#play behavior

[tigerleopardlion]

Southern African Wildcat | Eugene Tulleken

[great-and-small]

We vertebrates really do just love to find a cool stick and get obsessed with it for a bit, don’t we

[isthedogvideocute]

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This dog does NOT seem happy at all, and quite a few commenters are saying the same, though many find it cute. It immediately set off red flags for me.

Rating: Dubious

This one is... hard to judge, honestly. There's no clue as to how they initiated this behavior with the dog, which would provide critical context to whether the dog was pestered into this or not. The tail isn't visible either, which is another piece of information that would help us better discern the dog's state.

That said, it might not be as bad as you think. The information we can gather from the video is this:

- The dog's ear's are pointed forward, indicating a state of being alert and paying attention to their owner. (This one is an imperfect tell - some dogs simply do not flatten their ears when being aggressive unless it's a full on fight. Flattening ears is a means of protecting them from getting bitten or torn, and if a dog doesn't feel that their ears are in danger they may not flatten them.) - Lack of full snapping; the dog reaches, but doesn't actually bite when they full well could. Again though, we're lacking critical context in terms of what this dog has been taught regarding this situation or biting in general.

After a quick refresher on the Shiba Inu and reading Shiba owner anecdotes, it seems to be the case that the breed is a rough housing, play aggression type. They may look excessively aggressive and are known to vocalize loudly during play, and from an outside perspective that can be rather alarming without context. I know the way I play with my dog could be taken as aggravation to him, and our version of play is more hands-on than this video is with lots of patting, growling, and mouthing.

I would like to hear more from others who have owned Shiba Inu to help contextualize and confirm/deny what I believe is a case of very aggressive sounding play, so do spread this post please!

[tigerleopardlion]

Southern African Wildcat | Ertjies & Rina Bierman

[ibhomeremedies-blog]

Virtual fun is boring: Letting kids take risks, get dirty is good for them

(Health News) Kids nowadays spend too much time in virtual reality than in the real world. This means less physical activity and more sedentary lifestyles, which lead to complicated diseases. While parents choose to control their children’s daily activities to avoid unwanted scratches and bumps, children’s overall health is slowly falling apart. Yes, we all want the best for our kids, but taking…

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[iheartvmt]

D'aaw!

[iheartvmt]

Cats.

Me: Hey, Toby look! I found your favorite toy! *put "crazy circle" in front of him*

Toby: *just stares at me like I'm an idiot and ignores toy*

Me: Huh, guess you don't like it anymore? *leave room*

Toby: *immediately starts playing with toy and making a very happy raucous*

[crows-official]

Before you say we are bullying this rabbit, please realize that this is very cognitively sophisticated play behavior