Article published In: Interaction Studies
Vol. 25:2 (2024) ► pp.146–166
Play bows by dogs in dog-human play
Published online: 7 February 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.24016.mit
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.24016.mit
Abstract
Dog play bows are recognized as indicating play motivation in dog-dog play, but have never been examined in
dog-human play. Twenty-seven dogs and 26 humans engaged in interspecific interactions with familiar and unfamiliar cross-species
partners to play; videotapes of the resulting 50 play interactions were examined for play bows. Fifty play bows were detected,
enacted by 10 dogs playing with their owner, 6 of whom also enacted play bows with an unfamiliar player. Play bows occurred only
infrequently before or after pauses (or non-play activities) by the dog or the human, or before escape during play. Play bows
appeared to be integral to dogs’ play activities, usually when the dog was playing object-keepaway and
tug o’ war, or the dog was reacting to the human engaging in frustration games like
object-keepaway or fakeout. Play bows appear to be multi-purpose actions indicating play
motivation within dog-human play.
Keywords: dog-human play, play bows, canid play bows, familiarity, maintaining play
Article outline
- Methods
- Participants, subjects, and materials
- Set up: Who interacted with whom
- Procedure
- Procedure and coding
- Results
- Hypothesis 1
- Hypothesis 2
- Contexts in which play bows occurred
- Hypothesis 3
- Pauses by dogs
- Pauses by humans
- Hypothesis 4
- Hypothesis 5
- Global contexts of play bows
- Dogs who played with their owner more than once
- Discussion
- Acknowledgments
References
References (27)
Bauer, E. B., & Smuts, B. B. (2007). Cooperation
and competition during dyadic play in domestic dogs, Canis familiaris. Animal
Behaviour, 73(3), 489–499.
Bekoff, M. (1972). The
communication of play intention: Are play signals
functional? Semiotica, 15(3), 231–239.
(1977). Social
communication in canids: Evidence for the evolution of a stereotyped mammalian
display. Science (New
Series), 197(4308), 1097. [URL]
(1995). Play
signals as punctuation: The structure of social play in
canids. Behaviour, 132(5/6), 419–429. [URL]
Bekoff, M., & Allen, C. (2009). Intentional
communication and social play: How and why animals negotiate and agree to
play. In M. Bekoff & J. A. Byers (Eds.), Animal
play: Evolutionary, comparative and ecological
perspectives (pp. 97–114). Cambridge University Press.
Byosiere, S.-E., Espinosa, J., & Smuts, B. (2016). Investigating
the function of play bows in adult pet dogs (Canis lupus
familiaris). Behavioural
Processes, 1251, 106–113.
Byosiere, S.-E., Espinosa, J., Marshall-Pescini, S., Smuts, B., & Range, F. (2016). Investigating
the function of play bows in dog and wolf puppies (Canis lupus familiaris, Canis lupus
occidentalis). PLoS
One, 11(12): e0168570.
Byosiere, S.-E., Espinosa, J., & Smith, B. P. (2018). The
function of play bows in Canis lupus and its variants: A comparison of dingo (Canis lupus
dingo), dog (Canis lupus familiaris) and wolf puppies (Canis
lupus). Behaviour, 1551, 369–388.
Dewsbury, D. A. (1981). Effects
of novelty on copulatory behavior: The Coolidge effect and related phenomena. Psychological
Bulletin, 89(3), 464–482.
Funny Videos (2017). Dog playing tug
of war — Funny dogs compilation 2017. [URL]
Goode, D. (2007). Playing
with my dog Katie: An ethnomethodological study of dog-human interaction. Purdue University Press.
Horowitz, A. (2009). Attention
to attention in domestic dog (Canis familiaris) dyadic play. Animal
Cognition, 121, 107–118.
Maglieri, V., Zanoli, A., Mastrandrea, F., & Palagi, E. (2023). Don’t
stop me now, I’m having such a good time! Czechoslovakian wolfdogs renovate the motivation to play with a
bow. Current
Zoology, 69(1), 50–58.
Mitchell, R. W. (2023). Dog
talk: Dogs and humans barking and growling during interspecies play. Interaction
Studies, 24(3), 485–515.
Mitchell, R. W., Reed, E., & Alexander, L. (2018). Functions
of pointing by humans, and dogs’ responses, during dog-human play between familiar and unfamiliar
players. Animal Behavior and
Cognition, 5(2), 181–200.
Mitchell, R. W., & Thompson, N. S. (1990). The
effects of familiarity on dog-human
play. Anthrozoös, 41, 24–43.
(1991). Projects,
routines, and enticements in dog-human play. In P. P. G. Bateson & P. H. Klopfer (Eds.), Perspectives
in
ethology (Vol. 91, pp. 189–216). Plenum Press.
Moreno, A. J. C. (2014). Introducing
pragmatics to secondary school students. [Master’s
thesis, Universitat Jaume I]. [URL]
Pellis, S. M., & Pellis, V. C. (1996). On
knowing it’s only play: The role of play signals in play fighting. Aggression and Violent
Behavior, 1(3), 249–268.
Rooney, N. J., Bradshaw, J. W. S., & Robinson, I. H. (2000). A
comparison of dog-dog and dog-human play behaviour. Applied Animal Behaviour
Science, 66(3), 235–248.
Viera, A. J., & Garrett, J. M. (2005). Understanding
interobserver agreement: The kappa statistic. Family
Medicine, 37(5), 360–363. [URL]
Walsh, E. A., Meers, L. L., Samuels, W. E., Boonen, D., Claus, A., Duarte-Gan, C., … & Normando, S. (2024). Human-dog
communication: How body language and non-verbal cues are key to clarity in dog directed play, petting and hugging behaviour by
humans. Applied Animal Behaviour
Science, 2721, 106206.