The expression of a play bow, preceding the baring of teeth, growling, barking and biting in social interactions of domestic dogs, alters the receiving dog's normal perception of such behaviors as aggressive overtures to behaviors that should be interpreted in the context of play. in altering the meaning of signals that follow, the play bow thus constitutes a form of:

Metacommunication

Explanation:

Metacommunication is a secondary communication which refers to the way in which a piece of information should be interpreted. This leads to the same piece of information having various different meanings. This is the case with the information in the example. The cues that would normally be interpreted as aggressive are instead seen as behaviours to be interpreted in the context of play.

a bad leader