Between a new job and a baby on the way, I haven't been too good at keeping up with this. I'll try to do better.
I got in a discussion this weekend about "energy," as heard on one of my least favorite trainer's tv shows. I hold the strong opinion of if you can't explain something so it is understood by your grandparent or a child, you don't truly understand it yourself. So, in a word, like so many other things, said tv "trainer" doesn't know what he's talking about.
What's actually happening is all about body language. Dogs communicate predominately through body language: stance, ears, tail, lips, mouth, etc. Likewise, they pick up on our body language. Although dogs have to learn a lot about how to communicate, there are some things that cross species.
When two people meet, it is polite to face the person, make eye contact, extend a hand to shake, or hug if the person is very familiar to you. Dogs see most of these things as a threat, intimidating, or just plain rude. When dogs approach each other, they approach at an angle, they avoid direct eye contact for any length of time, they stand side by side, head to tail until they are comfortable with each other. I am only using social meetings here where the outcome is both parties are at ease with each other.
This relates to "energy" in that the aforementioned tv "trainer"walks up to the dog directly, stares at him, hovers over him, and basically does everything he can as a person to intimidate the dogs. When I had the store and in my classes, when I approach a dog for the first time, I turn sideways to them, I squat down to make myself as non-threatening as possible, I don't make direct eye contact, I wait for the dog to approach me. On numerous occasions people have commented that their dog hardly ever approaches strangers or doesn't like strangers and how surprised they are the dog was choosing to interact with me. (This, of course is all after I have asked the owner if I can pet their dog.)
So there it is in a nutshell: "energy" = body language. The thing to keep in mind after all this is if you approach a dog in an intimidating manner, the dog is much more likely to either go the other way or, if he feels he can't get away (is on a leach, in a yard, etc.) the dog is more likely to retaliate, even to the point of biting.
