# Behavioural Analysis of Dogs' Response to Threatening and Neutral Conspecific Video Stimuli +
## 4 Discussion
This suggests that the use of videos, especially paired with natural auditory stimuli, may be a promising method to investigate intraspecific visual communicative behaviour in dogs. However, one limitation of the present experimental paradigm is the absence of a control condition in which only the visual stimuli was present, to exclude the potential behavioural reactions elicited by any auditory stimuli _per se_. In fact, dogs can be sensitive to artificial stimuli. Thus, even though dogs were selected based on the fact that they had no noise-sensitivity issues (based on owners' report), we cannot exclude this issue entirely. A further limitation of the current study relates to the potential effect of breed/morphology on intraspecific communication. Based on a previous study by our group, in which dog subjects were carefully recruited to have a balanced number of shepherd type (ears erected, triangular head shape and thin lips) and hunting type (with floppy ears, squared face and soft lips) dogs, we know that breed morphology may affect the use of specific facial expressions and tail wagging in a communicative interaction with a human [16]. However, none of the current study's facial actions (blinking, yawning, lip wiping, nose locking) that were found to be significant, were previously found to be influenced by shepherd/hunting breed morphology. Nevertheless, the question of breed-/morphology-type effect on intraspecific communication is of great interest both from a theoretical and an applied perspective, and these effects were not directly investigated in the current study. The methodology outlined here may allow a more thorough investigation of this question in a standardised manner. From an applied perspective, a better understanding of dogs' intraspecific communication in the different contexts may help in the prevention of aggressive encounters between pet dogs. The dog training literature is progressively developing based on scientific data; however, the practices in many domains, such as dog intraspecific communication, are often still guided by subjective interpretation and personal experiences. Such studies can inform professionals (ethologist, veterinarians, dog trainers) who in turn may transfer knowledge to the general dog-owning public, thereby promoting pet dogs' welfare. In conclusion, the current study outlines a promising methodology for the investigation of intraspecific communication in dogs. It showed that dogs can pay attention to videos of conspecifics exhibiting neutral and threatening behaviours and showed that such stimuli can elicit socially relevant cues. Furthermore, in line with previous studies performed using \"real\" social stimuli (human experimenters and conspecifics), dogs showed more displacement behaviours, (putative appeasement signals) in a neutral compared to a conflict-ridden context. These results suggest that displacement behaviours are not used as appeasement signals to interrupt the occurrence of threatening behaviours but may rather be exhibited in ambiguous contexts when the behaviour of the dog/person is difficult to predict. **Supplementary Materials:** The following supporting information can be downloaded at: [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app13169254/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app13169254/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app13169254/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app13169254/s1)). **Author Contributions:** The study concept and design were developed by [PERSON] ([PERSON]), [PERSON] and [PERSON]. The audio stimuli were manipulated and created by [PERSON] ([PERSON]). [PERSON], [PERSON] ([PERSON]) conducted the experiments. [PERSON]. ([PERSON]) coded the videos. [PERSON]. ([PERSON]) conducted the statistical analysis and interpreted the data. [PERSON]. ([PERSON]) and [PERSON] drafted the initial manuscript. [PERSON] prepared all figures with original drawings and pictures. [PERSON] and [PERSON] contributed to the structure and content of the introduction and the discussion.