What Does A Wagging Tail Really Mean?

By Amy Fernandez

Almost daily, science provides fresh insights into the mysteries of canine perception. A study published October 31 in Current Biology revealed new discoveries about tail wagging. Researchers observed dogs as they watched videos of tail wagging. (We already know this) but hard science now confirms that that wagging is much more than mindlessly waving an appendage. Canine test subjects consistently responded calmly or anxiously depending on the direction of tail wagging they viewed in the videos.

This study was an extension of 2007 research by the same team from the University of Trento. Back then they documented a myriad of subtle messages conveyed by the canine wag.  Thanks to their investigations, we now know for sure that that wagging to the left indicates negative emotions, while wagging to the right signals a happy attitude.  It also proved that tail wagging is a complex, multifaceted form of social signaling.

Ok, we already knew that too, but here’s the interesting bit. All this tail wagging research strongly suggests that the canine brain is organized much like the human brain with right and left hemispheres devoted to logical and sensory reckoning. The responses of these canine test subjects consistently demonstrated either right or left brain activation in response to the direction of tail wagging.

Needless to say, certain groups are off and running with this informational tidbit as further evidence that dogs possess higher cognitive functioning. The lead researcher of the team offered a less thrilling explanation. He called it a mechanistic adaptive response, saying that it only proves that dogs learn to recognize the inherent patterns of asymmetrical brain activation.  Possibly the truth lies somewhere in between.

It certainly adds credence to previous research showing that dogs accurately read and interpret our most subtle intention cues. Interspecies communication is common throughout the animal world, but it’s generally limited to hardwired responses to predictable signals. For most species, the relationship between intention and behavior is a straightforward deal.

Humans are another story. Dual messages from our logical and emotional brain hemispheres provided us with both intellectual advantages and natural craftiness. Very often, what we say is drastically different from what we do. We try to disguise it, but our intent is revealed by slight differences in our facial expression on the right side, which is controlled by the left brain hemisphere.  It’s also second nature for us to automatically scan faces for these subtle, but crucial clues.

Conventional wisdom suggested that we are the only species with this learned evolutionary strategy known as left gaze bias. But it turns out that we were hacked from the get-go.  Dogs also possess this sophisticated visceral response to asymmetrical social messages. They not only discovered how to decipher our complex social signals, they subsequently encoded this strategy to gauge the intentions of other dogs.

The potential social and survival benefits provide abundant motives for dogs to crack our code and turn this partnership to their advantage. That is a generally accepted aspect of canine domestication. But it could have been just the start of that story.

This surprising discovery once again proves that science has vastly underestimated the parameters of canine perception. Although it has many fascinating implications it does not suggest the existence of canine conscious awareness or abstract reasoning power.

I consider it another indication of our long, shared history.

Human/canine co-evolution is a unique innovation in interspecies relationships.  Science may never explain the entire scope of intangible traits that resulted from this intimately entwined history of different species. Nonetheless, it forged the unbreakable bond that makes us inseparable.

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=38397

Posted by chesliepickett on Nov 13 2013. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.