Puppy Yawns

[meganpatricia 0]

I've searched the forums to see if this has been addressed elsewhere but it doesnt seem to have been. Toby is a pretty chill tzu, he goes all kinds of places with me with no fuss- subway, cars, bikes, boats, city streets and country meadows. He hardly startles or acts scared of anything, ever, but he does yawn fairly often. I have read that yawning is a stress response, and while sometimes I can see why he'd feel stressed- elevators do make him yawn more often than not- there are other times when he is calmly sitting and getting some pets from me and he will yawn the same way. Is yawning always stress if they are not just waking up from naps? And what if there are no other accompanying stress signals? Would love to hear what others think...

[tzuhouse 4]

No is it not always stress, especially when they are getting a pet, probably just calming. Actually they call yawning a "calming signal"...which means they do it to TRY to calm themSELF....there are many calming signals and it is very interesting and a number of books about it, might check it out.

[meganpatricia 0]

Thanks, I did a quick search for 'calming signals' and got some interesting articles.

[LovieandHalo 0]

Boy, I wish my 2 would start yawning!!!!! Right now all I have it chewing and yelling!

[mom2Gizmo 24]

Both of my dogs use yawning quite often as a calming technique. My shih tzu mainly does it when my husband corrects him. My mutt does it quite often.