#rated dubious

[isthedogvideocute]

Is this dog playing?

Rating: Dubious

Yes, this is play! This is also a fairly nuanced interaction, so I'll try to clarify my interpretation as best I can.

The woman and the dog are engaging in hands on play that has a bit of a language shift partway through. The push to the dog's face seems a fairly standard play shove that the dog isn't scared of and recognizes as such: the tail is our best indicator here, held up and wagging more as first they watch the toy on the ground, and then the woman before moving closer to further engage in play. This is where the shift happens, as the woman recognizes the dog is going to be playing with her too close to the baby, redirecting the dog to the side to protect the infant.

This is also where the dog gets confused and a little nervous, as their play partner just switched gears unexpectedly and pushed them aside. The tail tucks down, they're watched the woman's hands while being touched and pushed about, but the dog isn't frightened, just confused. As soon as she tosses the toy to redirect the dog they're chasing it with their tail back up.

The dog is in no danger, but the infant could easily be trampled or otherwise hurt by a dog who's too excited to be careful around a child - it would be better to have the baby up off the floor where the dog is much less likely to run them over during playtime.

[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!