"Money can buy you a fine dog but only love can make him wag his tail"
~ Kinky Friedman ~
Posted on 03/23/2007 6:35:38 PM PDT by blam
Dogs' behaviour - it's all in the wag
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 12:28am GMT 24/03/2007
Dogs wag their tails to the right when they see something familiar, such as their owner, and to the left when confronted with something they want to run away from, it was revealed yesterday. The bias is subtle, requiring video analysis to spot, and not obvious enough for you to tell whether the next dog you meet is going to lick your face or turn tail.
But, researchers suggest, the study of wagging could be used in animal welfare to help vets to gauge an animal's state of mind.
Prof Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trieste, Prof Angelo Quaranta and Dr Marcello Siniscalchi of Bari University, tested 30 male and female pet dogs of varying breeds recruited from an obedience school. They filmed each dog's response to being shown either their owner, a human stranger, a cat, or a Belgian shepherd malinois, a large breed similar to a German shepherd.
Shown a human, tails wagged consistently to the right. They carefully studied the tail wagging angle and ignored twitches of less than three degrees overall, "which were plausibly not correlated to wagging".
They found that the unfamiliar person elicited less wagging than the owner, and the cat the least wagging of all, though still slightly to the right - probably because the dog was so keen to give chase that it was distracted.
Shown a large, unfamiliar and intimidating dog, the dogs wagged their tails more to the left.
Dogs also wagged to the left when on their own without anyone to look at, suggesting that they like company, according to the study in the journal Current Biology. The finding provides another example of how the right and left halves of the brain do different jobs in controlling emotions. Studies have shown that, in humans, strong activity in the left hemisphere (which controls the right side of the body) is associated generally with a sunny disposition. Human studies have also linked left-brain activity with approach behaviour, and right-brain activity with retreat.
Dogs are already known to prefer to use one paw over the other - most male dogs are left-pawed, whereas females show a lesser tendency to right-pawedness.
But what they do with their tails may be a better guide to how their brains work, Prof Vallortigara said. "Tail wagging is an important emotional response," he added. Biases for right- or left-handed behaviours have been seen in amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish and mammals, suggesting that brain asymmetry is ancient, he said.
A spokesman for the Kennel Club said it was well known that dogs wag their tails when they are happy.
From now on, she added, she would take more interest in the direction of the wag.
Marking a good post. Thanks
somebody's been eating that tainted dog food
What is that supposed to mean?
ping
That just proves what we've all known for a long time.
Right is GOOD and Left is BAD.
Class dismissed!
Steve B.
It figures.
Anything sick, evil, foul or threatening and the noble dog points to the left to indicate his displeasure.
Dang, but dogs are fine critters.
Not sure. I read the post to somebody here and that's what they said. They seemed to think that the dog's tail goes in both directions, left and right.
Nobody had replied to the post yet so I figured my post would bump the thread.
ping
Click on the site. There's a video there showing examples. I don't know how to link it here.
Interesting. I've also been told that people will look upward and to one direction when they are trying to recall something factual (such as - what did you eat for dinner last night?) and they will look up and toward the other direction when they are creating a scenario in their mind (i.e. trying to make something up). Apparently, it's one way you can tell if a person is lying.
I'm not sure, but I think the rough translation of this is "don't bother to look only I can see it."
If I am standing behind the dog and his tail moves left wouldn't it be moving to the right if I was standing in front of him? I have enough things in my life that are confusing, I don't need mixed messages from my dog.
Maybe it's just a right-handed....ummmm pawed dog?
I always thought that a dog's tail wags faster when it's happy (like the video) and slower when the dog is anxious/unsure. The video seems to support this.
I have two dogs--stub-tailed min pin and long tailed dachschund. Both wag slowly when anxious or confused. Both wag fast and hard when happy. The dachschund tucks her tail when she's worried or has her feelings hurt. When they're angry or on alert, the tails are erect, not wagging at all.
I'm not buying the right/left thing.
That's a good description of it.
I think I saw this on the Dog Whisperer last week! ;-)
Of course dogs like company... they don't have opposable thumbs to work the can opener! LOL
Unless the person is a lawyer or politician.
That is actually a myth. It has to do with whether someone is left handed or right handed.
My big Lab uses her dewclaws as opposable thumbs, to hold her Nylabone while she's chewing on it, or to pull stuff out from under the sofa. It looks REALLY weird, particularly when she's holding the bones.
Her breeder tells me that her grandmother Bramble does the same thing.
I've wondered about the etymology of "dew claws." I had not owned a dog until about two years ago -- the vet told me about my dog's dew claws. I wondered if it was French -- "deux claws," meaning two claws where you would expect one. I tried looking it up to no avail.
The OED also notes that the dew claw can be abnormally double in Newfies and St. Bernards . . . that WOULD be "deux claws".
My puppy being a field Lab had her dewclaws removed at birth, all she has is two tiny semicircular white scars where they used to be. That really is safer for a working retriever, because my big dog has hung up her dewclaws in underbrush and torn them once or twice.
We have a lab/beagle mix. She waits for the cats to open the door to the food stash, then they all party. ;-)
Why would any dog want to lick someone's face when there are so many other <ahem> good things to lick?
This whole thing is junk science/busy work.
That we have way too much money to waste on really stupid things like this study?
This, and the fact that dogs' wagging tails are just such cute things, are why I just can't see any good reason for docking a dog's tail or ears. Of course, this means that if a got a Doberman with natural tail and ears, I'd have what looked like a rather strange, large hound.
Great. Apply the research findings to pugs, and get back to me.
We had what is known as The Butter Incident -- the cats pushed the tupperware butter container from the backsplash of the kitchen counter off onto the floor, where the dog broke it open and they all feasted. I came in and found four little innocent faces with butter all over their whiskers. The dog ate the wrapper (we found that out later).
LOL Sounds like something my guys would do. ;-D
My border collie used to eat aluminum foil.
Made easy work of going around the yard with a scooper. With the Sun at the right angle of course.
As for the wag. My dog wags slightly at an unknown but possibly friendly.
No wag at unfriendly
Vigorously at friend
Whole rear at family.
Soon they will find out that some dogs are just south paws.
Suspicious noise in the yard, tails straight out and still.
When they're watching a possible friendly, both wag slightly to the right.
If they aren't immediately rebuffed, of course, they start leaping up and down in place and barking and wiggling the entire back end.
How interesting, I'll have to watch my dog today and see how that works.
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