Science has come to disprove us all once again, folks. And just when I thought I knew just about everything dog-related… As we all learn more about canine behavior, this tiny piece of the puzzle is being disproved.
Dogs rollin’ over on their back when interacting with other dogs has always been thought of as an act of submission. It’s like the dog version of wavin’ the white flag, or saying, “truce, truce!” in a play fight.
Well, thanks to a new study on dog-dog play published in the Behavioral Sciences Journal, and in depth research conducted by Kerri Norman and her colleagues at the University of Lethbridge and University of South Africa we now know differently.
The Salon reported on the methodology of the study and you can read it all here. But let’s skip the science-y stuff and get right down to the RESULT of said study, already!
Turns out, most dogs roll over as a defensive mechanism rather than a submissive one. So the next time you go to the dog park and you see a dog roll over on it’s back, you can be the one telling other pup parents what it all means!
The. End.
