Dogs primarily communicate through body language, and vocalization is secondary. Learning how to “read” your dog’s body language will greatly improve your understanding of his emotions, and therefore allow you to be a better caretaker and better trainer. I have consolidated many resources on this topic below.

Dog owners have often claimed they can read the expressions of their pets - particularly that tell-tale look when they have done something wrong. But researchers at a New York college tricked owners into thinking innocent pets had misbehaved - with the owners still claiming to see this guilty look. The study found that the expression had no relation to the dogs' behaviour. And researchers found that pet owners' belief that they could read their dogs' "body language" was often entirely unfounded.

Docked Tails Play a Role in Dog Communication

It appears that the longer tails were most effective at conveying emotional information, and since short tails are hard to read, they might not be read at all. For Herman, the implications are obvious. “When you dock tails, it takes away part of their communication signal — essentially the dog version of botox. Ear cropping falls in the same category. Dobermans with cropped ears ostensibly look alert to other dogs. They can’t be read [accurately] because they can’t change.” It’s difficult to derive cues and information from cropped ears. If anything, their constantly alert position could mislead other dogs.
E’Lise Christensen, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist in New York City, agrees, “I think cosmetic alteration could affect communication with other dogs. It certainly [has an impact on] assessments by owners, because they forget to look at the stump of the tail for movement and tension. Ears that are too cropped mean owners have to look for muscular movement at the skull level rather than the pinna, the outer part of the ear, where we customarily look. Flat faces make it more difficult to read small muscular movements.”
Herman suggests that taking note of a dog’s morphology can give pet parents a better appreciation for their dog. “It’s hard for other dogs to see that a Chow is really stiff, simply because they are [engulfed] in a ball of hair. It can be helpful for dog parents to recognize that what dogs have or do not have at their disposal could add confusion to dog-dog communication. This appreciation could help people empathize with their dog, instead of blaming their dog or feeling angry for the dog’s behavior.”

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