Abstract
Ss were 298 10-yr.-old female beagles. The relationship of each dog's emotional response display toward a human stimulus was related to its dominance-submission status within a long term dyad. Emotional display was classified into four main categories, friendly, stay-behavior, wary, and aggressive. Forms of dyadic interaction were categorized into three main categories, dominant-submissive, combat, and parallel-possession. The parallel-possession category was related to a significantly greater frequency of displayed friendly responses while the combat category was related to a significantly greater frequency of displayed stay-behavior. Dominant and submissive dogs obtained an intermediate position on both emotions and did not differ from each other. A similar emotional response occurred in each of both dogs of a pair with greater than chance frequency; this held for both friendly and stay-behavior emotional displays. Explanatory hypotheses of “reinforced parallel approach” and “interpersonal avoidance” were offered.
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