Appeasement function of displacement behaviours? Dogs' behavioural displays exhibited towards threatening and neutral humans.

ABSTRACT: Appeasement signals are behavioural patterns displaying an animal's non-aggressive attitude and are hypothesized to reduce the aggressive behaviours in the receiver. In domestic dogs, specific displacement behaviours (i.e., behavioural patterns exhibited without an apparent function related to the ongoing situation), have been suggested to function as appeasement signals. To test this possibility, we assessed whether the occurrence of these behaviours was dependent on a social conflict context, predicting that, if displacement behaviours also function as appeasement signals, they should be more prevalent in a conflict vs. non-conflict context. Fifty-three dogs were exposed to two unfamiliar humans approaching them in either a mildly threatening or neutral way. We categorized the attitude o

SUBMITTER: Pedretti G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10066101 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature