Of COURSE it matters! The adult dog is just telling the baby "hey, I'm about to knock you over and toss you in the air and maybe sit on you. No hard feelings!"
And the baby is all "BRING IT ON I WILL END YOU HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
.... Yes. That's a puppy play bow. (http://www.pets.ca/dogs/tips/play-bow-posture-pet-tip-105/)
Head down, paws forward, ass up, is Universal Canine for "I'm about to seem aggressive but I don't mean it, it's all good".
Just like a wagging tail means "happy" and rolling over means "you win, you're awesome".
(It's the EXACT OPPOSITE of Universal Feline - which is why you get "fighting like cats and dogs" - every friendly cat behaviour is "fuckyou" in dog, and every friendly dog behaviour is "I AM GOING TO EAT YOUR SKULL" in cat.)
That is an interesting point about cats and dogs having so much trouble interacting because they basically have a language incompatibility. You see that among some bird species, too...Although that's not 100% true across the board--while a lashing tail is cat anger, some cats also thump their tails when they're happy and excited in a nonaggressive way, and cats also roll over to signal playful nonaggression. My bengal-mau cross also play-bows like a dog, and she will play-bow to dogs to indicate interest in playing...but bengals and maus are both very strange breeds with a lot of doglike behaviors not common to other cat breeds. Still, it's an interesting observation that I'll have to think about.
A bunch of it is learned, not bred. My dog rolls on her back to wrestle other dogs because that's what she does with my cat, and my OTHER cat thrashes her tail and playbows because that's what the dog she grew up with always did. And let's not talk about my mother's dog or my brother's dog - both of them, raised among cats, "purr" when scritched. If you're not expecting it, it's a large dog[1] GROWLING AT YOU.
[1]: A boxer-lab cross and a German Shorthaired Pointer, both ~40kg
Says something that we are worse at cross-species communication than dogs and cats.
Well, bengals and maus do have some breed-specific behaviors that are unlike other cats, but I didn't get Minnow 'til she was almost a year old, and it's certainly possible that she grew up with dogs and acquired at least some of her doglike behaviors that way. She seems to like them, anyway. We keep saying that when we buy a house and don't have to worry about pets and rentals, we'll get her a puppy. Maybe a Jack Russell. That'd be about her speed. I mean, if you're going to have one animal bouncing off the walls growling and barking (yes, the cat barks), you might as well have two.
(And of course, cat-rolling-over also can mean, "I will disembowel you." No wonder dogs don't know what to make of them. Hell, it's hard enough for me to read them and I've probably had more practice than the average dog.)
Even funnier, for certain definitions of "funny"...I'm pretty sure that's a Dogo de Argentino, a formidable and non-cuddly dog bred for, among other things in its history, killing other dogs. I think the pup is a shiba inu, which although it might live in an apartment still believes there are probably birds under the furniture to be flushed and retrieved. In the dim reaches of their wolfen brains, there are some interesting dynamics going on that allow them to meet each other with wagging tails and play-bows.
It's a medium-sized shorthaired dog, aka a "pit bull". They totally attack and murder everything in sight, focusing on children and puppies, don't you read the news?
No, it's not; it's a Dogo Argentino (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogo_Argentino), a fabulous dog that was bred for hunting big game and for loyalty. They're often used for police work and search-and-rescue. They were developed from a dog-fighting breed, and occasionally still are mis-used that way, but like pitties, it takes some real effort to ruin one. Still, seeing something that formidable play-bow to a tiny puppy is...something.
I wrote the specifications and a lot of the content for a CD-ROM on dogs that Microsoft put out years ago. If there's anything that has carved a permanent niche in my head, it's dog breeds. When I am senile, instead of hallucinating children bouncing balls, I'll be hallucinating poi dogs and leonbergers.
I personally know too many sweet pit bulls to have to read the news. :->
I have to admit, my dog is kinda a dick if you are a jogger or on a bicycle, but once she caught you, she'd probably just lick you a lot? (we're working on it)
I got it the first time, but I know people who breed staffies and was looking for a dog that looked like their dogs.
While a dog with that much muscle and jaw behind it has a lot more potential for harm if it's so inclined, any breed of dog can have a killer soul, and any breed of dog can have an angel soul (and most have some of both). I had a 15-pound schnauzer when I was a kid, and while within her family she was the sweetest dog in the world, she had a bloodlust I could not train out of her. The best I could do was to train her to rigid obedience and the understanding that biting people and breaking small dogs' necks was forbidden.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 12:28 pm (UTC)Small dog: Yep. Told you, humans will do all kinds of weird crap.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 07:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 01:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 02:04 pm (UTC)PLAY! play!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 02:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 02:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 07:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 07:16 pm (UTC)And the baby is all "BRING IT ON I WILL END YOU HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 07:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 07:30 pm (UTC)Head down, paws forward, ass up, is Universal Canine for "I'm about to seem aggressive but I don't mean it, it's all good".
Just like a wagging tail means "happy" and rolling over means "you win, you're awesome".
(It's the EXACT OPPOSITE of Universal Feline - which is why you get "fighting like cats and dogs" - every friendly cat behaviour is "fuckyou" in dog, and every friendly dog behaviour is "I AM GOING TO EAT YOUR SKULL" in cat.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 07:45 pm (UTC)That is an interesting point about cats and dogs having so much trouble interacting because they basically have a language incompatibility. You see that among some bird species, too...Although that's not 100% true across the board--while a lashing tail is cat anger, some cats also thump their tails when they're happy and excited in a nonaggressive way, and cats also roll over to signal playful nonaggression. My bengal-mau cross also play-bows like a dog, and she will play-bow to dogs to indicate interest in playing...but bengals and maus are both very strange breeds with a lot of doglike behaviors not common to other cat breeds. Still, it's an interesting observation that I'll have to think about.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 08:04 pm (UTC)[1]: A boxer-lab cross and a German Shorthaired Pointer, both ~40kg
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 01:32 am (UTC)Well, bengals and maus do have some breed-specific behaviors that are unlike other cats, but I didn't get Minnow 'til she was almost a year old, and it's certainly possible that she grew up with dogs and acquired at least some of her doglike behaviors that way. She seems to like them, anyway. We keep saying that when we buy a house and don't have to worry about pets and rentals, we'll get her a puppy. Maybe a Jack Russell. That'd be about her speed. I mean, if you're going to have one animal bouncing off the walls growling and barking (yes, the cat barks), you might as well have two.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 07:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 12:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 07:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 08:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 01:23 am (UTC)I wrote the specifications and a lot of the content for a CD-ROM on dogs that Microsoft put out years ago. If there's anything that has carved a permanent niche in my head, it's dog breeds. When I am senile, instead of hallucinating children bouncing balls, I'll be hallucinating poi dogs and leonbergers.
I personally know too many sweet pit bulls to have to read the news. :->
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 01:54 am (UTC)I've got the #9 model "pitbull".
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 02:30 am (UTC)I have to admit that even I mix up some of the terriers seeing them en masse like that, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 02:35 am (UTC)I got it the first time, but I know people who breed staffies and was looking for a dog that looked like their dogs.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 03:02 am (UTC)Every dog is an individual.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-06 11:40 pm (UTC)