Yawning

Just caught Bacchus with a pile of shredded Christmas card. He must have helped himself to it from the window sill above his bed.
I told him off and he is sitting in his bed yawning and trying to avoid eye contact. He always does this when he gets told off. It's quite comical and makes it difficult to keep a straight face. " Gaaawwd I'm in trouble AGAIN "

Ohh naughty boy They say yawning is a sign of anxiety, he knows he is trouble

This extract from Canine Nanny Services explains yawning very well:

Yawns: A dog may yawn if he's tired, but more generally, it's an indicator of stress. With yawning, the dog is trying to displace the stress, or inner conflict, with a safe, neutral behavior. Humans do the same thing when they find themselves in a situation of conflict and causes stress - not yawn necessarily, but do some things to cope until the unpleasant situation passes. Let's say you're in a hurry and you reach a red light. You want to be there, but you have to be here, both because that's the safe thing to do and because someone else, the police, will enforce the behavior and causes the stress: staying still until the light turns green. So what do you do? You groom yourself in the rear view mirror, or you look at the driver in the car next to you. Neither of these actions is directly related to what's pressing on your mind, but engaging in them is better than doing nothing while you're stuck in the state of conflict between what you want to do and what you must do despite your desires. That's pretty much the same thing your dog's yawning when's not tired.

Rocky makes some very strange noises while we are in the car on the way to a walk and also yawns so this can be put down to anxiety of getting on with the walk. Once we are there he is fine and no more strange noises, not at least until we are in the car again. Thankfully we are not in the car for very long, but may well invest in a Thundershirt for him if we do any longer journeys in the future.

Miley yawns in the back of the car also makes a noise too. We put it down to either feelings of stress or anxiety

When Hugo goes to mouth me and I say noo he yawns instead of mouthing me.


I always thought he done it to make out he wasn't going to bite me.

naughty Bacchus!

Yeah, the yawning can be a sign of anxiety (good or bad) or thinking. Loki only ever yawns when he's being stroked though, so can't always be a bad thing ah, at least Bacchus has the decency to look guilty...until the next time

noah yawns on his way to the common to meet my sons 2 staffies, well its more of a michael jackson " oooow!!" but on the way home he's quiet .
(in the car by the way)

Ha! Edie greets me with a yawn/michael jackson ow!! too

Edie also yawns when I am trying to train her, when she cant work out a new command she yawns, or scratches, or goes and sits behind me.
Bless her! i do a command she knows to get her confidence back and be able to give her a treat

If we tell Charlie off he goes to his bed and looks soooo sad and avoids looking at us too.

When i tell Duke off he goes to his bed and turns his back on me, it is so hard to keep a straight face, the Staffys are the closest things to kids i have come across

Naughty, cheeky Bacchus

Our older dog always yawned in the car and I didn't know why (just put it down to one of her quirkes) ... you lot are a mine of info i'm so pleased I 'found' you.