7 Signs Your Dog Is Trying To Tell You Something

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7 Signs Your Dog Is Trying To Tell You Something (Most Owners Miss #4 Every Winter)

Dogs can't say "something's off." But they show it, quietly, usually when you're asleep. Here are the signs Kiwi dog owners tell us they noticed too late.

A chocolate LabradorBy the Waggle family, New Zealand · Oct 26, 2026 · 4 min read
A chocolate Labrador lying on a kitchen floor looking at the camera

Every dog owner has said it: "I wish he could just tell me when something's wrong."

The thing is, most dogs are telling you. Just not in words. The signs are small, they're easy to file under "that's just how he is," and they tend to happen when nobody is watching.

None of these signs means your dog is sick. But together they're worth paying attention to. Here's what to look for.

1. Licking his paws at night

A Labrador licking his paw on a bed at night
The 2 a.m. lick.

A lick after a walk is normal. Twenty minutes of licking the same paw at 2 a.m. is the dog version of tapping your foot. Owners often only find out from the rusty-brown staining on the fur between the toes, which is what saliva leaves behind.

2. Scratching one ear, over and over

A Labrador sitting on a living-room rug, collar tags visible
When the collar tags start jingling at night.

If you know the sound of his tags jingling in the dark, you know this one. One ear, again and again, often worse in some seasons than others.

3. The little white cloud when he shakes

A Labrador mid-shake in a sunlit hallway
Easy to miss unless the light hits it.

One owner described it perfectly: "you see it fly off her in a white cloud whenever she shakes." Flakes on a dark coat are easy to spot in a beam of sunlight and easy to ignore everywhere else.

4. His coat goes dull every July

A Labrador lying by a window in winter
Heat pump season.

This is the one Kiwi owners miss most, because it arrives with the cold. Months of heat pump and log burner air, wet walks and muddy towel-downs, and the coat that shone in summer looks flat and dry by July. It's so regular that it starts to feel normal. It isn't something you just have to live with every winter.

5. The groomer mentions something

A handwritten groomer note about a hot spot and paw chewing
The note that makes you go quiet in the car.

Groomers see your dog's skin up close, under bright lights, every few weeks. When a groomer writes "hot spot behind left ear, chewing paws, please keep an eye on it," that's a second pair of eyes telling you what your dog has been trying to.

6. He spits out every pill and powder you try

A Labrador sitting innocently in the kitchen
"Pill? What pill?"

This one isn't a symptom. It's the reason most fixes never get a fair try. Fish oil gets refused, powders get eaten around, and pills hidden in cheese turn up on the floor. If he won't take it every day, it can't help every day.

7. You've started saying "he's just like that"

An owner sitting on the kitchen floor beside her Labrador, seen from behind
The most common sign of all.

This is the big one. After a new food, an oatmeal shampoo, a round of fish oil and maybe the cone, most of us land in the same place: "he's just an itchy dog." And we stop looking.

What all seven have in common

Every sign on this list shows up on the outside: the paws, the ears, the skin, the coat. So that's where we aim our fixes: new food in the bowl, a new shampoo in the bath.

But about seventy percent of a dog's immune system lives in the gut. The skin is often just where things show up. Supporting what's underneath, every day, is the part most routines skip.

Line drawing of a Labrador with the gut area highlighted in orange
Where the support starts.

And to be clear: daily support isn't medicine. If your dog is unwell, the vet is the right call. This is about the everyday part, before anything goes wrong.

Why we make one thing

We're Waggle, a small Kiwi family business here in New Zealand. We make one product: a daily salmon soft chew for skin, coat and immune support, developed by a vet.

A Waggle chew in a palm, a Labrador sniffing it
Dogs take it like a treat, which is the whole point.
  • EpiCor Pets, a postbiotic studied for its support of a balanced immune response
  • Colostrum for immune health and the gut lining
  • Salmon oil and salmon meal, omega-3s for skin and coat
  • A prebiotic (FOS) to feed the good bacteria in the gut
  • Nettle, linseed and algae for skin and coat

It answers sign #6, too. It's a salmon chew dogs beg for, so it actually gets taken every day. One to three chews a day depending on size, with breakfast.

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The Waggle jar beside a row of vitamin bottles with a Labrador resting his chin next to it
Right next to your vitamins, where you'll remember it.

Most of our customers keep the jar next to their own vitamins. You take yours every morning. Now he gets his.

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P.S. Count how many of the seven you recognised. If it's two or more, your dog has probably been telling you for a while.

This article is published by Waggle and is an advertisement. Waggle aller-immune chews are a complementary feed for dogs that supports healthy skin, coat and immune function. They are not a medicine and do not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition. The signs above are common things owners notice and are not a diagnosis. If your dog is unwell, see your vet. © 2026 Waggle, New Zealand.