Tail wagging in dogs, the importance of direction

We’ve been covering disc disease for a couple weeks, and it’s time for a switch to something fun. Did you know dogs wag their tails to the right OR to the left? I didn’t. I thought dogs wagged their tails in the middle, going both the right and left. A three-page article titled “Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli” in Current Biology, March 2007 by A. Quaranta, M. Siniscalchi, G. Vallortigara maintains that dogs wag their tails more to the right in positive circumstances and to the left when they would prefer to withdraw. The amplitude of the tail wagging shows how excited the dog is.

For example dogs wagged to the right when they saw
· their owner,
· an unknown human, or
· a cat.

The amplitude of the wagging was
· high with the owner,
· medium with the unknown person, and
· low with the cat.

Dogs wagged to the left When they saw
· a dog didn’t know.

Authors suggest that muscles that pull the tail to the right are activated when the left side of the brain is active, and muscles that pull the tail to the left are active when the right side of the brain is active.

We’ll have to take notice. Let me know what you see.