Week 4: Body Language | MK9Plus
Week 4 · Body Language

There's no such thing as a bad dog. There's a dog you can't read yet

Feet, tail, back, face, bark. One whiteboard, rebuilt below so you can keep it forever. Plus the tail myths that might be causing harm right now.

"Body language is the gateway drug to fixing your dog. You suddenly see how your dog is really feeling, and every stressful part of your day starts making sense." Max Randall · MK9Plus

This page is your cheat sheet. Bookmark it

The whole whiteboard is rebuilt below, chart and all. And when you're ready to go beyond reading the body into reading play, approaches and interactions, that lives inside MK9Plus.

Reading your dog is step one. Helping them is step two

Inside MK9Plus: the full Body Language course including the hour long How to Read Play lesson, plus 1-to-1 email support directly with me, weekly lives and Zoom calls.

✅ 7 day free trial 🧤 Money back guarantee ✅ Cancel anytime ⏸️ Pause up to 3 months
Teach Me To Read My Dog →

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The whole lesson is laid out visually below

The lesson, laid out

"Bad dog" was never the diagnosis

We've all been conditioned for years: good dogs, bad dogs, and bad dogs need teaching. Then you learn to read body language, and the "bad dog" turns out to be...

😰 A stressed dog ⚡ A hyper dog 😤 A frustrated dog 😟 An anxious dog 🤕 An in-pain dog 😨 A fearful dog

Learning to read the body is how you stop punishing the symptom and start seeing the dog. So let's read them, part by part.

The whiteboard, rebuilt to keep forever

How to read it: the further right a signal sits, the more commonly it is a bad sign. Things near the middle depend on context. And most of the right hand side is one word: tension.

Good Meh Bad
Feet
Springy Leaning forward Sticky Leaning back
Tail
Helicopter Loose Horizontal Down Flagpole Tight Tucked
Back
Bends Straight Curled
Face
👀 Relaxed eyes Lifted brow 👀 Wide eyes Furrowed brow 👀 Squinting
Bark
Demand Frustration Territorial Scared

On a phone? Swipe the chart sideways. 👉

The golden rule: always look for at least three things on the body before you decide how your dog is feeling. One signal on its own means almost nothing. Remember this forever
📥 Download A Blank Table To Fill In

Print it, fill it in with your own dog, stick it on the fridge

Myth busting time

The beliefs that might be causing harm

There are situations right now where you think your dog is happy and comfortable. And they are not.

🌀

"A waggy tail means a happy dog"

No. A wag is just energy, arousal building and needing an outlet. Dogs wag just before they play... and just before they bite. The faster the wag, the more wound up the dog.

🚩

"Tail up means they're acting big"

A flagpole tail just means alert. Studies show dogs training with a more upright tail actually learn faster. If it pops up when a dog comes round the corner? Normal. Please don't panic.

😬

"My dog looks guilty"

Those "guilty dog" videos? Lips pulled right back, squinty eyes, head low. That is not guilt. That is a scared dog appeasing a person who shouts. It never was guilt.

"The tail really isn't the most reliable thing to look at. For me, it's the last thing I look at." Max Randall · MK9Plus

🥺 Bonus: puppy dog eyes

Dogs developed the lifted brow from living with humans, wolves physically cannot do it. Sometimes it is a nervous "please don't", but most of the time? It is manipulation, and it works on you every single day.

If you remember one word: tension

Look back at the chart. Nearly everything on the right side is the same thing wearing different outfits.

🧘 Loose

Springy feet, loose wag, bends in the back, relaxed eyes. A loose dog is a comfortable dog. When you see loose, breathe out.

🪢 Tense

Sticky feet, tight tail, straight back, furrowed brow. Tension is not always terrible, it can just be alertness or caution. But it is always your cue to look for two more signals.

The four barks, translated

Every dog is a study of one, but the patterns hold. Listen for the spacing and the pitch.

WOOF ... ... WOOF ... ... WOOF

1. The demand bark

Big spaces between barks, timed to an absolute T. "Play with me. Look at me. Throw it." Not a terrible thing, just a dog asking for something.

YIP! YIP! YIP! ↑↑

2. The frustration bark

The demand bark gone high-pitched. They want it, they are not getting it, and now they want it really badly. If you hear this a lot, it says more about the life than the moment.

BOOF-BOOF-BOOF-BOOF

3. The territorial bark

A cluster of the deepest barks your dog can make, thrown at the thing. Translation: go away. Some dogs throw it at the slightest caution, so don't panic on its own.

huff... hff...

4. The scared bark

Barely a bark at all, more a puff of the cheeks. "Who goes there?" A scared dog does not want attention or an altercation. Hear this, and calmly get them out of there.

One twist: a scared dog that has identified the trigger can absolutely unleash the territorial bark. Which is exactly why the golden rule exists. Three signals, always.

🎁 Free bonus · 36 days of body language

Here's the links to social media

Where you can find more tips on reading body language. Hackles, ears, mouths and more, I posted a video every day for 36 days. All free, all still up.

⚠ The turning point
Reading the body is only half of reading the dog
The body tells you how they feel. The behaviour tells you what they intend. You need both
✓ What we've just covered

🐕 Half one: the body

Loose or tense. Springy or sticky. Relaxed eyes or wide. Everything on the chart above, the stuff you'll now spot every single day for the rest of your dog's life.

★ The other half

🎬 Half two: the behaviour

Is that approach a straight line, a crescent, or a wiggle? Fast or slow? Is that play healthy? There are 5 key signs of healthy play, 4 meta signals, and breed specific tendencies to know.

Read the body + Read the behaviour = Everything makes sense

Half one is yours now, free, forever. Half two is waiting inside MK9Plus: the full Body Language course, covering play, approaches and social interactions.

Unlock The Other Half →

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So, what did you spot in your dog?

Now you can read them. Time to help them

If today's chart made you realise your dog is tense more often than you thought, that is not a reading problem anymore. That is the thing MK9Plus is built to fix, with me alongside you.

📖

The full Body Language course

Play, approaches, social interactions and the hour long How to Read Play lesson with real member videos.

🔍

Find what's under the tension

Stress? Frustration? Arousal? Pain? The Under the Surface lessons pinpoint what your dog is actually going through.

📩

1-to-1 email support

Describe what you're seeing, send me the situation, and get answers about your actual dog.

🎥

Weekly lives + Zoom calls

Rotating Q&A, topic deep dives and Zoom calls. Recordings and notes uploaded if you miss one.

📚

Access to the full library

Foundation, Integration, Expand. Everything, including every future upload.

💬

Community rooms

Themed rooms for questions, progress and weekly advice, plus the odd challenge.

Risk removed

The famous "Bare Hands" Guarantee 🧤

Start with a 7 day free trial. Then, after a defined period on the platform, if you would not pick up poo with your bare hands to stay a member, you do not pay a penny. Money back. Plus you can cancel anytime and even pause your membership if life gets busy.

Best case

You learn to read and help your dog, and the "bad dog" days quietly disappear.

Worst case

You tell me this sucks within your guarantee period, get your money back, and keep everything you learned. At no cost.

Either way, the only thing guaranteed not to help is walking away today and going back to what you were doing before.

Help Me Read My Dog, Free →

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Read their stories

See how their lives have changed and what they really achieved. People here don't just get little wins. They're life changers. Because why would you want anything less?

★ Real reviews · Live from Trustpilot

👆 Press it. The stories drop down right here, and "See more" opens the full review without leaving this page.

Meet the MK9Plus members, who all started exactly where you are right now.

Stop guessing what your dog means.
Start reading them.

Join MK9Plus today. The full body language education, 1-to-1 email support with me, weekly lives, Zoom calls and a community, all free for 7 days.

Try everything. Risk nothing.

✅ 7 day free trial 🧤 Bare Hands money back guarantee ✅ Cancel anytime ⏸️ Pause up to 3 months
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