Page 20 - Dog

Behavior

Dog appears
happy and
The dog family can be divided relaxed – with
into two distinct groups according pert ears and
smiling mouth
to behavior: solitary hunters and
Ears back show dog is
afraid – or even social hunters. The solitary hunters – Crossbred dog
potentially aggressive that is, the foxes and South American
wild dogs (pp. 28–33) – live on their own, except when they
are mating and rearing their young. The wolf, jackal, coyote,
African hunting dog, dhole (pp. 22–27), and the domestic
dog (pp. 14–17) are all social hunters. Their behavior is in
many ways like that of a human family in which the parents
are the leaders and the children do as they are told until they
are old enough to leave and form their own family groups.
In a wolf pack, or a family of African hunting dogs, every
individual knows which other dog is above or below it
in the family hierarchy, and it will fight hard to GETTING TO KNOW YOU
keep or to better its position. Even though The strong, dominant wolf on the left is greeting
wolves are such powerful killers, fights Ears laid the weaker, more submissive wolf on the right.
back show
between them seldom end in death, and fear or
if one wolf is injured the others will aggression Tail between legs
often help it to feed. shows dog in a
submissive
stance

Mouth shut
tightly denotes
apprehension BODY LANGUAGE
Even though dogs cannot
German speak like humans, they
shepherd say all they need to each
other by the postures of
their bodies and tails.

Crouched body
means fox is
waiting to Alert ears show fox
JUST GOOD FRIENDS is listening for
This charming painting by English pounce potential prey Solitary hunters
artist John Charlton (1849–1917)
shows three dogs of indistinct Foxes, including this American gray
breeds (pp. 60–61) playing fox (pp. 28–29), are solitary hunters
together in the snow and
exhibiting their friendly that kill their prey by themselves.
relationship with They do not, therefore, have
one another. the complicated interactive
behavior of the social hunters.
A fox’s tail cannot wag as
expressively as a wolf’s,
and its upright ears are not
as mobile. Even so, if a fox is
frightened it will cower down to make itself
look small, and if it is angry it will stand up as
Gray tree-climbing fox tall as it can to look large and threatening.

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