Uncle
04-12-2008, 01:39 AM
Here is an interesting article about dog behavior...
Ever wonder if half-grown puppies nipping and snarling at each other were playing or fighting? Puppies evidently wonder the same thing. Cognitive ethologist Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado has found that to keep roughhousing from being misinterpreted, young dogs, wolves and coyotes extend their front legs beseechingly for a second or two, shoulders low, hind quarters high, before bounding back into action. The gesture appears for all the world to be a bow. It signals, "Oops, sorry about that. Can we keep playing?"
"Bowing can be used to initiate play--I want to play with you'--and it can maintain play--Despite what I just did, I still want to play with you,'" Bekoff says. The animals bow most often, he has found, either just before or just after they bite their partners. A little nip is playful; a bigger chomp is serious business. An immature canine may bite down harder than it intended--hence the bow, says Bekoff. He believes bowing is part of a suite of behaviors that an animal learns. "Play is a way to exercise, to socialize, to learn what it's like to be a dog or a wolf or a coyote," he says, "but it's also a way to learn specific communication skills."
Ever wonder if half-grown puppies nipping and snarling at each other were playing or fighting? Puppies evidently wonder the same thing. Cognitive ethologist Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado has found that to keep roughhousing from being misinterpreted, young dogs, wolves and coyotes extend their front legs beseechingly for a second or two, shoulders low, hind quarters high, before bounding back into action. The gesture appears for all the world to be a bow. It signals, "Oops, sorry about that. Can we keep playing?"
"Bowing can be used to initiate play--I want to play with you'--and it can maintain play--Despite what I just did, I still want to play with you,'" Bekoff says. The animals bow most often, he has found, either just before or just after they bite their partners. A little nip is playful; a bigger chomp is serious business. An immature canine may bite down harder than it intended--hence the bow, says Bekoff. He believes bowing is part of a suite of behaviors that an animal learns. "Play is a way to exercise, to socialize, to learn what it's like to be a dog or a wolf or a coyote," he says, "but it's also a way to learn specific communication skills."