“I grew up in rural Minnesota and went to a small high school where it was common, after high school football games, for teenage boys with raging hormones and still-developing frontal lobes to get into fights for no good reason. It was expected.
“We could all learn from the signaling, negotiating, and fight-avoidance strategy of dogs.
“Wolves and dogs have evolved strategies to avoid conflict. In Animals Make Us Human, Temple Grandin notes that wolves have specific strategies for escalating or deescalating conflict. Wolf puppies learn fifteen strategies (nine 'dominance' strategies and six 'submissive' strategies) to help them avoid actual blood-drawing fights. Interestingly, large 'wolf-like' dogs like huskies and German shepherd tend to learn all fifteen strategies, while smaller dogs — like Maisie, our Chihuahua mix — tend to learn only a few of the strategies.”
