Doggie Language: Book Review

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Doggie Language: A dog lover’s guide to understanding your best friend, by Lili Chin, is a pint-sized guide to doggie body language, helping owners understand the meaning and subtlety of how their dogs communicate.

‘Doggie Language’ is broken up into sections that focus on different parts of a dog’s body and body language, covering greetings, eyes, posture, tails and play among others.

Each signal is given a visual description alongside one of Lili’s charming illustration, with a description of what the dog may be feeling or communicating in that moment. 

I found this book an entertaining and helpful way to decode my dog, and the simplicity of it makes it a great reference book. When in doubt, take it off the shelf, flick to the relevant section, and remember that your dog is always talking to you, and this book will help you listen.

What I loved 🧡

The illustrations are just so stinkin’ cute, and make subtle expressions easy to understand. 

What I learnt 📚

• Context and the whole body matter when interpreting dog body language. For example, a wagging tail on its own doesn’t tell you much, but if the body is tense and the tail high and stiff, the wag isn’t a friendly one and the dog is communicating agitation. On the other hand, if the body is loose and wiggly, as is the tail, the dog is excited and playful.

• How helpful it is to put words to a phenomenon you previously couldn’t name. I have often noticed Mango stand a certain way and interpreted is unsure, so it was so helpful to read that an unsure posture includes a lowered-head and forward-lean, while the dog’s weight remains in their hind quarters. I’ve seen Mango do this when investigating new things that make her nervous, but Lili’s ability to identify and describe this phenomenon has helped me to see it more readily. 

• The  nuances of dog body language in general

What I longed for 🤔

More!

Borrow or buy?

Buy. I recommend owners have it on hand at home. It's a great reference book to return to again and again.

[If you purchase via this affiliate link, alittlebitferal will get a small commission].

This book is fun, short, and educational and has the power to help harmonise human-dog relationships by teaching us how to understand doggie language. 

You can purchase Doggie Language here.