Lars (red cap) and Jasmin greet a figurant
Have you ever thought about how we greet each other when we meet, I mean us, people ? We walk strait towards each other and look into the eyes. Perhaps we smile – some show the entire set – we put our arm out or give a big hug, even to people who are not our closest.
When we greet dogs, we do it in basically the same way: walk strait towards the dog, smiles, look them into their eyes and perhaps extent our hand to pet it on its head!
Most times everything turns out good, and that is actually a bit of a miracle!
When dogs meet, they are very polite (They have learnt to interact with other dogs already when they where a puppy, and know dogs language), they do not look into each others eyes , since that is very rood. They do not walk strait towards each other, no they approach in arches. If a dog on its way towards another dog show its teeth , it’s a sign of aggression (you wanna be beat up ?) If a dog puts its paw on the shoulder on an other dog, it’s a sign of dominance ( I have higher rank than you – accept or get beaten up !)
Well, as people, we do practically everything we can wrong when we greet dogs. If we where able to read the thoughts of the dog, it must be something in the direction of: What a rood individual, that wants to get in contact with me! That they put up with our bad behaviour, must be because of their amazing ability to adapt and their big indulgence.
We could perhaps, as the higher beings, we ourselves believe to be, greet in a, for the dog, more naturally manner. Avoid looking it strait into its eyes, but look to the side or past it. Save the big smile for your human friends. Stop a little distance away from the dog, and let IT make contact – if, it wants to do so. Its not for certain, that it want to greet you, and that is ok, isn’t it? Imagine if we had to greet all the people we meet, in the city centre. Then we would be pretty busy. If the dog wants to greet you put your hand down under its head and pet it along the corner of the mouth. That is greeting dogs manner.
Children loves to greet sweet and friendly dogs with a big hug. Dogs cant stand being hugged or grabbed on to! Teach the children to greet dogs the right way, so that many dog bites can be avoided.
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