Fox sees my dog and bows

My neighbour feeds foxes all day, every day.
So there are foxes crossing my garden throughout the day. When my dog spots one she barks and the fox usually scarpers toward the 24/7 buffet next door.

As usual, my dog is indoors watching down the garden through the patio doors.
Just now my dog barked at a fox about 100ft up the garden.
Rather than run, the fox stopped, turned and looked at my dog and bowed.
Gradually the fox came toward the house and kept stopping and bowing toward my dog every few steps whilst sniffing around.
That stopped my dog barking and she (and I) just watched in interest.
Little by little the fox got to within about 10ft of the patio and my dog still wasn't barking, the fox kept bowing toward her.
The fox sniffed around then went back up the garden.
Every few steps it turned around and bowed at my dog then disappeared next door for breakfast.
Fascinating!

I had a Google and it's a behaviour foxes do to show submission and avoid conflict.

I don't agree with feeding foxes for all the reasons that are well documented (and all the fox s**t that is left in my garden), but it was a very interesting encounter.

 

Foxes are known to play with dogs, so it might have been inviting her out to play.

My foxes aren't coming in the daytime at the moment. They are clearly coming at night as evidenced by the holes they dig, though I don't seem to have much of a problem with poop. During the spring/summer when the vixen was raising her cubs they usually came at breakfast time to nick the calci worms and apples I put out for the blackbirds.