Why do dogs yawn?
In previous entry titled “Tell me how you feel;Canine body language test“, I wrote about dogs
do not use just vocalization as way of communication,and they use their
whole body to communicate with you: facial expressions, vocal tone,
position of ears and tail, body postures etc.
In another previous entry titled “Tell me how you feel Part II “, I wrote that dog’s
do not have words to use to express their emotion,and for them, body
language,vocal tones becomes such an important tool to communicate with
you.Sometimes,people’s friendly manner can be unwelcome manner for
dogs,and people get snapped at or growled at.
Even then, not all “growling” equal to bad aggressive
behavior of dogs, and you need to look around to see what made them growled at you. There
should always be a reason behind it. Dogs growl even during fun play time. Often times, in Palette’s case, she growls after showing me the “play bow” posture and starts playing tug of war game with me. As you know, “Play bow” posture is the posture to invite others to play and, I do not think that growling during the game is not aggressive growls at all.
That being said, have you ever wondered whether they are yawning because they are bored or tired when your dogs open their mouth as wide as they can and yawn? Or any other reasons behind the yawning?
For me personally, when I think about when I tend to yawn, it is usually after exercise, or after meal feeling stuffed, or getting tired and ready to bed.
Why we human yawn?
According to kidshealth website, it seems no one knows for sure why we yawn, but there are some theories as to why we human yawn.
1. When we humans are feeling bored or tired, we do not breathe deep, and we tend to get less oxygen. So, yawning is the way to help us get more oxygen into blood,and getting rid of more carbon dioxide in the body.
2. Yawning stretches lungs and its tissue, and yawning is the way to flex muscle, joints and increase heart rate and it helps us feel to be more awake.
To read an full article at kidshealth website on why human yawn, please click here .
For Palette, she tends to yawns first thing in the morning, in the crate or after coming out from her crate,stretch body very good with play bow posture.
Y.A.W.N…
Then, after walks,she goes under the bed or rest on her cool bed and when I call her, she comes out or move towards me after big, big yawn.. Sometimes, she waits on me getting ready for walk under the bed and she comes out with big yawn like this.
Y.A.W.N..
Sometimes, she yawns being Furminated.. FURminator making her sleepy??
Y.A.W.N…
Well, FURminator made her fall asleep,really..
Zzzz.. Zzzz..Zzzz..Zzzz..
She is off the bed a bit, but that is ok as long as she is comfortable sleeping that way
Sometimes, she yawn after 3 seconds she is being pet,and after a little while, she is chasing squirrels in her dreamland.
Why do dogs yawn?
All of these moments above pictures seemed to be when she is feeling tired or trying to be alert for next activity, or getting comfortable being Furminated or being pet and relaxed. However, did you know dogs yawn with other reasons or scenarios, too?
According to Ezinearticle website, dogs also yawn from being stressed, excitement, or nervous. The article brings up the example such as..
1. dogs yawn during the training time; feeling stressed/bored
2. dogs at the start line at agility competition yawn; to calm down the excitement
3. dogs yawn before falling asleep; being tired/sleepy
4. dogs yawn because they saw others yawn;yawning is contagious
To read a full article written by Jerry Welsh at Ezinearticles website on why do dogs yawn,please click here .
Why dogs yawn when they see you yawn?
We all know that yawn are contagious and if you saw someone yawning, it is likely you will yawn too. But do you yawn when your dogs yawn? Or your dogs will yawn when they see you yawn?
It seems some dogs yawn when they see you yawn and, recently, I came across interesting article on reasons behind the contagious yawning from human to dogs.
According to hubpage website article written by jackinabox, dogs tend to yawn when they see you yawn because dogs have empathy, and they can identify the feeling or emotion of you.
I agree with idea that dogs have empathy and they can see through our emotions/feeling easily.
As the writer states, when I am feeling sick, Palette acts differently. In the past, when I came back from hospital after surgery and not feeling good, Palette was always in my sight, being quiet, careless about trespassing cat or trash truck or dogs on walk that passes by our house which she normally woof at. She just stayed near me, and did not go out of my sight to take a nap elsewhere or to go play with her favorite squeaky toys. Sometimes, I notice when I am feeling sick and she is around me all the time, she tend to not take a nap as much as she normally would.
To read full article written by jackinabox at hubpage website on why dogs yawn when they see you yawn,please click here .
Apparently, there is a study on contagious yawning, and according to the article written by Liz Palika at dog daily website, psychologist Robert Provine (University of Maryland) suggests that contagious yawning could be a sign of empathy and social bonding.
To read full article on contagious yawning written by Liz Palika at the dog daily website, please click here .
I came across an article talking about study on contagious yawning study for dogs. According to the study explained at scienceblog website, one experimenter who is stranger to these 29 adult dogs (12 female dogs,17 male dogs) were told to get their attention and initiate the yawning;comprising both physical movement and vocalization. Then,the yawn was repeated 5 times after each time the experimenter got the dogs’ attention.
Condition was controlled sometimes with fake yawn, and real yawn with physical and vocal made 21 dogs out of 29 dogs yawn,while fake yawn made none yawn. So that is about 72% of dogs yawned when they saw a stranger (human experimenter) did real yawn. Isn’t it interesting?
To read full article on contagious yawning written by Jason Goldman at the scienceblog website, please click here .
As I write this entry, our stumpy little dog “Palette” is around my foot and laying on the floor with one leg kicked out. I called her,got her attention and showed her my fake yawn.
She looked at me as if to say “what are you trying to do?”. She did not catch my yawn. When I am really tired and sleepy and keep yawning non stop, I may call her and get her attention and see if she catches my yawn.
My questions to you today are..
Do your dogs yawn when you yawn?
Do you yawn when you see your dogs yawning?
