BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Understanding Communication between Dogs

If you like dogs or happen to be a dog owner, you may have heard that when a dog wags its tail, it’s showing signs of happiness and friendliness. Well, a research on the communication between dogs in 2007 indicates that the direction to which the dog wags its tail is also significant in indicating a dog’s mood. The Italian researchers discovered that a wag of the tail to the left demonstrates negative emotions, while a wag to the right conveys more positive emotions.

 

Photo taken by author

Photo taken by author

Recently, another study published by Current Biology furthered this case. It is reported that when dogs watch videos or other dogs wagging its tails, when the video shows a wag tail to the left, the dog reacts with anxiety with a higher heartbeat; when the video shows a wag to the right, however, the dog reacts more calmly.

This is because emotions are related to either the left or right side of the brain, and a left-brain activation leads to a wag to the right, while a right-brain activation leads to a wag to the left.

This is significant because it is one way that dogs may communicate to one another. So next time when you see a dog wagging its tails, you know that it’s showing more emotion than just happiness.

Original Article: A Dog’s Tail Wag Says a Lot, to Other Dogs

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/science/a-dogs-tail-wag-can-say-a-lot.html

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8 Comments

  1. segolene

    Neat article! This is very interesting to know as a dog owner myself. As you mentioned in the article, I often just assumed that a dog wagged its tail when they were happy, but I never thought that a specific direction could indicate its mood. It is amazing that dogs have the ability to communicate through their tails as well as the intonations of their barks. I was also taken back by the fact that dog can indicate emotion when watching video or motion. I will now take note of the direction of my dog’s tail, hoping that he will often wag his tail right, showing positive emotions. Do you think that there is any correlation between the directions a dog wags its tail to the tone of their bark? Check out these articles about further studies involving dog communication:http://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/dog-cognition.php

  2. segolene

    Neat article! This is very interesting to know as a dog owner myself. As you mentioned in the article, I often just assumed that when a dog wagged its tail when it was happy, but I never thought that a specific direction could indicate its mood. It is amazing that dogs have the ability to communicate through their talks as well as the intonations of their barks. I was also taken back by the fact that dog can indicate emotion when watching video or motion. I will now take note of the direction of my dog’s tail, hoping that he will often wag his tail right, showing positive emotions. Check out these articles about further studies involving dog communication: http://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/dog-cognition.php

  3. orsbio

    This is so cool! I’ve always wondered about how a wagging tails relates to a dogs emotions. I found it interesting that the direction a dog moved its tail was associated with the right and left side of the brain, which does make a lot of sense when you think about the experiments scientists conducted using dog videos. This link focuses on particular diagrams and goes in deeper to what different tail wags mean (slow wags, high speed wags, slight wags, etc.) http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201112/what-dog-s-tail-wags-really-mean-some-new-scientific-data

  4. rmelman

    Cute!! It’s interesting to see that dogs can communicate with their tails, rather than “speaking”! It seems that dogs are more similar to people than we think – the left and right side of their brains work very similar to ours! Here is an additional article that relates to yours! http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201112/what-dog-s-tail-wags-really-mean-some-new-scientific-data

  5. cjobios

    Sorry, here is the link to the article I mentioned: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2814%2900123-7

  6. cjobios

    This is really interesting! I found an article, also published by Current Biology, that has given reasons as to why and how dogs can “understand” their owners by their tone of voice. Since dogs and humans have “shared a similar social environment” for thousands of years, it can be concluded that through evolution, the voice areas in dogs “show a similar pattern to anterior temporal voice areas in humans.” Researchers also have found that “that sensitivity to vocal emotional valence cues engages similarly located nonprimary auditory regions in dogs and humans.” Who knows where evolution can take communication between humans and dogs in the next ten thousand years!

  7. karbonkim

    This is a great post! This study is another step toward further understanding of animal behavior. Though I don’t have a dog, I am sure it is helpful for dog owners to learn about this behavioral tendency, in order to help them be better caretakers. In similar fashion, I found this article about cat behaviors, which I found interesting especially since I have one of my own. It talks about different behaviors of cats and their meanings, such as “meow-ing.” Here is the link: http://www.humanesociety.org/news/magazines/2011/05-06/the_cats_meow_understanding.html

  8. katnizz

    Interesting! I had never thought about the direction of dogs’ tails meaning different things. As i read this article i began to wonder what ways other animals communicate, like cats.
    Here is a site that further explains how cats communicate. It says that the main way of communication involve vocal, body language and scented markings.

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