Canine Behavior Flashcards
Natural selection has modified behavior skills to best match the _____.
Environment
Since _____ can only change if the genotypes allow, both anatomical and behavior changes must have a genetic component.
Phenotypes
Behavior is adaptive. Behavior is aimed at the organism’s fitness. It has a _____, not a purpose, to increase chances of survival and reproduction.
Function
Genetic _____ occurs when individuals from two or more previously separated populations begin interbreeding.
Admixture
Wolves and dogs separated due to _____, mutations, and selective breeding.
Domestication
Behavior originates by _____.
Chance
If a behavior increases their fitness value in the struggle for survival, it tends to _____.
Persist
Pacifying behavior has a double function - it pacifies the opponent and also the _____.
Pacifier
_____ is a joint action between two or more individuals to achieve a common goal. It can also refer to prosocial behavior by which an animal acts to benefit another.
Cooperation
Social behavior and cooperation are necessities in some species as it increases their _____, improves survival and reproductive rates.
Fitness
_____ pair bonding. The male leads hunts at locations several kilometers away from the den where the female remains to tend to the cubs. Later on the male returns with food (pieces of prey and regurgitated food) to the den.
Monogamous
Unlike wolves, free-ranging dogs have a primarily promiscuous (many short lived mating sessions) mating system. They rarely form _____ pairs, and other than the mothers, rarely feed pups.
Monogamous
_____ behavior is all behavior that preempts mating. This is probably a function of ensuring the male is a suitable sperm donor and he is capable of taking care of offspring. This is called sexual selection.
Courtship
Females are very _____ on their male counterparts. They invest a lot of energy into conception, parturition (egg laying), and post-natal maternal behavior. Some courtship behavior may go on for hours.
Selective
In wolves, _____ bonds among pack members have several functions. Cooperation in hunting large prey, territorial defense, and breeding.
Social
Domestication seems to have _____ cooperative tendencies in dogs, mainly because cooperative breeding and hunting is significantly lower in dogs compared to wolves.
Reduced
The apparent _____ in cooperative breeding is not necessarily a maladaptive trait. The availability of food allows dog puppies to forage independently at a much younger age than wolf cubs.
Reduction
According to one study, in contrast to wolves, dogs have difficulties in _____ even in a very basic manner of simply doing things together. Is this an effect of domestication and selective breeding or adaptation to living in urban areas?
Cooperating
The parental behavior of canids entails teaching the cubs/pups to survive, including learning to be _____.
Social
Mothers towards pups are clear and firm, but do not _____ the pups.
Harm
Wolf fathers play a role in educating cubs when they start to leave the _____.
Den
In domesticated dogs, the canine father’s contributions are _____ or non-existent because we choose so.
Limited
Pups first learn social skills in their den (or maternity box in homes). The survival strategy is learning to be _____ and social when one or the other is the most adequate.
Independent
Siblings are the first of many things: social partners, competitors, and playmates. They experience their first fights, victories, and defeats. They learn to _____, be social, and survive.
Compromise
_____ is any phase-sensitive learning (at a particular age or life stage) that is rapid and (apparently) independent of consequences.
Imprinting
A lack of _____ interaction between 3 and 12-14th week promotes a fear for human beings.
Human
A lack of contact with other _____ between 3-12 weeks may result in identifying with other species (often human). This can lead to more “home alone” problems.
Dogs
Puppies start to show fearfulness of the unknown around week _____.
Five
From week 7-12, it’s time to learn dog language and _____ behavior expressions (ex: pacifying, aggressive, fearful, dominant, and submissive behaviors).
Agonistic
Puppies raised in stimulus-_____ environments are more prone to develop hyper-attachments to their new owners. This can lead to home alone problems and attention seeking behaviors.
Poor
Until about week _____ of age, a puppy’s urination and defecation is reflexive. At week 8-9 they start to show a preferred spot to void, at a certain distance from where they sleep and eat.
Three
Puppies pee on average once every _____ they are awake and active but can sleep for several hours without eliminating.
Hour
_____ is the process of learning to handle relationships with conspecifics as well as members of other species.
Socialization
Imprinting and socialization (in their strictest sense) cease about the __th week. However it’s important to provide a variety of stimulus-rich environments throughout its first year of life.
14
_____ behavior is a serious activity. We associate it with leisure, hobbies, and fun. We often overlook the essential role it plays in youngster’s development and the adults’ conflict resolution.
Play
Play is an integral part of the learning process in species with highly _____ nervous systems such as mammals and birds.
Complex
There are three general kinds of play depending on their primary function:
- _____ play
- _____ play
- _____ play.
Social / Locomotor / Object
_____ play teaches communication patterns. Communication helps to predict movements and the consequences of actions. Survival in nature depends on speedy and accurate assessments.
Social
_____ play is a play in which very young animals engage when alone. They exercise their motor skills. Theorized to help the cells in the cerebellum of the brain to develop connections. Through play they learn about their ability to control the environment and their limits.
Locomotor
_____ play teaches youngsters to handle the various natural elements, including the pieces of prey that the adults bring home to the den. Toys closer to natural environments tend to be more attractive like bones or a piece of skin.
Object
_____ play _____ games: Chasing, punching, pawing, wrestling, and biting, as they learn to stalk and kill prey.
Predators / Predators
_____ animals play _____ games: running and leaping as they acquire speed and agility.
Prey / Prey
Play behavior has a dual function:
(1) to learn how to handle _____/prey
(2) to learn how to deal with _____ (a member of the same species), especially members of the same pack/herd/group, so that one gets access to resources without wasting too much energy or cause a fatal injury to a mate.
Predator / Conspecifics
In some species, play has a function in adults, to try new social _____, which would be risky in real life situations.
Strategies
Play seems to be auto-motivating and self-_____. For example, cats hunt, not because they are hungry, but because it seems they derive pleasure from the art of hunting.
Reinforcing
The problems of group living derive mostly from cheating and _____. It may pay an individual to save time and reduce risks for its life by being more selfish.
Competition
Competition for _____ may lead to direct rivalry and waste a significant amount of energy and produce severe injuries as a consequence.
Mates
Social canids have developed mechanisms to decrease the cost of intergroup conflicts - _____, dominant and submissive strategies.
Hierarchies
The main environmental factors affecting group size are _____ and other predators or prey.
Food
The pack is fundamental to social canids in that they react strongly to being left _____, often howling to locate conspecifics or pack mates. This is the primary factor of domestic dogs showing home alone problems.
Alone
Howling also becomes a ritualized behavior, _____ the cohesion of a pack.
Strengthening
_____ behavior (to make peace) is about decreasing or suppressing an opponent’s aggressive or dominant behavior or restoring a state of tranquility.
Pacifying
There are two ways of classifying pacifying behavior:
(1) to include all behaviors with the function of diffusing social _____
(2) to restrict it to a particular _____ within the broader spectrum of conflict decreasing behavior.
Conflict / Range
_____ is a voluntary or spontaneous expression of submissive behavior.
Friendliness
The same behavior can achieve various functions depending on the _____ and sum of all behaviors being displayed at a given moment.
Intensity
Pacifying behavior was initially probably a _____. Like all phenotypes, it happened by chance and evolved thereafter.
Reflex
Pacifying behavior resolves _____. A _____ is a disagreement over a resource, which may lead to one or both parties showing aggressive behavior.
Conflict / Conflict
_____ are what an organism perceives as life necessities (food, mating partner, or patch of territory) What is perceived to be a resource depends on both species and the individual.
Resources
The _____ is the most frequent behavior of social canids. As potentially aggressive animals living together, they need to reassure one another of their peaceful intentions.
Greeting
_____ behaviors consist of ritualized infantile behavior such as muzzle nudge, pawing, and licking. They use these to pacify other animals as well, such as humans.
Greeting
The _____ _____ behavior originates with moving the muzzle to locate the mother’s teats and stimulate milk production. It becomes ritualized, assuming a new function when the infant grows up. This is a typical process in the development of single behavior patterns in all species.
Muzzle nudge
Social behavior and _____ are necessities imposed by some species because it confers them higher fitness levels: higher survival and reproduction rates. Their mating systems reflect their social organization.
Cooperation
_____ seems to have caused a reduction in cooperative tendencies in dogs, mainly because cooperative breeding and hunting is significantly lower in dogs compared to wolves.
Domestication
In contrast to wolves, dogs have _____ in cooperating even in a very basic manner of simply doing things together.
Difficulties
_____ Is the main factor affecting agonistic (combative) behavior.
Competition
As Darwin noted, all organisms are in a constant struggle for _____. Even when resources are available, there is still competition with conspecifics about priority access. The competition also applies to other animals within the same environment.
Survival
Some competitive behavior seems _____, while others are learned from parents or adult group mates.
Instinctive
Domesticated dogs are less social, less prone to _____ and cooperating because we removed them from their natural habitats.
Compromising
Our dogs can get away with their lacking social and _____ skills because they are no longer needed to the same degree as their wild cousins.
Agonistic
Competition calls for _____ or dominant behavior and their counterparts, fearful and submissive behavior. Social aggressive animals are masters of compromise, employing adequate dominant or submissive strategy required for the given situation. One size does not fit all.
Aggressive
_____ is the name of the game. The various displays of agonistic behavior and resulting multiple possible interactions testify to a painstaking evolution through the millennia.
Adaptation
_____ means of or related to interspecific confrontational behavior and includes aggressive, fearful, dominant, submissive, and pacifying behavior.
Agonistic
_____ behavior appears before aggressive behavior in the development of most young animals. Aggressive behavior in canids usually first appears when playing rough with littermates about 5-7 weeks of age.
Fearful
_____ behavior has life-saving functions.
Fearful
Fearful behavior is directed towards eliminating an incoming _____. (fleeing, freezing, or hiding). A threat is everything that may harm, inflict pain or injury, or decrease an individual’s chance of survival.
Threat
_____ elicits flight, immobility (freezing or hiding), or distressing behavior.
Fear
_____ behavior follows in the development of the young animals. Competitions within littermates over trivial matters trigger it.
However, the youngsters learn how to deal with it, what they can gain or lose, and how to control it. The right dosage of the right behavior at the right moment in the right circumstances is the secret to a successful life.
Aggressive
Aggressive behavior is a behavior directed towards eliminating _____ from an opponent by injuring it, inflicting pain, or giving it a reliable warning of such impending consequences if it takes no evasive action.
Competition
_____ behavior is distinguishable from dominant behavior in that dominance does not include harmful behaviors, though it may require some degree of forceful measures.
Aggressive
Predatory behavior is not _____ behavior. Predatory behavior means preying (searching, chasing, killing) upon other organisms for food.
Aggressive
_____ (or socio-aggressive) behavior is the behavior displayed by an individual with the function of gaining access to a particular resource on a particular occasion, versus a particular opponent, without either party incurring injury. If either incur injury, it is aggressive, not _____.
Dominant / Dominant
_____ is behavior directed towards eliminating competition, while dominance, or social-aggressiveness, is behavior directed toward eliminating competition from a mate.
Aggressiveness
_____ are two or more animals that live closely together and depend on one another for survival.
Mates
_____ are two or more animals who do not live close together and do not depend on one another for survival.
Allies
_____ are species related perceived life necessities (food, mating partner, patch of territory)
Resources
Animals show dominant behavior by means of various signals, visual, auditive, olfactory, and _____.
Tactile
While _____ behavior is behavior directed towards eliminating a threat, submissive (or socio-fearful) behavior strives towards eliminating a social-threat from a mate (losing temporary access to a resources without incurring injury)
Fearful
Animals show submissive behavior by means of various signals, _____ , auditive, olfactory, and tactile.
Visual
A _____ is everything that may harm, inflict pain or injury, or decrease an animal’s chance of survival.
Threat
A _____-_____ is everything that may cause the temporary loss of a resource and may cause submissive behavior or flight without the submissive individual incurring injury.
Social-threat
Proactive (also controlled and instrumental) aggressive behavior is not an end in itself, only a means to achieve a goal. There are no strong _____ involved. On the contrary, its effects depend on deliberate and well-timed action.
Emotions
_____-impulsive aggressive behavior, marked by intense emotions, as no goal in itself. It appears to be a result from a distorted perception of competition, the individual not realizing that there are no evading routes, and enhanced by the inability to control the associated emotions.
Reactive
There is evidence that reactive-impulsive aggression (contrary to instrumental aggression) is related to low _____ levels in the brain.
Serotonin
Reactive-impulsive aggression is either the result of poor imprinting/_____ or inadequate training.
Socialization
Dominant and _____ strategies originated via natural selection. They form an evolutionarily stable strategy for aggressive, social animals.
Submissive
_____-_____ strategies relations limit the need for aggressiveness or fearfulness, decreasing the number and intensity of conflicts.
Dominant-Submissive
In a stable group confined to a defined territory, temporary _____ will develop more readily. In unstable groups, changing environmental conditions, in undefined or non-established territories, _____ will not develop.
Hierarchies / Hierarchies
Do not commit the _____ fallacy, just because something is wrong, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Do not commit the _____ fallacy, just because something is, doesn’t mean it needs to be right.
Moralistic / Naturalistic
_____ describes facts, analyzes relationships, and gives us conclusions, always subject to revisions upon discovering new evidence. Ethology does not impose any particular ethical view or training method.
Ethology
_____ behavior is essential to deal with competition and, ultimately, surviving and reproducing.
Aggressive
_____ behavior is a behavior directed towards eliminating competition from an opponent, by injuring it, inflicting pain or giving it a reliable warning of such impending consequences if the opponent takes no evasive action.
Aggressive
_____ and growling can be aggressive or dominant, depending on the intensity and context.
Snarling
_____ is a rough means of communication, primarily to warn other dogs about intruders.
Barking
Barking can also be an invitation to play or during other social activities involving high arousal. In these cases, barking is more _____-pitched and monotonous.
High
When humans domesticated the dog’s ancestor, there was an obvious advantage in favoring _____ dogs since this trait made them very effective as guards.
Barking
_____ and failing to inhibit the behavior when it first occurred are the causes of excessive barking in our times.
Understimulation
When a dog _____, it shows friendliness or submission. The alpha (if there is one) or the most self-confident may accept a lower ranking or more insecure individual’s greetings by blinking, which is often reciprocated.
Blinks
Dogs often blink at humans as a _____ gesture when, for example, they have been too harsh towards them.
Pacifying
_____ is a noisy chewing motion, despite there being nothing to chew. This behavior is connected with friendliness, pacifying, insecurity, or submissive behavior depending on the intensity and context.
Champing
_____ is one of the first sounds that a pup hears when their siblings suckle. Therefore associated with satisfaction.
Champing
_____ is a simple and effective way to show friendliness towards a dog. The behavior appears to have a relaxing effect on most mammals.
Champing
_____ (Latin, clastrum = enclosed place, phobia = fear) is the fear of being confined.
Claustrophobia
Claustrophobia: Dogs may show apprehension when going into unknown confined or _____ areas.
Dark
Dogs suffering from true Claustrophobia are _____, as opposed to those suffering from agoraphobia (fear of an escape route or necessities in case of emergency), a more common problem.
Rare
Dogs point _____-_____ when they eliminate. They use the Earth’s magnetic field when urinating and defecating. They also avoid E-W alignment.
North-South
_____ and feces also serve to mark territories. Most normal dogs are apprehensive of marking in unknown territory. However, we seem to have passed our promiscuity to our companion dogs, and many dogs mark everywhere.
Urine
_____ behavior is one of the basic agonistic behaviors.
Dominant
Dominant (or _____-_____) behavior is the behavior displayed by an individual with the function to gain access to a particular resource on a particular occasion, versus a particular opponent, with neither incurring injury.
Socio-aggressive
Growling and snarling, starring an opponent down, stiff body posture with raised tail and ears are common displays of _____ behavior.
Dominant
_____ ears may show dominant behavior (unless physical breed characteristics do not allow it.)
Erect
Drawn-_____ ears show friendliness, submissive or fearful behavior, depending on the degree of flattening and context.
Back
Most dogs move their ears in response to their owner’s voice. These are not signs of insecurity, only that the dog is _____.
Attentive
Dogs with drop ears show the same basic movements, but these may be less _____.
Obvious
_____ behavior is behavior directed towards eliminating an incoming threat (fleeing, freezing, or hiding)
Fearful
A _____ is everything that may harm, inflict pain or injury, or decrease an individual’s chance of survival.
Threat
_____ elicits flight, immobility (freezing or hiding), or distress behavior.
Fear
Fleeing or _____ are always fearful behaviors, the latter though when not stalking prey, in which case it is predatory behavior.
Hiding
_____’s organ (canalis incisivus) is a channel connecting the nasal cavity with the mouth cavity through the hard palate, with an opening just behind the middle incisors in the upper jaw.
Jacobson
Jacobson’s organ operates by transmitting olfactory information from the mouth to the nasal cavity implying the dog can taste and smell substances _____.
Simultaneously
Males scrutinizing the urine from a female in heat often chatter their teeth and salivate, facilitating the transmission of odor particles through the Jacobson’s organ. That is called a _____ response.
Flehmen
As potentially aggressive animals living together, they need to reassure one another of their peaceful intentions. _____ behaviors consist of ritualized infantile behavior such as muzzle nudge, pawing, and licking.
Greeting
Dogs use their typical greeting behaviors to _____ other animals, as well as humans.
Pacify
Sniffing another dog’s genitals provides a dog with valuable information. It is a form of _____
Identification
The female’s oestrus elicits the male’s sexual behavior, and sniffing is preliminary to _____ behavior.
Courtship
Dogs also sniff each other’s genitals as a standard _____ behavior.
Greeting
Some dog owners find it embarrassing when their dogs engage in genital sniffing with unfamiliar dogs (or even humans) they meet, yet this is a perfectly _____ way for dogs to interact.
Natural
The _____ is the place on the dog’s head between the muzzle and forehead (the dividing line between the muzzle and the skull). Sometimes the stop is indented, and other times, it’s almost nonexistent.
Stop
The dog’s forehead reflects self-confidence or insecurity. If the forehead, or rather the skin on the forehead, is _____ and _____, it shows insecurity.
Smooth / Tight
The expressions of the _____ are supplementary in defining the motivation of the dog. We should also consider ears, eyes, and lips.
Forehead
_____ is a male sexual behavior observed in courtship and copulation.
Mounting
Mounting may also be a display of _____ behavior.
Dominant
Some females also show mounting behavior, probably due to some _____ disorders.
Hormonal
_____ is the behavior of claiming territory or an object by leaving one’s identification mark on it.
Marking
Some dogs also mark visually by _____ the soil with their paws, even on tarmac or cement.
Scratching
It is primarily high-ranking (when in a group) or self-_____ individuals that mark. In a wolf pack, the leaders mark the territory.
Confident
_____ may also mark, and some even assume a position similar to a male’s - cocking one of their hind legs.
Females
The function of _____ is to inform other dogs that the territory is inhabited. That is important since conspecifics compete over the same resources, such as food, resting places, and mating partners.
Marking
Dogs use _____-smacking as a pacifying behavior.
Lip
The dog may flick its tongue out of the front of its mouth, showing small licking movements and making gentle lip-smacking noises to _____ an opponent.
Pacify
_____ is the puppy’s behavior of pressing its paws alternately against the mother’s teats to stimulate her milk production.
Kneading
_____ is the basis for later pacifying behaviors like pawing and paw-lifting.
Kneading
The characteristic wolf howl is one of the _____ patterns that our dogs have inherited from a common ancestor.
Communication
In the wild, the function of the howl seems to be:
1) To give information about _____ boundaries to neighboring packs.
2) To strengthen the _____ between pack members.
3) To enable a _____ wolf to locate and establish contact with other lone wolves.
Territorial / Bond / Lone
A _____-ranking wolf is less likely to trigger the pack to howl than a _____-ranking member.
Low / High
The pack is more likely to howl if separated from a ____-ranking wolf than from a _____-ranking one.
High / Low
The _____ _____ functions as a pacifying behavior. It signals friendliness. By turning its back to us, the dog shows it doesn’t intend to attack - it directs its teeth away from us. It also indicates it trusts us.
Hip nudge
_____ are hairs on the dog’s back that raise when elicited by some startling stimulus.
Hackles
Raised hackles are often an indication of an _____ tendency.
Aggressive
Raising the hackles also occurs when the dog is _____ and shows insecure behavior.
Surprised
In normal circumstances, the self assured dog does not raise its hackles since all its body attitudes show strength.
The _____, submissive and surprised dog probably raises its hackles to appear frightening to its opponent. If it succeeds in making its opponent hesitant for a moment, it will have a better chance to defend or flee.
Fearful
_____ behavior has primarily hygienic functions.
Grooming
Dogs sometimes _____ each other, but this is rare and only occurs between animals that know each other very well.
Groom
_____ is the display that some breeds of hunting show when they stand immobile, usually with a front leg raise and looking forward in the game’s direction.
Pointing
_____-_____ is often seen in dogs soliciting another to play. The expression resembles a dominant face, though with retracted lips and erect ears - in the breeds where this is possible.
Play-face
Play-face is interesting as it gives us a clue to understanding the true nature of play. It combines expressions commonly seen during displays of _____ and submission and even _____ and fear.
Dominance / Aggression
The motivation of the playful dog changes fast, maintaining the whole behavior as a playful activity. If one of the motivational factors is allowed to govern play behavior a fraction too long, play may become a _____ affair.
Serious
Play-face may happen as a _____ behavior and in courtship.
Displacement
The _____-_____ is the posture used by a dog to invite another dog to play. The dog pretends to attack the opponent. It positions the front part of its body as if lying down, with its back end in the air, waits a moment, then jumps playfully at its playmate.
Play-bow
The _____-face usually happens in conjunction with the play-bow.
Play
Canines, both male and female, also display the play-bow during _____.
Courtship
Play behavior has a dual function:
(1) to learn how to handle _____/prey
(2) to learn how to deal with _____, especially members of the same pack/herd/group, so that one get access to resources without wasting too much energy or cause fatal injuries to a mate.
Predator / Conspecifics
In social animals, playing might help establish _____ among the young, thus minimizing serious conflict once they become adults.
Hierarchies
_____ is a favorite play among social predators. It teaches them how to handle real fights later on in life as well as, perhaps, how to catch prey.
Fighting
Play seems to be auto-motivating and self-_____. For example, cars continue to hunt, not because they are hungry, but because they seem to derive pleasure from the actual act of hunting.
Reinforcing
The function of the _____-_____ is to confirm a relationship rather than to settle a dispute. The more self-confident dog will muzzle-grasp a more insecure one and thus assert its social position.
Muzzle-grasp
Youngsters, cubs, and pups sometimes solicit adults to muzzle-grasp them. This behavior appears to be _____ for them.
Reassuring
When used to settle a dispute, a muzzle grasp looks more _____, ending with the muzzle-grasped individual showing passive-submissive behavior (ex: laying on it back)
Violent
Canine mothers _____-_____ their puppies (sometimes accompanied by a growl) to deter them from suckling during weening.
Muzzle-grasp
A muzzle grasp does not involve _____, just grasping. This behavior helps develop a relationship of trust between both parties.
Biting
_____-_____ consists of one dog gently nudging another one, generally on the face or neck.
Muzzle-nudge
Muzzle-nudge is a _____ gesture.
Pacifying
Dogs use muzzle-nudge also towards humans. They frequently nudge their owner’s hand or leg when seeking _____.
Attention
A _____-_____ is everything that may cause the temporary loss of a resource and may cause submissive behavior or flight without the submissive individual incurring injury.
Social-threat
_____ is the behavior of drawing back the lips and showing the teeth, with or without a deep, characteristic sound.
Snarling
Snarling with lips curled _____ indicates aggressive or dominant behavior.
Forwards
_____ with drawn-back lips is aggressive and submissive behavior. Other body signals conveyed by the ears, eyes, and tail emphasize either dominantness or submissiveness.
Snarling
Snarling is always a display of _____ behavior.
Agonistic
We should not mistake a smile for a snarl. The motivation behind a smile is _____, while aggressiveness motivates snarling.
Pacifying
A dog may _____ trying to camouflage its odor.
Roll
Rolling: Dogs may alternatively be trying to inform conspecifics that they have found an _____ item.
Edible
Adult wild canines _____ half-digested food for their cubs after returning to the den from a successful hunting excursion. The cubs lick them urgently around the lips to elicit _____.
Regurgitate / Regurgitation
Domestic dogs sometimes regurgitate for their pups, but most have lost this parental skill through _____ and selective breeding.
Domestication
Regurgitation, and the licking of the adults’ lips, later becomes modified and develops into the muzzle-nudge behavior, which has a _____ function.
Pacifying
The primary food for a predator is the _____ at it catches. Predatory behavior is therefore of vital importance and evolved to achieve the optimization of specific functions.
Prey
_____ behavior comprises searching, tracking, stalking, selecting prey, running it own, killing it, and occasionally transporting it to a safe place.
Predatory
_____ triggers hunting or predatory behavior. It serves the drive of self-preservation.
Hunger
Predatory behavior has nothing whatsoever to do with _____ behavior.
Aggressive
The tail is an extension of the spinal column and acts as a _____ when the dog moves, especially when it runs and needs to execute tight turns.
Stabilizer
Canines use their tails to emphasize their _____ shown through other bodily postures.
Motivation
A _____ tail does not equal ‘happiness.’ Fearful or insecure dogs wag their tail between their legs, possibly even letting go a drop or two of urine, to emphasize their insecurity (infantile behavior).
Wagging
The _____-_____ is the original form of the muzzle-nudge, which develops later. The puppy nudges its mother’s teats immediately after birth to stimulate milk production.
Teat-nudge
The _____ is the canine behavior of twisting one hind leg out to the side.
Twist
The function of this behavior is to _____ an opponent. It originates in the maternal behavior when the female overturns the infant by pressing her nose against its groin, forcing one hind leg to the side.
Pacify
The original function of the _____ is not clear, several explanations being as probable. One study suggests that _____ brings an influx of oxygen to the blood when it has increased carbon dioxide levels. Another explanation focuses on a particular necessity to stretch the muscles in the tongue and neck. A third interpretation suggests that _____ helps keep alert, a crucial condition for any predator to succeed.
Yawn / Yawning / Yawning
Dogs yawn, and studies have found that they are more prone to yawn when their _____ yawn than when strangers do the same.
Owners
Dogs may yawn when tired, but the yawning functions usually as a _____ behavior (for themselves and opponents).
Pacifying
