Science Has Decided Why Dogs Wag Their Tails and It's Pretty Surprising
It's a pretty common thought that our dogs wag their tails because they are happy to see us. Or because they are happy for some reason, probably because someone said the word c-h-e-e-s-e. Well, a new study hypothesizes that our pups may wag their tails for an entirely different reason, and that reason took place during their domestication process around many thousands of years ago.
That tail wag is absolutely adorable, but it may be due to our dogs wanting to make us happy, rather than the fact that they are happy.
The Guardian reported on the study that comes from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands. Writing in the journal Biology Letters, Dr Taylor Hersh, a co-author of the article, and colleagues describe a number of studies that have previously looked at tail wagging.
In previous studies it was found that hand-reared dog pups wag their tails far more often than hand-reared wolf pups. They also said that dogs wag their tails to their right in response to experiences that make them happy – such as seeing their humans– and to their left when they wish to withdraw or are upset, for example in aggressive situations.
Related: Golden Retriever Who Wags His Tail While Dreaming Is As Sweet As It Gets
The Study Suggests Another Reason Dogs Wag Their Tails
One very interesting hypothesis put forth by the team behind the study is that dogs wag their tails because humans consciously or unconsciously selected for tail wagging during the domestication process because we are very attracted to rhythmic stimuli,” said Silvia Leonetti, first author of the article.
The team are now calling for new investigations into tail wagging to investigate the possibilities.
The Guardian article then goes on to say that Dr Holly Root-Gutteridge, a dog researcher at the University of Lincoln, says that in her view dogs started tail wagging for an entirely different reason, and it's because dogs had adapted the tail wagging to use with humans because people found barking irritating. That theory also makes sense to me, because I'm much happier when my own dogs greets me with a tail wag rather than his annoying barking.
Whether our dogs wag their tails because they are happy or because they know us silly humans like rhythmic gestures, I think we can all agree that our pups furious tail action is absolutely adorable.
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