© Dee Ganley

Here’s what Dee has to say about the photo above:

“Dazzle is in a tunnel, a few seconds before the shutter clicked the photo, all her teeth were showing. She had a toy behind her … so was guarding it from her canine companion, Bronte. Dazzle has some really weird play behaviors, surely not the normal.. She gives mixed signals to other dogs all the time. She had plenty of play time with other dogs as a youngster and grew up at the training center.. but early on it was clear she really didn’t want to play. She would go into the group appearing submissive and within a few minutes had all the other dog figured out and would separate them into corners and she, standing or sitting .. with a “smile on her face” had complete control of the situation.. She came from heavy herding lines .. so I am assuming controlling space and other dogs was her mission in life … AN assumption on my part for sure.

She can play, but quickly begins displaying very mixed signals to the other dogs. She often prefers to leave play environments and separate herself from the other dogs.

The photo below is a good example of Dazzle’s quick mood changes during a play bout with a very familiar playmate.”

© Dee Ganley

What I want to say about bows is that only a few of what many call “play bows” actually have anything to do with play invitations. Certainly, canids (dogs, wolves, coyotes, fox, etc) do use bows to invite play with a conspecific (animal of the same species) or a human. Bows are also used by canids in many other ways to signal many different messages, including testing their prey. The bow is most often the position of choice because it is the physical position from which the canid can move most easily in any direction with the best acceleration and least amount of reorganizing its body.

Bows are very often “metasignals,” in other words “communication about communication”. Metasignals are how dogs, wolves and other canids let each other know that what just happened or what is about to happen, is only play. It is the canine equivalent of human playful punch in the arm, a verbal jest or teasing sarcasm, which might be followed by the verbal disclaimer “just kidding”.