Some mysteries stay about why canine wag their tails

In terms of tail wagging amongst canine, some questions nonetheless hound researchers.

We all know that domesticated canine (Canis familiaris) use their tails to speak — with different canine in addition to people — and even what numerous sorts of wags imply, researchers observe in a brand new overview of the scientific literature. However we don’t know why canine appear to wag extra than different canines and even how a lot of it’s below their management, ethologist Silvia Leonetti and colleagues report January 17 in Biology Letters.

“Amongst all attainable animal habits that people expertise in on a regular basis life, home canine tail wagging is likely one of the most typical,” says Leonetti, who’s now on the College of Turin in Italy. “However loads of canine habits stays a scientific enigma.”

So Leonetti and her colleagues pored by means of earlier research to determine what components of tail wagging are understood and which stay mysterious. In addition they hypothesized in regards to the habits’s origins: Maybe tail wagging placates some human want for rhythm, the researchers counsel, or perhaps the habits is a genetic tagalong, a trait tied to others that people bred into domesticated canine.

“Individuals assume wagging tail equals completely satisfied canine. However it’s truly much more sophisticated than that,” says Emily Bray, an knowledgeable in canine cognition on the College of Arizona in Tucson who was not concerned with the work. Understanding why canine wag their tails is essential partly from an animal welfare perspective, she says, because it may assist canine house owners learn their pups’ cues higher.

One principal factor that researchers learn about tail wagging is that it’s used predominantly for communication as an alternative of locomotion, like a whale, or swatting away bugs, like a horse. Wagging additionally means various things relying on how the tail is wagged, reminiscent of its peak or side-to-side motion.

For instance, when the tail wags extra to the precise, the researchers say, it usually means the canine is fascinated with a stimulus or desires to method one thing. However when it wags extra to the left, it indicators uncertainty or desirous to withdraw. When wagged low and close to the legs, it’s an indication of submission or insecurity. Canine can interpret and react in another way to those various wags (SN: 11/1/13).

However for such a ubiquitous habits, questions abound. One hole is how a lot tail wagging is below canine’ acutely aware management, the staff studies. A number of research have additionally noticed that canine wag their tails greater than different canines, notably in contrast with their closest relative, the wolf (C. lupus) — however scientists don’t but know why.

One thought is the domesticated rhythmic wagging speculation, Leonetti and colleagues counsel. Scientists know that people’ brains reply positively to rhythm, and since tail wagging is a rhythmic habits, the authors counsel it might be that people consciously or unconsciously most well-liked canine that wag extra.

Or the domestication syndrome speculation might be at work. It’s an present principle that unintended, genetically linked traits can pop up when particular traits are bred for by means of domestication. Maybe, the researchers suggest, the canine traits that people discovered fascinating to breed for — reminiscent of temperament — could be genetically linked to tail wagging. 

Evolutionary biologist Tom Reimchen isn’t so positive about both speculation. He’s skeptical that home canine do wag their tails greater than different canines. Extra analysis is required to match tail wagging between nondomestic canine species and the epigenetic influences behind  canids’ tail wagging, says Reimchen, of the College of Victoria in British Columbia.

Leonetti, who did the work whereas on the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, Netherlands, says a multidisciplinary method could be useful in future tail wagging analysis, for instance combining neurology, cognition and physiology. As a result of the domestication course of was additionally an evolutionary course of — one people had been concerned in — learning canine habits and their wags may reveal one thing about us too, she says (SN: 9/7/22).