I came across this fascinating article in the Washington Post on Monday and thought you’d find it an interesting read, too. “Dog people”?will recognize a lot of the signals these researchers have noted about dogs’ play behavior. One paragraph that struck me as all-too-true was this one:
“What’s more, he found that canines role-reverse? or self-handicap? during play. When a big dog played with a smaller one, for example, the big dog often rolled on her back to give the smaller dog an advantage, and she allowed the other dog to jump on her far more often than she jumped on him.”
We see that all the time, not only when there’s a size difference but when there’s a “disability gap” (i.e., sighted vs. blind), and they have an uncanny way of working out a balance.
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I see quite a few of those behaviors here. Angel, my alpha (and bigger) dog, will sometimes let Radar think he “wins” when they are running around the yard. She will lay down and let him tug an ear or chew her tail (although not for long), then she’ll go back to her “leave me alone, kid” frame of mind. It’s definitely fun to see.
It’s interesting to hear how the dogs at the farm can work out that balance between each other. But think about all the videos out there with large dogs playing with small dogs and even large dogs playing with small kittens. They are able to do that without the big one hurting the small one. Seems they have a bult-in sense that works in place of having human speech. Dumb animals they are not!
It’s always nice to see science catching up with what we already know. 🙂
What’s interesting, too, is that those behaviours are actually the wolf in the dog. Because they are social, wolves do exactly these same things, but because wolves have been so negatively stereotyped people don’t usually see the continuities. The Post article helps redress the balance. You guys are in such a good position to see community in action! Thank you for sharing it with us.