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This is Bailey. You may remember her from such posts as “Man vs. Beast: Oral Hygiene Edition” and “Bailey as Social Parasite?” We also figured out why her feet smell like popcorn.
I’m dragging her out once again, this time to analyze the wag of her tail.
Last week, Sandra Blakeslee of The New York Times taught us how to interpret tail wagging. She was covering a study that appeared in Current Biology, titled “Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli.”
Here’s the gist: “When dogs feel fundamentally positive about something or someone, their tails wag more to the right side of their rumps. When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left.”
In this photo, her tail is wagging left. Guess she wasn’t pleased that I wanted to reclaim my banana. Or maybe she was angry that I interrupted our game of chase to capture the moment.
I plan to run extensive tests tonight, hoping to see some rightward wagging. Anyone with access to a dog want to give this a try?
What if your dog is left-handed? (left-pawed?) Does it work the other way?
posted by Scott from Cincy on 5-3-2007 at 7:14 am
Yah, whose left are we talking about? Dog left would be similar to stage left.
posted by Tom on 5-3-2007 at 7:46 am
Thanks for the posts about your dog. Our dog’s feet smell like stale Fritos. I’ll have to check up on the tail-wagging issue and get back to you.
posted by Jessie on 5-3-2007 at 7:55 am
I’ll give it a try, although I’m pretty sure I’ve already interpreted these signs.
Tail wag = happy
e.g. “Good girl, Romy. Here’s a treat!”
Tail down = sad
e.g. “Time to go outside, Romy.”
Tail up = challenge
e.g. “Give me back my sock, Romy!”
posted by Jason! on 5-3-2007 at 8:29 am
Jason - just before Maddie gave me a high five I did notice her short but powerful tail was moving more towards the right…
posted by Michael on 5-3-2007 at 9:07 am
I like that strange orange toy she’s playing with in your Flickr gallery. Bailey has one of those, too.
posted by Jason on 5-3-2007 at 9:21 am
Well, we observed Romy last night and I have to say I didn’t really notice a trend for tail wagging to one side or the other. It tends to be a full sweep from right to left. Although, when she’s not wagging, her tail tip is up and slightly to the right…
posted by Jason! on 5-4-2007 at 10:35 am
When our year-old puppy, Seamus (which is pronounced Shay-mus, but the way. Like in Harry Potter.) jumps on our five-year-old dog Gus (which is pronounced “Gus”), Seamus’ tail wags to the right, and Gus’ to the left. I never noticed that before.
posted by Alison on 5-4-2007 at 6:33 pm