Ask Jake

Do you have a question for Jake? Is there something you've always wondered about dogs and how they think? Here's the perfect opportunity to ask a question and get the answer from a dog's point of view. Email us your question and we'll be sure to post your answer in one of our upcoming segments of Advice from Jake.

In this second edition, Jake gives us advice as the endless winter rages on!

Tip #1 - My Tail

My tail can give you as much information as the expression on a person's face. When I am wagging it lightly from side to side this is the equivalent of you smiling. I am very happy and content. When I am flagging, my tail is vigorously going back and forth and the rest of my body is very stiff. I am not happy. I am feeling anxious, an equivalent human expression would be when you are shocked by something and your eyes get real big and your eyebrows are raised. When my tail is tucked up under my belly, I am afraid and am trying to make myself very small. When my tail is straight up in the air, I am feeling threatened and my body language is all going forward in an effort to make myself as big as possible to hopefully scare away whatever I am feeling threatened by.

Tip #2 - Jumping Up

I jump up on you because I am excited to see you and you seem to like it because you get just as excited as I do. You talk to me in an outside voice and play wrestle me. If you want me to keep four on the floor when you greet me then kindly come down to my level and say hi with a scratch under the chin.

Tip #3 - Barking

I bark for a variety of reasons: demand, attention, alert and protection. Demand and attention barking is usually because I want something, and if you give in to me I will start barking every time I want something. Other times I will bark to alert you that someone is coming up our walk. If you like this then kindly acknowledge me with a thank you. The thank you relays to me that you know someone is coming and it takes me off the hook and allows me to defer to you. When I bark very deeply I am telling people that I am there and that it is best for them not to approach me or our house.

Tip #4 - Dog Greeting Etiquette

I have observed that in human culture humans greet one another by making eye contact and shaking hands. This is absolutely taboo in dog culture. In dog culture, dogs properly greet one another with a side greeting and the sniffing bums and it is so embarrassing when you, the humans, try to interrupt our ritual greeting by correcting our behaviour. Please leave the shaking of hands and eye contact to the human realm and the sniffing of bums to us, the dogs.

Tip #5 - Poopscicles

Eating frozen poop is a delicacy to some of us dogs. It is a special seasonal treat only available throughout the winter months. To stop this behaviour get me a basket muzzle and put it on me when I go outside.