# Communicating with your poodle



## outwest (May 1, 2011)

Today my poodle again seemed to communicate with me. It's so darned cute. It seems simple enough, but continues to amaze me. I was reading a book, quite enthralled with it, and the time passed. Suddenly there was a cold nose gently poking me. I looked at Bonnie and she stared at me with that boring-her-eyes-into-me stare. I asked her, "What?" She suddenly flicked her eyes to the side towards the other room showing the white of her eyes. It was so funny the way she made them big and off to the side like that! I giggled and then she again brought them back to mine with an intense, serious eye squinting stare. I didn't move so she did it again - eyes flicked to the side, back to me and flicked again. Suddenly it dawned on me that it was 4:40 - 10minutes past her dinner time. I swear she was trying to communicate with me with her eyes. I got up and she immediately ran over to where her food is kept, tail going a million miles a minute. 

It was a little creepy because she didn't make a sound, just poked me with her cold nose and flicked her eyes over and over. I dare say she loves her new food. 

In what ways does your poodle try to communicate?


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

From Poppy I get the stare, followed by her leaping all over me if it loks as if I have guessed right, and going very quiet again if it turns out I guessed wrong. Rather like a game of "Getting warmer, getting cooler".

Sophy does the stare, but reinforces it with a Down, which she decided early on seemed to work to persuade me to do things - I think of it as her way of saying Please.


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## Theo'sMom (Mar 23, 2011)

Outwest,
What is this food? I may need to get some for Theo because he has rejected all kibble. He loves his raw instinct but I want him to have some variety.

Bonnie sounds like such a great dog-friend and so smart. (I remember that she also opens doors! She could have a career as a doorman!) Theo communicates with stares, but he also has different "voices" some of which are very cute. His "you aren't getting ready to take me to play with Thelma next door" is my favorite. It's a half bark/half sigh, with a head shake to the right. Such a nice expression of friendly frustration versus his more demanding "you take me right now!" bark.


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

I find this interesting especially since I have only had Sunny, an adult, since 9/1. He definitely communicates similar to Bonnie. He will "touch" with his nose and when I look at him then he either looks in the direction he wants me to come (to the door, etc.) and then he will "look" at the leash and back to me and back to the door......or if it's the nose bump and I look at him, he has this wide-eyed, tail wagging look like he is ready to explode and I ask him if he wants to "play" and he literally jumps and does circles in the air! Runs into the living room and picks up his ball. Funny, sometimes he just wants me to "be there" to watch him play and he tosses his ball and catches the ball, play bow all along, and then grabs a toy, shakes it and runs like a maniac. We have not been together that long yet, but he clearly knows how to communicate.


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## onlypoodles4me (May 18, 2009)

My big boy is a chow hound. He is way oversized and has always had an appetite to match. If dinner is late, he will come and sit next to you, then look to the kitchen and back to you, and do this over and over until you get the message. We all go out to potty after breakfast and he makes sure you dont forget the "after breakfast cookie" He sits by the cookie jar, and looks at the jar, then back to you, and will continue until the cookie gets out of the jar and into the mouth.
We also have a poker. He will come up and give you a full on poke with purpose if he thinks you are not paying attention. If that does not work, a quiet grumble is next, followed by a dramatic flop to the floor and another grumble.
They are very expressive and seem to always try and communicate in whatever way seems to get them noticed.


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## Rowan (May 27, 2011)

I've discovered that Cabryn poodles have the ability to tell time and they know precisely when it's mealtime. (Merlin is a Cabryn poodle as is my parents poodle so I'm basing this on two pups.) They both sit and stare and gesture with their eyes, much like Bonnie. Merlin has mastered the "mind-melding" with his eyes and will even use the paw to gently drive his point home. If I still fail to get the message, he'll climb all over me, his tail wagging a mile a minute. 

If there's a chicken or meat cooling on the counter, Alex will look at it and then me. And back to the meat and then me (licking his lips off and on). I guess that's easier than pointing. 

I wish he could figure out daylight savings time though! LOL

Alex has mastered the sigh. If I'm working on something and he wants to play, he'll pile a few toys up and rest his head on them while sighing (loudly) and watching me with his eyes. If I venture near him, he'll hop up and grab one of the toys. 

I think the "eye communication" must be a poodle thing. They all seem to use their eyes to communicate with us mere humans.


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

I just love poodles. They do communicate with their eyes, don't they?

Coconut Geordie, Bonnie's new adult food is Blue Buffalo Wilderness grain free Duck mixed with a quarter of a can of grain free meat in various flavors and brands with warm water. I decided to try the grain free and she approves.  It says on the bag it is a good alternative to raw feeding. I believe in raw feeding, but don't choose to do it myself pther than some raw meaty bones and an occasional chicken wing, so this makes me feel like I am doing aaaalmost the best for my girl.


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## Yaddaluvpoodles (Mar 20, 2010)

Poodles (all dogs, for that matter) communicate every single instant... they just do it in a manner that we humans are pretty much oblivious. Take a look at your poodle right now, this minute... what is he/she saying? Are they comfortable, the right temperature, content, hungry, ready to go somewhere, wanting to play? When poodles give us "exaggerated" responses, like the long gaze and the pokey nose.. it's because we have missed out on all the other hints that they have given us. 

When I was doing search and rescue with Vic, it initially took really intense focus on concentration for me to "catch" Vic's statements for example "I've just hit scent" (a slight twitch of the tail, a very slight lean forward).

Dogs are such naturally great communicators with their body language, while humans are verbal and tend to miss all but the most blatant of body talk. I have been fortunate enough to be able to attend several seminars by Tom Lambs. He is a most incredible man and some of the lessons that he teaches about human body posture, attitude and carriage being mimicked by our poodles are absolutely astounding to me.

While our poodles are always communicating to us, we are also always communicating to them. I remember several years ago watching a well known dog breeder who was in an obedience competition with one of her standards. During a long down, the breeder was ignoring her dog, not looking at it, gazing around the dog show. All of a sudden something caught the breeder's eye and she quit randomly gazing, her gaze become intent, her head quit moving and she went from a relaxed body posture, to one that was just ever so slightly tensed.. had I not seen this exact body language in my poodles, I probably wouldn't have noticed it with the breeder. What happened next is probably obvious.. the very well trained poodle, whose attentions were focused 100% on the breeder, also became very intent, her head turned slightly, she couldn't see what the breeder was gazing at so intently, she turned her head again and finally, she broke the down, however didn't move from that location. She stood to see what it was the Breeder was "telling" her to look at. After dismissal from the ring, I spoke with the exasperated breeder who simply couldn't imagine why the highly trained poodle was such a bad girl and why she had to act up. I explained that what I had observed was a poodle who was very attentive to the Breeder and that the Breeder had inadvertantly "cued" the poodle to break the down. The breeder didn't get it, the poodle was in a bit of trouble and had to go through more rigorous training before the next attempt at an obedience title. To this day, I believe the poodle was "cued" by the body language of her breeder..I also believe that it wasn't the poodle who needed additional training, it was the breeder.

When we attempt to speak to a human who speaks a different language, we frequently repeat ourselves, using exaggerations in speech and gestures. When our poodles do exaggerations in communications it's because we didn't "hear" them the first time. Poodles are incredible communicators and things that should be obvious to us appear subtle simply because we aren't used to that form of communication.

One of the frequent thread questions that never ceases to amuse me is that of "is it too cold outside for my poodle?" "how long should I let my poodle stay out in the cold"..etc. We wouldn't dream of asking someone on a forum if it was to cold out for our children, our spouse.. we would ask the child, or spouse. It's just as easy to "ask" our poodles.. take a look, are they comfortable? They are not only capable of telling you, they do it with every move and action they make. 

A couple of statements which are made frequently in K9 Search and Rescue work "Trust Your Dog" and "Listen To Your Dog". Many people are oblivious of the amount of communicating our dogs do.. directed at us. The dog/human relationship becomes exponentially more rewarding when we become aware of what our poodles are "saying" to us.


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## Siskojan (Mar 13, 2011)

Sisko does the long hard stare, then a tap with the paw, but if ignored resorts to one short sharp bark. About Daylight savings, Saint Maggie, the old border collie turned up every evening at 9pm for a dog biscuit and daylight savings only had her off track for about one day. The cats always followed her lead and would take up positions on the scratching post for their Pounce treats. On a side note, Harry, a very cute tabby could count his treats, in as much as there were 4 or not 4. If you put 4 down he tucked in and ate them, if there was 3 or 5 he would sit and look at them, then at you, then at them until you adjusted the number to 4. Funny little beast he was. He could work the answering machine and would hit the flashing button and replay messages. It was very eery at 3am to hear a voice echoing from downstairs. The first time I thought it was police in the street outside with a megaphone until I woke up fully and recognized whose voice it was. Harry was always full of joy and would do head over heels somersaults down the stairs just ahead of your feet on lovely summer mornings.


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## PaddleAddict (Feb 9, 2010)

Jäger does the look, basically he looks at what he wants ME to look at. If I miss the look, he sneezes. (He also sneezes if he thinks I'm making him wait too long in a down, LOL, like "Hey, did you forget about me?") If the look and sneeze don't work, he will resort to going over to whatever he wants, then coming to me, then going back, etc. It's pretty easy to understand him to be honest.

I do know that he is always watching me, too. Whenever we encounter something new to him and potentially scary, he always looks at me to see how I am reacting to it. If I am calm, he usually accepts the new thing pretty easily.


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## peppersb (Jun 5, 2011)

Bob absolutely knows my schedule and reminds me when it is time to stop working. He is so funny. I work from home, and usually stop working at around 5 to walk the dogs. He comes over to me usually a bit before 5 and sits down and stares at me. If I don't respond right away, he has a very funny low complainy growly noise that he makes. If I get up, he jumps around, happy that I've noticed that it is time to go out. But if I tell him "No Bob, not yet," he's will go lie down and then come back and try again in 10 or 15 minutes. Very funny.


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## Siskojan (Mar 13, 2011)

I had a JRT as a teenager and before I went to college I worked in a supermarket and came home on the bus (bus stop just outside our garden gate) shortly after 5pm every day except Friday. Friday was late night opening and my Dad picked me up at 9pm. Judy could hear the bus coming from a distance and agitated to get out to wait for me at the gate every day just after 5pm from Monday thru Thursday but didn't even twitch an ear on Fridays. How do they know these things?


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## tokipoke (Sep 3, 2011)

Dogs and toddlers share the ability to follow gaze and pointing. I am looking forward to growing old with my poodle because by that time I'd imagine we'd be practically telepathic by then! 

I read somewhere that humans loved receiving eye contact from dogs so much that we've bred them in a way that the whites of their eyes are not visible. So that we can always see their big brown eyes on us. I don't know if this is true!

Leroy communicated with me yesterday when I had to deal with a very aggressive dog on the grooming table. This dog wanted to bite and inflict pain. Leroy grew so agitated he was barking and grumbling at the dog and kept checking on me. He also laid down right by the table, which he's never done before till yesterday. I know for sure he knew what I was feeling and wanted to be close to me for comfort because he knew that dog was unstable.


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## WestCoastSpoo (May 11, 2011)

I just recently watched a special on dogs (National Geographic I think) and they were comparing dogs to wolves in terms of ability to communicate with humans. They had wolves that had been raised with people since birth (inside the home and treated as domesticated dogs) and domesticated puppies (raised the same way). They did tests on communication with both groups. 

One was they tied a bone inside a cage that the dogs/wolves could see and smell but wouldn't be able to get without help. Their owner/handler human was standing next to them. The wolf would try for HOURS to get the bone and never get it...and NEVER ask for help from the human. The dog would try for about 30 seconds and then look at it's human and then back to the bone and then to the human then to the bone...definitely saying "come on help me get that BONE!" LOL

Another test was a human would stand a distance away from the wolf/dog between 2 overturned pots. Inside one was a meat treat. The human would point to one but then just stand still. When released from across the field the wolves would randomly choose a pot and usually started with the wrong pot but used their noses to find the meat. The dogs ALWAYS went to the pot the human pointed to without even putting their noses to the ground.

Another one was the dog/wolf puppies would be with their handlers and the handler would do silly stuff like jumping up and down or turning their body sideways or looking in a specific direction. The dogs would inevitably copy the human either by jumping up and down themselves, or they would look in the same direction the human looked or turn their body the same way. The wolves did none of that.

I think it's clear dogs have evolved to be able to talk to us in a language we understand, and they get what we are saying through our body language not just our spoken commands. Dogs are awesome and I love sharing my life with them!


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## ekbaby734 (Jul 1, 2011)

After I taught Sooty how to "high five" (he doesn't like shake because he doesnt want his paws grabbed.) Anyways when he tries to get attention he will "high five" me anywhere. Whether its my arm or my face.. LMAO I think its the cutest thing and sure does grab my attention.


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## sarpoodle (Dec 26, 2011)

onlypoodles4me said:


> We also have a poker. He will come up and give you a full on poke with purpose if he thinks you are not paying attention.


Ha ha, that's what our Lexi does when she wants something. She pokes you hard. I call it porpoising.

Greg


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