Play bows by dogs in dog-human play

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.