The behaviour interpretation thread

I often wonder when a dog greets with a toy rope in the mouth, as Jill does, if that is their way of greeting and inviting you to play or if the toy is a type of security blanket.

I also think we saw the difference between a play bow and a stretch.  It becomes a stretch when the playbow is rocked back.  I see that often in my home.

Penny's so cute! "Hey! Pet me! Pet me now"! LOL

When Jaia has a rope and wants to play tug, he swings his head in a circle so the rope whips up and I can grab it.  

DPU

I often wonder when a dog greets with a toy rope in the mouth, as Jill does, if that is their way of greeting and inviting you to play or if the toy is a type of security blanket.

I also think we saw the difference between a play bow and a stretch.  It becomes a stretch when the playbow is rocked back.  I see that often in my home.

I've seen dogs do that as an invitation to play - we have two Danes, in fact, who LOOOOOVE to tug together, and go trotting down the hall, each with one end of a rope tug in his mouth.  Retrievers will often greet with an object in their mouths, but with them, it's often just that genetic desire to carry stuff, I think.  LOLOL, if it's Sequoyah, and she greets you with something in her mouth, all she's really saying is, "This is mine.  Any idea you ever had that it could be yours - fuhgeddaboudit". 

 Jill is all about play. Sometimes she randomly grabs her rope toy and comes and stands at the back door, wagging her tail and peering in looking for people hopefully. When someone comes into the yard, she's like "Oh good! Maybe they'll throw the rope toy for me." and lo and behold you find yourself with a toy on your foot and Jill watching backing up and watching hopefully. There have been suggestions that if she were a Pokemon, her name would be Ropetoy, because pokemon can only apparently say their own names or variations of and sometimes it seems like Jill only ever says "ropetoy".

There's a moment in that video I thought was interesting, and that was where Penny walked past me and Pyry. She was quite close to Pyry and for a moment her ears go back a little and turn out. I'm not sure if she's relaxed or a wee bit unsettled by having to sidle past Pyry in the confined space. I've noticed since her eyesight is not so hot that she sometimes gets unsettled when she's in a confined space with other dogs.

Here's the play video I promised: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpEozqJSjfk 

Aplogies about the lame compression. Apparently iMovie woke up one morning and decided most video formats were no longer compatible with it. I had to convert this one, and in the process the quality diminished considerably. Not that it makes that much difference by the time it gets on YouTube. This one's a bit longer again, but l couldn't decide what to cut out of it. It's a lilttle under 4 minutes. Have the sound up so you can hear Penny call Jill back for more play! 

Those 2 are so cute! Penny snapping is too cute for words! And Jill is so good at staying down on Penny's level. I thought they played quite nicely together.

The movie was 2:45. Did some get chopped off?

No, I just somehow thought it was a minute longer than it was. My bad.

I always think it's weird how Jill's ears go right back when she's playing with Penny. Not knowing the dogs, I might say that Jill was intimidated by Penny just a little bit. I don't think she is, but I do think that it might be quite hard for Jill to keep her play subdued enough to keep Penny engaged. I love how she spins around at top speed before going down for Penny, as though she has to expel some energy before she can play the way Penny wants to play.

What do people think of the way Jill holds her ears when she plays with Penny compared to the orientation of Penny's ears? What does it tell us? 

ETA, come to think, they mostly hold their ears the same way, but it's more pronounced in Jill because her ears are naturally more forward-facing and flop down a bit. It looks quite a lot like the way Jaia and B'asia hold their ears when they play tug. 

corvus

ETA, come to think, they mostly hold their ears the same way, but it's more pronounced in Jill because her ears are naturally more forward-facing and flop down a bit. It looks quite a lot like the way Jaia and B'asia hold their ears when they play tug. 

I haven't seen the video yet, I'll have to wait till Monday to see it at uni, but does it look like the ears are drawn all the way back, almost pinned to the back of their head (ears might be almost touching in the back)? I think what you are describing is what I tend to call "Bunny ears", and it's a type of ear position you only usually see in play, as well as in foreplay before mating.

I don't have a video of this (wish I did) but here is a behaviour for folks to think about.

I had gone to town and taken Petie with me, came home and was putting a few items away.  First into the pantry, then in the bathroom.  Petie was loose in the house with me, all other dogs were still in their crates in the livingroom.  7 dogs in crates, all Jrts, 2 of the jrts are Petie's dam and his littermate the rest are all rescues that have been here for different lengths of time.

I watched from another room as Petie came into the livingroom, he has a dog biscuit sticking straight out of his mouth, he goes to the furthest crate, sticks the biscuit through the bars and gives it to his littermate, leaves the room, comes back with another biscuit and gives it to the next dog in line................he gave each dog in order a biscuit.

Any thoughts? 

I snapped this series of pictures in the pasture yesterday. B'asia carries around her favorite toy. Whenever anyone or another dog approaches her, she picks up the toy and keeps everyone else from getting it. Yesterday, she was standing there "guarding" and I was shocked that B'asia didn't pick up the toy as Cara approached!!

What do you make of the body language and so on in this series?

Nice shots!

It seems B'asia is at first relaxed but kind of alert about Cara's approach, but then Cara seems to be doing the "Just wanted to remind you that I get whatever I want" routine. Her tail is stiff and up and she sniffs at B'asia even though I suspect she knows B'asia has her toy and is more sensitive about her space than she might normally be. I would interpret this as Cara saying "Yep, I don't much care what you want." That's obviously a leap beyond what dogs can actually think, but this is an interpretation after all, and I think body language can say a lot! I think when Cara puts her chin on B'asia's back, B'asia is uncomfortable. It is a domineering gesture in this context with the ears in that position and the tail up and stiff. Kind of like her saying "I would so fight you to get what I wanted."

It seems that once Cara backs off slightly, B'asia takes her chance to grab the toy and get out of there. Cara is still in a dominant stance, but B'asia looks to be slinking slightly. I would interpret this as B'asia telling Cara she respectfully wants the toy quite a lot and even though she may have been intimidited by Cara's signals, she's not so intimidated she'll give up the toy. I guess Cara is like "Yeah, well you just think about it, right?" Pyry doesn't mess around with displays. He signals his intent to bloody well have whatever he wants and launches an attack if he doesn't get it right away. Hence, our dogs either surrender, flee with what he wants, or prepare to fight as soon as he signals his intent. Looks like Cara is more the kind of dog that will try pushing her weight around and attempt intimidation if she's not so into something she's prepared to fight for it. I'm guessing it works for her sometimes. 

I agree totally with your interpretation. Cara is extremely dysplastic and couldn't "win" in a fight with any of the other dogs. She never acts like this if she really wants something. She just calmly takes it and the other three just let her. She RARELY shows dominance signals and that's why I was so pleased to get this on film. It seemed to me that Cara just wanted to offer a reminder to B'asia. She didn't want the toy, so wasn't willing to fight for it, but, knowing how much the toy means to B'asia (I have 50 pictures of Bay with that very toy) Cara just wanted to remind her that she could have it if she wanted it.

Notice B'asia's tail in the first 3 pictures. She's raising it (to call Cara's bluff?). Then, once Cara moves away from her back and Bay sees a chance to retreat, she grabs her toy and slinks away. LOL Cara's tail is straight up the whole time (there's a crook in the end).

I agree about B'asia's tail. It seems defensive to me.

Don't know if I agree about the all guns blazing, socially inept dogs. Like I said, Pyry doesn't mess around much, but he's not socially inept and he doesn't care about hierarchies, so he doesn't want to be at the top. He just gets really intense about some things. He gives the other dogs a chance to get out of it, but being the one that's always really committed to getting what he wants is how he gets what he wants. It works for him, and that's all he's really interested in.
 

DPU

I often wonder when a dog greets with a toy rope in the mouth, as Jill does, if that is their way of greeting and inviting you to play or if the toy is a type of security blanket

My Mom's mix does this...SOMETHING must be in her mouth when greeting. She will 'roooo' with it in her mouth. With her it is not about play as she really isn't a playful dog. It's security, and something for her to do with her mouth since she knows she isn't allowed to mouth. She also knows she isn't supposed to bark when people are accepted into the home but she can't always stop herself....the toy helps her.

Here's a neat sequence of pictures I caught one day.