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Reading Dog’s Tails

You thought you understood dogs, when they’re happy they wag their tails, when they’re angry they growl. When their ears perk up, and they wiggle their body and wag their tail, it means, “I’m friendly and happy to see you.” But with ears back and a tense body, it says, “watch your step!”

But have you ever seen a dog that you’re trying to befriend, wag its tail as it barks with a guarded glance at you? Enter the deeper body language of the dog world. In the March 20, 2007 journal Current Biology, the authors (a neuroscientist and two veterinarians) take you into the nether regions of a canine’s brain to reveal the strange psycho-physiological phenomenon of Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli.

It goes something like this: When a dog feels positive feelings about you, their tails wag more to the right side of their behind. And when they have negative feelings, their tails wag more to the left side. This new insight, that probably will amaze even the most experienced canine expert, comes as a result of extensive study into the asymmetry in the dog’s brain.

You see, in the body language of the majority of animals (including birds, fish and frogs), the activities of engaging with others and energy augmentation is controlled through the left hemisphere of the brain.

Correlating this to human beings, the left-brain is connected to positive feelings (love, belonging, safety and tranquility). Physiologically, it is also related to a slower heart rate. Whereas the right- brain deals with activities of withdrawal, defensiveness and energy outflow. In human beings, this manifests as fear and the fight or flight response, with rapid heart rate, breathing rate, shut down of digestion, etc.

So because our left-brain controls the right side of our body and vice-versa, animals search for food with their right eye (left brain/engagement and assimilating energy) and guard for predators with their left eye (right brain/fight or flight mode). Similarly in people, the right facial muscles display happiness, while the left facial muscles exhibit guardedness/skepticism.

To prove their theory, the researchers gathered some 30 dogs of assorted breeds, placing them in cages with cameras to monitor them. Then they were exposed to different types of stimuli, friendly and hostile. And, of course, their theories held up through the dog’s responses.

So the next time you met a new dog, use this body language system to immediately learn what he really thinks of you. And if he wags to the left side, you’d better turn on the charm.

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