Have you ever noticed your dog sneezing in the midst of an exciting play session? You may be wondering if you stirred up your dusty carpets, or perhaps think that your dog inhaled pollen from the surrounding flowers outside.
Well as it turns out, sneezing during play is not necessarily an allergic reaction as we may believe.
Animal behaviorist and trainer Katherine Smith has given an insightful reason as to why this may be. According to her, dogs sneeze during play to display a sense of, well, play. By sneezing, your dog is telling his (or her) playmate that there are no serious intentions behind their engagement.
Through doing this, the other playmate immediately knows that there will be no fighting or aggression to worry about This way, both parties know that the rowdy show is strictly play and can continue to happily ruffle around.
Animal behavior is a strange and complex field of science. We often misinterpret situations because we simply do not understand what is going on. What we can certainly learn from Katherina Smith, is that certain behaviors do not necessarily mean what we may assume they mean.
Perhaps the most useful thing we can do is to observe the reactions and responses of our dogs before jumping to conclusions. If you have spare time on your hands, do yourself a favor and read up on animal behavior and the breed of your precious dog. It always does us well when we take the opportunity to learn something new!
Feature Image Source: Pixabay