaxed cat will have a loose, comfortable posture. You may find them lying on their side, stretched out, or “loafed.” They may expose their bellies. When the cat approaches you, the tail is often held upright with a slight curve at the tip.

Their tail may rest alongside their body when they lie down, and tail movements are slow and gentle. Ears will swivel to listen to sounds but are not pinned back. The cat’s pupils should be normal in size, and they may hold their eyes half-closed or slowly blink.

Their whiskers are in a neutral position, rather than pulled back or pushed forward, and their mouth is closed. While they’re usually quiet, you may notice soft purring or gentle trills or chirps when they approach you.

Excited or Playful Cat:

An excited or playful cat will usually show quick, springy movements like pouncing or darting. They might playfully hop sideways. The tail is usually held upright and may quiver, swish, or flick quickly while playing.

The ears should swivel with movement or be held forward. The eyes are wide, and the pupils may be dilated. You may hear chirps, chatters, trills, meows, and squeaks during play. If the vocalizations turn to growls or hisses, the cat starts panting, or you notice their tail puffing out, the cat may be overstimulated.

Training Staff to Read Body Language

Shelter staff must be trained to read body language to prevent bites or scratches and to improve animal welfare. The following are tactics you can use to train your staff:

Creating a Culture of Awareness

Emphasize understanding animal behavior and body language as part of your organization’s culture. Animal body language should be a regular part of team communication, and behavior changes should be documented. Staff should feel comfortable speaking up about concerns rather than worrying that they’ll be criticized for questioning what they’re seeing.

Importantly, body language training isn’t a one-and-done deal. You should continue to have body language and behavior refreshers so that staff can continue to hone their skills.

Test Your Knowledge: Animal Body Language Quiz

Use the following animal body language quiz to test your understanding of animal body language.

A middle-aged, neutered male dog named Otto recently entered your shelter. During your rounds, you noticed that Otto was lying in his kennel. As you pass, he looks at you with soft eyes, and his ears perk towards you. His tail gives a gentle wag before he lies back down, letting out a groan. How would you interpret this body language?

You are using a wand toy to play with a young cat named Patchy. Patchy is pouncing at the wand toy and hopping sideways. As you continue to play, the cat’s tail begins to puff up, the eyes dilate, and the tail starts to thrash. How should you interpret this behavior change?

A new dog was brought in by animal control. As you approach the dog, the dog turns its face away. You notice that you can see the whites of its eyes, that they have a crouched and rigid posture, and that their tail is tucked between their legs. The dog has increased facial tension around their muzzle. How should you interpret this behavior?

Which of the following signals can be a sign of both playfulness and aggression in both dogs and cats?

True or False

Correct Answers: 1 (A), 2 (C), 3 (A), 4 (D), 5 (True, False, False, True, True, True, False, True)

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