Dogs are the most common household pets throughout the world – for some, it’s an excitable Yorkshire terrier, for others an attentive Labrador retriever. But we can deepen that bond by accurately understanding what they’re trying to communicate.

While we humans mostly rely on words to express how we feel, dogs mainly talk to us, and each other, through a series of facial expressions, body language and non-verbal noises.

If we want to really bond with our much-loved pets, we need to understand what they’re trying to tell us with that tail wag, hard stare, or when they’re destroying our favourite pair of shoes.