Is there anything cuter than a puppy tilting its head?
I personally think it’s hard to top!
Lou has been working on mastering this skill over the past few weeks and I can’t get enough of it.
According to VCA Hospitals:
“A dog tilts his head to show that he is engaged much the way a human would nod during a conversation to indicate that he is listening.
Social dogs that enjoy human interaction usually tilt their heads more often to encourage the continuation of the conversation and prolong the human contact.
Dogs also understand us by assessing not only what we say, but how we say it.
They assess our facial expressions, eye movements, tone of voice, body language, and inflection to translate human communications.
To understand us, dogs must clearly see our faces and tilting their heads may help in this process.”
It’s said that puppies normally tilt their head more than adult dogs because they are experiencing so many new sounds and words in the world around them.
So how do I get Lou so engaged in a conversation with me?
I’m a good storyteller of course!
Just kidding!
I usually make different high-pitched sounds with my voice or I throw out a few very unconvincing barks.
However, we do sit and have conversations a lot and Lou has picked up on a lot of common keywords such as sit, eat, cookie, and outside.
We did have a nice long talk the day I pulled a rock out of Lou’s mouth and I explained to him all about the big brown Newfie that came before that used to eat rocks.
I’m hoping it got the drift but just in case, we are working super hard on the leave it and drop it commands.
Lou isn’t quite grasping that concept yet so he’s on round-the-clock supervision because I just can not even fathom going through that again.
Can head tilts be something other than cute?
Unfortunately, yes.
A head tilt that is happening all the time could be a sign of an ear infection or even a vestibular problem.
If a dog is tilting his head without any sounds or communication cues then you should reach out to your veterinarian.
Thankfully, Lou doesn’t have any of those symptoms.
He’s now just a head tilt master and is ready for the world to fall in love with him.
