Selective breeding (artificial selection) has affected the communication abilities of most dog breeds. Artificial selection is carried out to change a living being, into something more useful for humans. This usefulness is decided by humans and is not always beneficial to the species that is being bred from. Breeding a dog for appearance may include coat colour, size, face shape, body shape and coat length. There may be an attempt to make the dog appear stocky and strong, or cute like a teddy bear. Some of the small, companion, flat faced dogs may even have been originally bred to resemble the human face. All these changes affect the dog’s ability to communicate to some extent.
There are three specific head shapes for dogs. Each head shape will affect communication and expression.
1. Long-headed dogs "dolichocephalic" include most sighthounds, inclusive of the Greyhound and Saluki.
2. What we would consider the in between shape "mesocephalic" includes Labradors, Beagles and German Shepherds.
3. Much broader heads "brachycephalic" include pugs, Shih Tzu and French bulldogs.
The rounder "brachycephalic" headed dogs may have problems with effective eye shapes or facial expression, making them difficult to understand for other dogs. Boxers, Pugs and Bulldogs have round faces and often unusual jaw shapes. Irresponsible breeding has led to many of these dogs showing deformity in their lower face and jaw area. In addition, breathing may be difficult for them, due to squashed nasal passages - leading to much panting or snorting, which can cause fear in dogs that they meet. The fear or defensive response in other dogs, to the unusual approach of a squashed faced dog with laboured breathing, can negatively affect the dog’s social experiences. The other two head shapes have a much lesser effect on communication, they enable good communication in fact. A black dog may be less easy to read for an approaching animal, whilst a dog with long facial hair may be hindered in effective communication, simply by the presence of the hair.
Long hair in the eyes will obscure a dog’s expression and may cover the eyes altogether for communication purposes. Like we do, dogs tend to check out the eyes of a stranger for hints at how they are feeling, confirmation that the stranger is no threat or as a fleeting hello. A dog with hidden eyes could be desperately trying to communicate, but no-one else can see their efforts. Eye contact is also used as a challenge or confrontation method when a bold or defensive canine meets a new dog. Hidden eyes can at best cause a communication void and, at worst, cause a dog to show or attract defensive or fear-based aggression.
Long hair around a dog’s muzzle may obscure a critically important teeth flash or nose wrinkle.
An unsurprising amount of dog guardians report that their own dogs don’t like black dogs, or that their dog is most likely to react defensively towards a very hairy dog. It’s no coincidence that there is a physical hindrance to communication that makes the dog harder to understand, causing a communication void.
Every individual dog will have an ear position which is considered their neutral position. Ears can also help or hinder communication. Dogs that have heavy hair on their ears may not be able to move their ears through the full, natural range. Dogs’ natural neutral ear position can change at least ten times as part of effective communication. Some dogs may only manage to reach two or three of those positions that can be seen, because they are either hidden or weighed down by hair. Ear expressions also change dependent on how the ear sits naturally, pointed ears will communicate slightly differently to small floppy ears and long, heavy ears may not seem to communicate much at all. The dog is always communicating with their ears, it’s just less obvious with heavy and hard to move ears than it is with expressive ones.
Posture affects communication too. A dog that is bred to appear muscular can easily be associated with posturing by another animal, particularly if the second animal has never met the breed before. So, a bulldog, bred to appear chunky, may be misinterpreted by another breed, initially. Boxers who are generally lively dogs, tend to appear muscular, bounce around and have the facial expression which can make another dog unsure, so whilst other Boxers may understand them perfectly, the boxer dog can become a trigger for defensive displays.
In addition to body shape, many of the muscular breeds are subject to cosmetic changes that are also detrimental to communication. Cropped ears and docked tails hinder the ability for a dog to use them as part of their language repertoire, leaving them with less in their communication toolkit. Dogs with long hair on the body can be hindered, as their natural behaviour of hackling to communicate, may not be seen or it may not even be possible.
There’s none so varied as the dog’s tail, when we explore canine communication. A tucked tail for one breed may be perfectly normal whilst for another it could signify extreme fear and stress. Like the ears, all dog’s tails have a neutral position, the place the tail falls to when a dog is not feeling any specific strong emotion. For the Pomeranian that means hooked over the back, whilst for the Whippet it means low and tucked between the dog’s back legs. There is a surprising amount of dog tail types. For communication purposes it’s important to know the dog breed and individuals neutral tail position, a prior knowledge that gives us the chance to look for specific position changes.