Written By : John Hawkins
January 17, 2013

My latest PJM column is called, 5 Things My Dogs Taught Me About Human Beings. Here’s an excerpt from the column.

1) Body Language Is Crucial.

Ever heard someone say, “Ninety three percent of all human communication is nonverbal?“ That’s a mangled attempt to explain a study done by Albert Mehrabian back in 1967 and while it’s not true, dogs show that it’s not all that far off the mark. Dogs, which are actually below Honey Boo Boo on the brains scale, manage to effectively communicate with us and each other without ever saying a word. They can also interpret tone freakishly well. If you don’t believe that, after your dog gets sick and poops in the house, say “Who did this?” in a deep voice and he’ll put his head down, and slink into a corner looking as guilty as if he was personally responsible for Old Yeller getting rabies.

This is why you should try to keep a nice, even tone to your voice. When you walk, throw your chest out, because it tends to line your posture up correctly. Keep your head up, move deliberately, spread your body out and don’t overreact physically to stimulus. On some level, people pay just as much attention to tone and body language as dogs even if they don’t hump your leg to let you know they’re interested in getting to know you better.

Once again, you can read it all here.

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