How Do You Recognize Stress in Dogs? The Signs Almost Everyone Misses
The signs of stress in dogs are small changes in body language that come long before the barking, pulling or lunging: a tongue flicking over the nose, a yawn when he is not tired, a head turning away, whale eye becoming visible, a body that freezes. Dogs always start softly and without sound. Only when those quiet signals go unheard do they get louder: growling, barking, lunging. We usually miss the beginning of that conversation, not the end. This article is the foundation our other articles about dog language point back to: what stress is, the nine signals in order, the traffic light we use in our courses, and what to do when you see it.
In short
Behavior is communication. The first question is always “what is my dog telling me?”, never “how do I stop this?”.
Arousal and stress are the same thing inside the body. A wagging tail means arousal, not necessarily happiness.
A stressed brain cannot learn. So never train in the moment itself, but before the moment.
Short-lived stress is not a problem and can even be useful. Ongoing stress is harmful.
Distance is the answer to stress. Making space is almost always the first step.
Would you rather see it than read about it? In the free webinar, Jess shows the five most commonly missed signals on video.
What stress in a dog actually is
Stress happens when the emotional tension in your dog rises too high and he genuinely suffers from it. It is an umbrella term: fear, frustration, pain and too much arousal all fall under it. Stress is almost never a stand-alone problem, but the result of something else. That is why, with stress, you always look for the cause.
Important to know: inside the body, arousal produces the same stress hormones as fear. Whether your dog is happy because the ball comes out or afraid of the neighbor’s dog, his brain is in the same state. In that state the thinking part of the brain is on pause and your dog acts purely on reflex. That is why he does not listen in such a moment, and that is why training in that moment makes no sense.
You can picture it as a stress bucket. Every exciting event, including a fun one, adds a splash. Stress hormones need hours to days to break down; in our courses we count on up to three days. So a party, a vet visit or a bad night from two days ago can play a part when your dog reacts “out of nowhere” today.
The nine stress signals, from small to large
Dogs have more than thirty calming, stress and distance increasing signals. The calming signals were mapped out by the Norwegian trainer Turid Rugaas; the full list and how to use them yourself is in Calming signals in dogs. These are the signals you miss most often, roughly in the order a dog uses them:
Lip licking. The tongue comes out very briefly, over the nose or lips. Often when you stand up, walk to the door, or lean over him.
Yawning when he is not tired. With a puppy you are hugging, with a child running at him, with visitors. More about that in Why does my dog yawn so much?
Turning the head away or looking away. “I do not want a conflict.” Often together with walking a curved line instead of heading straight at something.
Whale eye. Under stress, the muscles around the eyes tighten, which makes more of the white show. More whale eye means more stress.
Ears pinned back, a tight muzzle, a low posture.
Slowing down or freezing. Standing still, moving more slowly, or going rigid. Right before a lunge a dog always freezes first, sometimes for a long time, sometimes only very briefly.
Sniffing the ground or lifting a paw at a moment when there is nothing to sniff. The paw is an intention movement: he is unsure whether to stay or leave.
Panting or drooling when it is not hot, scratching without an itch, not being able to settle. See Why is my dog panting when it is not hot?
Shaking off. Shaking the tension out of the body. This one is actually a good sign: your dog is letting go of the stress and dropping a level.
It is not about one signal but about the whole picture. The more signals you see at once and the stronger they are, the more urgently your dog needs space.
The traffic light: from green to red
In our courses we use a traffic light to read how tension builds. It is a guideline, not a law: a dog can go from green to orange and back again in a heartbeat.
Phase | What you see | What you do |
|---|---|---|
Green: relaxed and alert | Walking more slowly or standing still, sitting or lying down, looking away, suddenly sniffing, showing the side of the body, turning the head away | Let him look. Make a curve yourself if the other party is coming straight at you. |
Yellow: transition | Lip licking, ears back, closed mouth with tension around the muzzle, holding the breath, yawning, shaking off tension | Once is nothing. Several times in a row: keep his attention with you and make a curve. |
Orange: real stress | Faster breathing, more frequent lip licking, raised hackles, walking faster or pulling, stiff posture with straight legs | Creating distance is the only good solution. |
Red: fear or panic | Tail tucked between the legs, shaking, crawling, freezing, hard staring, growling with bared teeth | Always prevent this. If you cannot: distance as fast as possible, and never punish. |
In summary: green is relaxed and alert (walking more slowly, sitting down, looking away: let him look), yellow is the transition (lip licking, ears back, tension around the muzzle: several times in a row means pay attention), orange is real stress (faster breathing, raised hackles, pulling: creating distance is the only good solution) and red is fear or panic (tail tucked, shaking, freezing, growling: always prevent it, and if you cannot, create distance as fast as possible and never punish).
Three misunderstandings that cost your dog dearly
“He is wagging, so he is happy.” A wagging tail means arousal, not happiness. Look at the rest of the body.
“He is lying down, so he is calm.” Sitting or lying down in a tense situation can actually mean there is so much tension in the body that your dog can do nothing but stand still and stare. You recognize relaxed observing by a soft gaze, a shifting point of focus and a loose body. You recognize hard staring by a fixed gaze, leaning forward and stiffness.
“He will not take his treat, so he is being stubborn.” With too much tension, even digestion shuts down. A dog who no longer accepts steak is over his threshold and is unreachable at that moment. Increase the distance.
What to do when you see stress
Create distance. A dog cannot behave and cannot learn anything if he does not feel safe, and space is how you create safety. Walk a curve, cross the street, go somewhere quieter.
Step in between your dog and the trigger. Dogs do this for each other. Calmly, with your side toward your dog, without saying anything. Do it before the reaction starts, not after.
Use your body, not your voice. Talking is the tool a dog understands least. Most of the sounds dogs make themselves mean arousal or alarm, so our voice sounds tense to them. Going quiet and making a gesture literally calms a dog down.
Support is always allowed. Fear is an emotion, not a behavior. You cannot reward fear by supporting a frightened dog. Support actually brings the stress hormones down faster.
Then lower the stress in daily life. An adult dog should rest around 16 out of every 24 hours. Chewing, sniffing and licking produce calming hormones. Throwing balls and running alongside a bike do the opposite.
And be honest about your own body language. We walk straight at dogs, we stare at them, we reach over their heads and we talk to them. In dog language that is the behavior of a rude, stressed teenager. It is often exactly the people who love dogs most who are unintentionally the most rude. That is nobody’s fault. When we knew better, we started doing better.
From our practice
Annelous van T. wrote on Trustpilot after taking the course (April 22, 2026, 4 stars): “After following this training I have become aware of how hard we actually make things for dogs, how conflict avoiding they are, and how I can make sure my dog experiences less stress. I have also learned to observe his behavior and interpret it differently.”
That observing is exactly what we have been practicing in the webinar since 2022: more than 96,000 dog parents have watched it by now, and the question that comes back most often is not “how do I stop this”, but “how could I have missed this for so long”.
When to get help
A dog who is constantly high in arousal, who suddenly no longer tolerates being touched, or who becomes less and less tolerant, may be in pain. Pain plays a part more often than owners think: in a review by Mills and colleagues (2020), pain was a factor in 28 to 82 percent of referred behavior cases, depending on the practice. A ten-minute vet check does not rule out pain; keep asking. With real fear, panic when he is alone, or biting, bring in a professional instead of experimenting on your own.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know whether my dog is stressed when I am not there?
Watch for signals he does not show when you are home: scratching without an itch, panting when it is not hot, not settling, barking at the closed door, not eating. A camera helps enormously, and so does an activity diary in which you note what happened each day and mark with green, orange or red how tense your dog was. How to build that up is explained in Separation anxiety in dogs.
Is all stress bad?
No. Startling at a slamming door, followed by yawning, lip licking and shaking off, resolves itself. Only when the signals last a long time or keep coming back does it become harmful.
My dog only does this when we have visitors. Is that stress?
Usually yes. Visitors who come in, walk straight at your dog and pet him over the head are exciting for a lot of dogs. Let your dog decide for himself whether he wants contact, and ask your visitors to sit down and wait.
My dog is shaking or panting while nothing is happening. Is that stress too?
It can be, but first rule out cold, pain and illness with your veterinarian. After that you read the rest of the body: Why is my dog shaking? and Why is my dog panting so much? will help you see the difference.
Sources
Rugaas, T. (2005). On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals (2nd edition). Dogwise Publishing. The foundation of the calming signals that come back in all our courses.
Mills, D.S. et al. (2020). Pain and Problem Behavior in Cats and Dogs. Animals, 10(2), 318. On the role of pain in behavior problems.
Read next
From paper to practice
Reading what a stress signal looks like is step one. Actually seeing it, at the moment it happens, at the pace of your own dog, is step two. In the free webinar you see the five signals you are probably missing right now on video, and you learn one technique to respond without using your voice.
Do you want to go further after that, with the full toolkit of splitting, curving, the hand signal and the attention signal? That is the Stressless Communication Course. More than 30,000 dog parents have taken a Stressless Dogs course.
Thank you for reading, on behalf of me and all the dogs.
Dog Behavior Consultant & Natural Dog Trainer