After decades of first hand study and experience I can assure you it’s both for submission indication and for leisure/pleasure, sometimes both, sometimes one or the other.
A dog exposing their belly to a human, especially their human(s), is more about being comfortable and relaxed than submissive. It can also be playful/silly behaviour towards their family.
I have a dog that likes to go paws in the air just to silly. The tail will be banging anything in range and dusting the floor. The moment I get down for a belly rub, tail stops. If talk silly back and offer a treat I get an explosion of happyness and cooperative mood.
They’ll let you know. My dog has moods, each has their own body language. Sometimes she wants head and ear scritches, so she’ll bump her head into my hands and keep them there until I start petting. Sometimes she wants belly rubs, she will roll on her back in front of me or on the couch/bed. If I ignore her, she will switch positions into my line of sight and repeat. She also sometimes is not in the mood for petting, and my approaches will be dismissed. She turns her back and ignores me. She learned to signal her walking leash all proper and formal on her own when she wants to go for a walk. She sits in front of the leash pointing with her snout and waits until I notice. She will bark if I’m not around to call my attention.
Sometimes I stop on purpose to see her reaction. If she’s okay with stopping the activity she will leave or regain a neutral posture. If she wants more she will tap me with her paw until I resume. It’s very cute. Dogs are definitely very communicative if they want something.
It’s submission behavior. So I guess it depends on their preferences.
After decades of first hand study and experience I can assure you it’s both for submission indication and for leisure/pleasure, sometimes both, sometimes one or the other.
They really are just like people, aren’t they?
A dog exposing their belly to a human, especially their human(s), is more about being comfortable and relaxed than submissive. It can also be playful/silly behaviour towards their family.
I have a dog that likes to go paws in the air just to silly. The tail will be banging anything in range and dusting the floor. The moment I get down for a belly rub, tail stops. If talk silly back and offer a treat I get an explosion of happyness and cooperative mood.
This was my assumption. But I’m not discounting it being both. Looks like plenty of other people’s dogs here seem to like it.
I just keep thinking “buddy if you’d rather I scritch your ears I’m more than happy too”
They’ll let you know. My dog has moods, each has their own body language. Sometimes she wants head and ear scritches, so she’ll bump her head into my hands and keep them there until I start petting. Sometimes she wants belly rubs, she will roll on her back in front of me or on the couch/bed. If I ignore her, she will switch positions into my line of sight and repeat. She also sometimes is not in the mood for petting, and my approaches will be dismissed. She turns her back and ignores me. She learned to signal her walking leash all proper and formal on her own when she wants to go for a walk. She sits in front of the leash pointing with her snout and waits until I notice. She will bark if I’m not around to call my attention.
Sometimes I stop on purpose to see her reaction. If she’s okay with stopping the activity she will leave or regain a neutral posture. If she wants more she will tap me with her paw until I resume. It’s very cute. Dogs are definitely very communicative if they want something.