Interesting Interaction

[Dame Aussie]

God dogs are funny.

Lili is sitting next to me on the couch and Mo is on the other one about half a metre away from her.

She just started growling at him as he got in her face trying to play (she is a grumpy wee thing and does this a lot). He just looked at her, then made a weird growling noise and yawned. He has yawned about 3 times in the space of 1 minute, each time looking at her .

Do you think this is him being submissive or just anxious?

[Janba]

Yawning is a pacifying signal. I would say he is telling he everything is OK, he's no threat so calm down. It is also used to relieve stress.

[corvus]

I agree with Janba.

I used to love watching my older boy when he was a pup. He lived with my then geriatric corgi. He would bounce around her and bat his paws at her in spite of the grumbling until I felt sure she was going to have him, then just at that tipping point he'd play bow and she'd go after him with a rough game instead of being grumpy. It amazed me that he could do that. How did he know it would work? I can only assume it looked more benign to him than it did to me.