Everyone knows that when dogs wag their tails, they express joy - but is this popular belief actually true, or is there something to this cute action that we haven't really thought about?
Three researchers recently published an article in the journal Biology Letters in which they examined about 100 major scientific studies that investigated and dealt with the understanding of dog tail wagging.
The three, the bioacousticians Silvia Leonti from the University of Turin, Taylor Hersh from the University of Oregon and the cognitive-evolutionary scientist Andrea Ravignani from the University of La Spezia in Rome, were interviewed by the Science website in order to explain the different meanings behind this action.
Raviniani explained that through the communication between dogs and people, it is possible to learn not only about the beloved pets - but also about humanity as a whole.
"Through the research, the processes that generated the responses of modern dogs can be investigated retrospectively," she said.
"In other words, this way you can also understand what the ancient humans wanted to achieve and even identify their fingerprint and its meaning in the process."
Is he really happy to see you?
(illustration), photo: Getty Images
Leonti explained that wagging the tail among the different animals is also to expel flies or to balance their movement, but previous studies found that the dog is the species that wags its tail the most, which they do at a very early age.
Hersh expanded on her words by noting that the tail movements in dogs express communication such as submission to the leader or to a stronger dog, but in domestic dogs "a much greater specialization was created in tail wagging".
According to Leonty, tail wagging probably has two main reasons.
"It is possible that this is an accompanying phenomenon to other traits that humans were looking for in their dogs. We chose to develop the breeds that were more suitable for training and that were more obedient, and we hypothesize that these genetic traits are also related to tail reactions," she said.
"A second possibility is that humanity was attracted specifically to breeds that wag their tails because we have an attraction to rhythmic stimuli (such as music or the rhythm of the horse's hooves), and then it is possible that consciously or unconsciously, we actually promoted these breeds because of the prominent rhythm of tail wagging."
right or left?
The researchers uncovered a very special phenomenon related to the kashkush.
"When a dog meets someone or something that it wants to investigate and approach, then the angle of the wagging will lean to the right, but in the event that it wants to move away from the cause, it will wagging to the left," Hersh explained.
"The human intuitive interpretation interprets the wagging of the tail as expressing love towards the person the dog is interacting with or a warning and a message that the dog may attack that person," Raviniani explained, "the point is that although this is stated in the classical literature in relation to this subject, it has not been quantified and scientifically proven."
He certainly seems happy to see us (illustration), photo: Getty Images
Another point that the researchers tested was how much the tail wagging phenomenon can tell us about the dog's emotions.
To this end, the researchers tested the level of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood of dogs who wag their tails at a fast pace when they experienced care and caresses from humans.
On this, Hersh explained that even though he believed that the dog can give information about the dog's feelings, in practice the research showed that there is actually no unequivocal evidence for this claim.
"A study conducted on stray dogs found a gap between abandoned dogs that were adopted and between dogs that previously had owners," he noted.
"Adopted dogs who experienced petting in their shelter showed a significant decrease in cortisol compared to domestic dogs, which did not show such a decrease, even if in both cases the dogs wag their tail vigorously."
Finally, the researchers stated that they would like to understand much better the mechanism in the brain behind the dogs' tail wagging, i.e. which parts of their brain are responsible for the phenomenon, if it is a partially controlled mechanism like our breathing mechanism or if it is an instinctive activity that is completely related to other mechanisms of the dog's feelings.
"This is a whole world of research possibilities that can be pursued," the three researchers concluded.
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