You can tie yourself in knots trying to decode animal behaviours beyond the most basic but with dogs I think it is a little easier because they have hitched their wagon to ours for so many tens of millennia.
I saw an example just last night, that was all too tempting to describe in human terms, when we went to my middle sisters house to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary.
For background, they have a mongrel dog who has the dubious distinction of being only the second dog I've ever met not to like me (the other was one of those lunatic mobile-hearthrug types so that hardly counted as a dog
). I think I accidentally frightened him the first time we met or I look similar to someone who has mistreated him (he's a 'rescue'). He's even tried to bite me once, which was a big surprise (thank you martial arts reflexes
). Since that meeting, they've had a couple of other dogs, a Jack Russell cross (with the ace name of "Storm") and a Boxer ***** (as in 'lady' dog
) called Ella.
Sure enough, as soon as we entered my sisters house, Barney started acting up growling and barking at me and the Jack Russell joined in {not a surprise as they will bark at moving grass :lol:} tho' even he was looking between Barney and me as if to say "What are we barking for?!". My sister had already warned me that Ella does not much care for men, so I was possessed of a sinking feeling that the night was not going to be as pleasant as I had hoped. I put down the flowers and gifts I had brought my folks and stood still whilst the situation sorted itself out.
With my sister and her fellow busy telling the dogs off and holding Barney where he was, Ella trotted forward to me and gave me a sniff. She looked up at me so I slowly took my hand out of my pocket and held it out to her (fingers curled in of course, as I am not daft ... :glares at the readers:
). She gave my hand a lick, wagged her tail, turned around and walked up to snarling Barney ... and bumped his nose with hers as if to say, plain as day, "Don't be so silly, he's nice!". Barney stopped his acting out and let my sister cart him off into another room whilst we got settled. He was fine all night from then on, I just ignored him and he ignored me {other than some dirty looks now and again :lol:}. Storm made friends during the night so I reckon we're okay on the canine non-aggression pact, tho' I still wouldn't like to be stuck in a room on my own with Barney, just to be on the safe side.
Anyhow, the point of all that rambling tale is that I do think it is quite possible to interpret dog behaviour in human terms, with certain canine provisos, as they are one of the species that has elected to live life 'our' way.
