Avoiding Contact with a Dog - Play Bows

This technique works for adults and children but is especially good for toddlers and senior citizens. Our dogs love people so much and greet humans with so much enthusiasm that they could easily knock someone over - literally - in spite of their small size - 20-35 #.

Practice this with your own dog - of any breed.

When a dog or puppy runs up to you and you do not want to play, do not want contact, or are afraid, fold your arms across your chest. 

In fairness to Kata, this photo was taken mid-bow and it makes her look a bit awkward and uncomfortable. Nonetheless, you can see her butt raised and her forefeet planted on the ground. Next she would be spinning around and jumping up on the person or the other dog.

This is Wodin in one of his play bows.

Raising your arms up shoulder high in alarm or above your head is actually an invitation, in dog body language, to play.

When two dogs meet each other and they want to play, they do a 'play bow' which means they lower the front part of their body in a 'bow' and keep their butt high. They may then raise both front legs and bounce around in excitement. The other dog usually responds in the same way and playing and chasing start. Raising your hands and arms and becoming excited closely mimics the body language of a 'play bow'.

To avoid contact, in addition to crossing your arms on your chest, turning away from the approaching dog and presenting your back to it indicate that you don't want to greet and play with the dog. Do not look over your shoulder back at the dog. Avoiding eye contact, averting your face and crossing your arms are ways using body language to say that you are just simply not interested in making contact. If you glance at the dog, it will take that as a sign that you want interaction.

I call this "playing that you are a tree" because that is easy for a child to learn. They must turn away, not look back and fold arms acting like a tree trunk.

Remember that dogs are experts at interpreting body language. That is how wolves maintain contact with one another over long distances and formulate plans for attacking prey or indicate in which directions they are going to travel. They watch one another closely.
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Incidentally, it is extremely interesting, at least to me, that humans are the only species of animal that has "whites" in their eyes. It has been suggested that having whites to the eye makes it easier for other humans and also to our closest non-human companions, dogs, to know which direction we are looking and, more specifically, exactly what we are looking at. Even Chimpanzees almost always lack "whites" in their eyes and cannot or do not communicate direction of gaze to one another. (They do follow head direction but not gaze direction.) Dogs are the only species that looks where we look. They follow our gaze and also will respond to us 'pointing a finger'. No other animal responds to finger pointing.

Related article: - 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15625720/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/did-evolution-make-our-eyes-stand-out/#.T_BllJGBWSo
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