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Written by Stephen C. Rafe
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 A dog yawns. "Oh, a 'calming signal', someone says knowingly. Apparently, this person is referring to a phrase coined by a person named Turid Rugaas. The intent is evidently to say that certain behaviors from a dog are "calming." I have been told that the term's interpretation may result from a problem in translating Ms. Rugaas' intent from her native language.
Anyhow, Ms. Rugaas and her followers refer to yawning as a "calming signal." And, indeed, it can be. However, as we also know, yawning is a reflexive behavior -- which means that it is an innate behavior that takes place in response to something else. Therefore, it would not be accurate to say that a dog yawns with the intent of displaying a signal that will calm another dog, or itself.
Why Yawning Occurs
Indeed, yawning occurs when one is tired, stressed, or bored. Human or dog, yawns often occur when one first wakes up, when we are short of oxygen, and so on. One highly regarded school of thought says that all yawning results from the brain's intent to receive more oxygen to process an internal conflict that occurs between two alternative or conflicting behaviors. For example, one might yawn when he or she:
* wants to stay up, but also wants to sleep
* wants to deal with a stressful situation but has to choose a strategy
* wants to get up and enjoy the day, but also wants to lie in bed
* wants to keep running but needs to get more air into the lungs
* wants to pay attention, but prefers something more interesting
* wants to succeed at some new behavior, but is unsure of him/her self.
Dogs also yawn when they are overloaded or confused -- say in training situations (which also correlate with stress).
We Don't Know
We can not assess a dog's intent or motivation: We can only observe a behavior and its outcome. Thus, it would be "mind-reading" to conclude that a dog yawned because it wanted to "calm" another dog. This would be true even if the dog yawned and the other dog did, indeed, calm down.
Why? - Because we don't know whether there was a direct cause and effect. For all we know, the calmed dog may have not even noticed the yawn. Or it may have calmed down in response to some other stimulus (perhaps a non-vocal signal such as change in the yawning dog's tail position or ear position, etc. We also don't know what triggered the dog's yawn in the first place. However, in most situations where a dog yawns in response to another dog's aroused behavior, the odds are that the yawning dog is processing the stress between the fight/flight message it is receiving in its brain's hippocampus as a response to the other dog's aroused behavior.
Dogs respond to stimuli in different ways because the stimuli are different in some way or ways. It may be a different dog, a different set of circumstances, a different display from the other dog, and so on.
How We Interpret What We See
We have all seen dogs yawning in classes. Are they sending "calming signals" to one another? More likely, they are responding to a situation where the handler is confusing or overloading the dog, or both. If not, perhaps they are responding to their unfamiliarity with the situation, the location, the other dogs, or the other handlers.
Stress, again, is a key factor. The handler of a yawning dog in any of these situations would be well-advised to re-evaluate all of the components that were present when the dog started yawning. There's a good chance that the dog is either experiencing stimulus overload, or is being subjected to poor teaching methods (such as moving too far too fast in training and not allowing the dog to succeed).
The Wrong Label
As we can see, it would be erroneous to label "yawning" as a "calming signal" - if only because yawning has many other purposes that don't allow us to affix such a narrow and restrictive label to it. Secondly, if another dog happens to calm down when one dog yawns, we have no certain way to tell whether it was the yawn, alone, or some combination of signals that produced a "calm" response in the other dog. Indeed, we don't even know whether the calm dog was actually responding to the yawn at all. Further, we can't say whether the yawning behavior and the calm response are constant. The next time the same dog yawns, the other dog might just as well bark, or pace, or carry out some other active behavior.
What We Need to Know
It seems many variables remain unaddressed and/or uncontrolled in the use of the term. For example, before we accept such a label, we should know at least the following:
1 - Did a specific dog trigger the subject dog's yawn?
* If so, what was it about that dog that brought about the subject dog's yawn?
* Does the subject dog have any prior experiences with the other dog?
* What were they?
* Did those prior experiences also trigger the subject dog to yawn?
2 - Did the dog-park or classroom situation itself cause the subject dog to yawn?
If so, what was it about the location that caused the yawn?
3 - Did something else motivate the subject dog's yawn?
4 - Might the dog that observed the subject dog's yawn have calmed down anyhow?
5 - Is it accurate to assume that the yawn, itself, produced the other dog's calmness?
6 - Does the subject dog always yawn when it sees the other dog?
7 - Does the other dog always respond the same way to the subject dog's yawn?
A Holistic View
In addition, one must take into account what the yawning dog's other signaling body parts are doing at the instant of the yawn. A "splitter" approach - one that isolates only one piece of a non-vocal (or even vocal) display -- is virtually meaningless in the absence of information about what all the other body parts are doing: Ears, eyes, mouth, head carriage, neck display, shoulder spread, chest width, back carriage, tail posture, legs positions, etc.)
Even then, we don't know whether there's a direct cause and effect. So, even if we were to assume that such a thing as a "calming signal" does exist, it could not be displayed in isolation: It must simultaneously include the corollary signals from all of the other body parts (or most of them) for the "calming signal" to have meaning. Otherwise, a yawn, for example, is just a yawn.
Stephen C. Rafe has been a canine-behavior practitioner for more than 20 years. His work in this field has been endorsed by leading professionals including Drs. Michael Fox, David Mech, Richard Lore, and J.P. Scott. His cure systems for dogs that fear gunfire, thunder or fireworks are considered by professionals and owners to be the most effective available. Steve is also the author of Your New Baby and Bowser, Training Your Dog for Birdwork, and numerous manuals and pamphlets on training and behavior. He has studied ethology and physiology independently, and has completed more than six years of courses in psychology and sociology. He holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees. Non-verbal communication and verbalization in both dogs and humans is one of his primary interests. His work in both fields has been endorsed by top "names" in each field. Steve can be contacted at:
Starfire, P.O. Box 3119, Warrenton, VA, 20188-1819
Tel / Fax: (540) 349-1039 E-mail: steve-rafe@erols.com
Website: www.starfire-rapport.com
By: Stephen C. Rafe
© 1998,2002, Stephen C. Rafe. All Rights Reserved.
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