Our dogs, of course, are just as busy reading us as we are reading them. If you learn to shift your body backward slightly when you greet a new dog, you usually can ensure that the dog doesn’t perceive your posture as threatening. When you’re slightly sideways with your weight on your back foot, you’ve taken away what ethologists call an “intention movement” to proceed forward, and dogs can read it like a billboard. It doesn’t have to be much; it’s barely perceptible if one isn’t aware of it. Of course, you’ll want to do the opposite when you’re working with some lunkhead who’s all tongue and
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