The Play Bow

This dog is not my dog. This is Wikipedia's Dog. 

I recently got a dog. And being a communication geek, I find it fascinating to see how she communicates with other dogs!

The closer I listen to her bark the more I can distinguish a Happy Bark that means "oh look a new friend I haven't met!" from an Attention Bark that means "Hey You! Yeah You!", from a Warning Bark" that means "DON'T BE FOOLED BY MY ADORABLE EXTERIOR! THIS FAMILY IS PROTECTED BY ME"!

I also noticed she communicates with her body. She pulls her front half low to the ground and then bounces up before starting to play with another dog. I thought it was just excitement about play. Right after I noticed this, I got a popup on my Facebook feed for a BBC video called Play Bows- Animals at Play. How does Facebook know that this would interest me? I probably don't want to know.

The video explains that dogs have a foolproof way of signaling each other that they'd like to play, called a Play Bow. The play bow means "I agree to play with you and I promise to be just the right amount of aggressive".

What a succinct way to greet someone, declare positive intent and confirm consent all at once! And every breed understands this signal. Dogs could definitely teach us a thing or two about clarity.