Submission. It's gotta be that, kind of like cats that cringe when you reach out to pet their head, even if they never have been hit. Also, from what I've heard and read, direct eye contact between dogs is a sign of aggression. That's why you don't really see them looking at each other directly in the eyes. For example, when two dogs who don't know each other interact, they do the butt sniffing, and then they do that, "I'm looking at you through the corner of my eye" stance, tails at alert. Usually after this, one of them bolts, or they might snap at each other. Hopefully that doesn't happen. We get down on the floor with Drake and kiss his snout and hug his big head, he always grunts and avoids eye contact as much as possible. He'll dart his eyes back and forth at us, but you can tell he doesn't like that much. He's such a tolerant dog, must be horrible getting kissed all the time.....
