The Hidden Meaning of a Tail Wag

I am really fascinated by this study that was done a few years back on tail wagging in dogs. While most of us assume that tail wagging is a sign of a happy and content dog, there is actually the existence of very subtle, yet asymetrical tail wagging that lend valuable clues into how your dog is really feeling.

According to the study, when dogs view a video of another dog wagging their tail, a dog can actually detect emotionality from the asymmetry of the dog’s tail wagging in the video. Researchers measured the heart rate and observed the behavior of the viewing dog. Based on specific signs, the behavior of dog;s watching the videos was categorized into three sets of emotion: - neutral/relaxed - stress/anxiety - alerting/targeting.

The study found that when viewing left tail-wagging dogs, the viewing dogs had higher heart rates and displayed more “stressed and alert behaviors” than when they viewed the neutral and right tail-wagging dogs. This indicates that humans are misinterpreting this behavior and may be missing out on essential information--the directionality of their tail wagging signals both positive AND negative emotional states (and we should be listening!).