I had known that about animals being intimidated by something taller: when my kids were little we used to watch and rewatch a movie called
The Gods Must Be Crazy II, which showed a hyena menacing a little bush kid, who grabbed a big piece of bark and held it over his head, at which point the hyena retreated.
I saw that played out right inside my own home in the mid 90s.
We dog-sat a Cairn Terrier for my husband's coworker.
The first thing he did when he entered the house and saw me was run up and stand on top of the back of the couch to try to look taller than me!
The second thing he did was (ahem) "show dominance" to the other "four-legged creature" in the house, my year-old son, who was crawling on all fours!
