May 16, 2008

How Do Dogs Signal They Want to Play?

How can you tell when a dog, especially one you don't know, is "just playing" or is in fight mode? This is often one reason children become afraid of dogs. They misunderstand play signals for hostility.

The answer is in the "play-bow", according to Marc Bekoff, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Colorado.

Marc Bekoff: That's when one animal crouches on their forelimbs and puts their hind end up and wags their tail and sometimes barks. If two dogs are playing, and one bites the other dog really hard, what we discovered is that we would see a play-bow after the bite, as if the other dog said, "I'm sorry I bit you, let's play."

Want to understand your dog better? Read The Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan's short posts on Understanding common dog behaviors, and Typical puppy misbehaviors Part 1and Part II.