Max, who has worked with a thousand dogs over eight years, breaks down three reasons dogs raise their paws: anticipation of something rewarding, processing an unfamiliar stimulus, or appeasement to signal they're not a threat. Always check at least three body cues together before interpreting what your dog means.
Chapters
What does a raised paw really mean? Because some people say it means your dog is begging, but can it mean something different? Hello, my name is Max, and it's taken me 8 years and 1,000 dogs to learn this. However, I'm attempting to teach you in just 6 weeks. Welcome to day number 2 of how to read your dog's body language until we run out of dog to look at. Today's video is the feet again. Here is what you need to know about a raised paw. You see, a raised paw can be the left or the right foot, but it can also be the back feet. And they all fit into these 3 reasons why. Reason number 1 is that your dog is anticipating something. Now, this is where it's most commonly seen. Dog is anticipating chase, a bit like this Kelpie waiting for that greyhound to run. Or your dog can be anticipating a treat, which is when people think the dog is begging, but they are simply just anticipating something good. This here is a video of my dog playing with another dog with a raised paw every now and then. Because— feet. Reason number 2: they are processing something. You might find that the dog has those sticky feet like we learned about yesterday and a raised paw, and this simply just means that the dog is processing something unfamiliar. And reason number 3 is appeasement. This can typically be paired with a dropped head, or maybe the dog rolls over, and all of this means, "I mean no harm." As you can see, context matters. A raised paw can mean 3 different things, and it all depends on what the rest of your dog's body is saying. So the golden rule, look for at least 3 things before deciding how your dog feels. So I'll see you tomorrow when we're learning about the feet again.
