Tail wagging the dog

 

By David Sibenaler

New research has found that dogs become anxious when they see other dogs wagging their tails to the left.

Don’t dogs just wag their tails, some might ask.  However, according to new research published by Current Biology, dogs express their emotions through their wagging tails – however slight the wag of the tail might be.

The explanation made in the research is that dogs that wag their tales to the left might be anxious themselves – due to the environment they are in perhaps - or that the dog might be responding to the anxiety of another dog.

When dogs wag their tails neutrally or to the right, their behaviour was observed to be more relaxed and their heart rate was slower. The experiment was conducted by monitoring the dog’s heart rate and observing their response to projected images of other dogs wagging their tales.

Katrina Cot who walks her dog from Port Melbourne to Docklands says that she can’t see a difference in the way her dog – Marley – wags her tail.

“Marley just wags her tail from side to side. We call her the pendulum.”

Katrina says that she does notice that Marley can become withdrawn when she sees some other dogs approaching.

The research is important in illustrating that dogs are able to communicate to one another.

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