07
Dec
Do Dogs Wag Their Tails Consciously. They can even be trained to position it in certain ways in response to a cue. And make no mistake there is a science to tail wagging. The researchers dont think that the dogs are consciously. The behaviour can be categorized by vigorous movement or slight movement of the tip of the tail.
Some people believe it is both the same way we can organically smile and force smiles depending on the situation. Dogs can lift and lower their tails and swish them from side to side with deliberate movements and they can also suspend movement in the middle of a wag too which indicates that dogs can indeed consciously control how their tail moves and stop it. Humans associate a wagging tail with a happiness. Siracusa says its difficult to parse meaning from just a tail wag and even other dogs who have a better ability to read those signals than humans do sometimes make mistakes. The tail functions as an emotional barometer letting dogs communicate with their littermates pack and other peers. Can they move their tail voluntarily.
The tail functions as an emotional barometer letting dogs communicate with their littermates pack and other peers.
They can even be trained to position it in certain ways in response to a cue. Owing to thousands of years of selective breeding humans and dogs have co-evolved a special link. They can even be trained to position it in certain ways in response to a cue. But much as someone telling a funny joke or saying something that pleases us instinctively raises a smile or a giggle that we would have to actively try to stop if we wished to so too is tail wagging. Using 43 pet dogs of differing breeds the study showed videos of dogs wagging their tails in both right and left directions to see how they reacted using a vest to monitor their heart rate. A person can get bitten by a dog thats wagging his tail because he read the signs incorrectly.