I desperately wish I'd gotten video of this because it would have been an amazing teaching tool for dog behaviour/body language.
Yesterday I caught Russel and Merry together on the floor. They looked like they were cuddling in a very sweet and doting manner. They were in an upright "down" position (think Sphinx pose but with their back end relaxed). Merry was nuzzling and giving gentle licks to Russel's face and it looked like a very sweet Mother Daughter moment.
Except there was a Yak cheese chew on the ground between Russel's front legs.
Neither one of them was paying any attention to the yak cheese mind you, but I had a feeling.
Merry lowered her head and reached across the yak cheese to lick Russel's paw. She didn't even glance toward the cheese. She just continued to act sweet and "motherly" to her daughter. And then something caught Merry's attention and she lifted and turned her head suddenly toward the noise. Russel snapped and snarked at her with the sudden movement.
Without understanding the body language happening this sudden outburst would have seemed surprising. Merry was being so sweet! Why did Russel suddenly act aggressively like that when all Merry was doing was snuggling like a loving mom?
Anyone viewing the interaction through an anthropomorphic lens would have failed to see that this wasn't a loving mother/daughter bonding moment, this was a bid for a high value resource. The lack of attention to the cheese chew was very pointed and was a dead give-away to me that Merry was after it. Reaching over it to lick Russel's paw was an attempt to get herself closer to it so she could grab it the moment she judged that Russel was no longer guarding it.
See, throughout this entire incident Russel was looking straight ahead. Merry had far more relaxed body language and while Russel didn't appear tense she did seem alert the whole time. Even though she wasn't looking at the yak cheese she was very much aware of it. She snapped at Merry because she assumed that sudden movement had been an attempt to steal the cheese, but because Merry didn't get up and run away the situation didn't eacalate. It was a "Hey! Oh, never mind sorry" type situation.
And then something distracted Russel just for a moment. Not enough for her to move from her spot, but enough to grab her full focus. Merry saw her moment arrive and snatched the yak cheese and immediately ran for her bed. Russel stood up too late and may have tried to take it back if the people hadn't intervened because we don't let dogs steal high value treats from each other (especially when there's easily half dozen yak cheese pieces on this floor alone, each dog could have their own if they wanted).
I was very proud of myself for recognizing so quickly what the situation actually was. It helped that that sort of cuddling wasn't a usual behaviour. If I hadn't known them I'd likely have assumed it was a sweet moment.
