Does Your Dog Wag His Tail to the Right or Left?
The direction of your dogs tail wag can tell you a lot about his emotional state. A tail wagging more to the right indicates relaxation, and a wag to the left is shown in times of fear and uncertainty. And contrary to popular belief a wagging tails does not always indicate a happy dog.
Does Your Dog Wag His Tail to the Right or Left?
One of the most common misconceptions about our dogs is that a wagging tail always represents a happy dog. Many tail wags are associated with happiness, but tail wagging can also indicate fear and insecurity. A dogs tail tells you lot about their mood, both by it’s position and the direction it’s wagging.
Tail Wags to the Right Indicate Relaxation, Left Insecurity
Which way does your dog tend to wag his tail – to the right or left? Research has shown that when a dog is wagging his tail to the right he’s more relaxed. Whereas a wag to the left is exhibited when facing something unfamiliar in which the dogs heart begins to race and they show signs of fear and uncertainty.
Research has shown that our dogs show clear hemispheric preferences (right vs left brain) in more than just tail wags. These preferences have also been shown in the way they respond to scents, sounds, and emotions.
How to Tell Which Way Your Dog’s Tail is Wagging
When you’re out walking your dog in a new area pay attention to his tail; dogs tend to wag their tails to the left when in unfamiliar situations. If you’re walking your dog does their tail go slightly more to the left or right? If their tail is aligned more to the left (their left) it’s a sign of uncertainty. A tail that wags more to the right (their right) indicates relaxation.
It is important to understand that we are talking about the dog’s left or right viewed from the rear as if you are facing in the direction the dog is viewing. That means that if you are facing the dog and drew an imaginary line down the middle of his back that positive right-sided signal would appear as tail swings mostly curving to your left. – Stanley Coren PhD Psychology Today
I’m no scientist but I think this tail grabber is skewing the results
Dogs Respond Emotionally to Seeing Other Left or Right Tail Wags
Humans may have taken a long time to catch onto this bias in the tail wag but our dogs have likely been doing it for ages. Research has shown that dogs can decipher the movement of a tail wag in another canine immediately.
Dogs respond emotionally to the direction of tail wags. A study released in 2013 found that when dogs see another dog wagging it’s tail to the right they’re more relaxed, when the wag is to the left they become more stressed.
The team tested 43 dogs while they saw other dogs wagging their tail in an image created to remove all other outside stimuli. The dogs were fitted with vests that monitored their heart rates. When the dogs saw a silhouette or image of a dog wagging it’s tail to the right they remained relaxed. When shown a dog wagging it’s tail to the left their hearts began to race.
In other words, a dog looking to a dog wagging with a bias to the right side — and thus showing left-hemisphere activation as if it was experiencing some sort of positive/approach response — would also produce relaxed responses. In contrast, a dog looking to a dog wagging with a bias to the left — and thus showing right-hemisphere activation as if it was experiencing some sort of negative/withdrawal response — would also produce anxious and targeting responses as well as increased cardiac frequency. – Giorgio Vallortigara Researcher at the Study of Mind/Brain Sciences at the University of Trento in Italy
How Many Cues Have Yet to be Discovered?
The research team that conducted the 2013 study is the same one that originally discovered that when dogs are approaching something familiar, such as their owner, they wag their tails to the right. And when faced with something they’d rather not approach, such as another dog acting aggressively, their tails wagged to the left.
Since dogs have been shown to use a lot of right vs left hemispheric preferences it leaves me wondering how many other cues we have yet to pick up on. Looking at it now the direction of a tail wag doesn’t seem subtle at all; imagine how many other signals they’re giving off that we have yet to understand.
Does this mean that dogs with docked tails have one less obvious means of communication? Does it put them at a disadvantage when interacting with other dogs?
What’s clear is that dogs are using many visual cues when responding to other canines. What’s unclear is how many other signals and messages our dogs might be giving that we haven’t began to recognize.
What I do know is that I’m going to be trying to pay more attention to my own dogs tail. When she’s faced with meeting a new dog I’ll be sure to watch how their tails are wagging. If they’re both going to the left I’ll know it might not be a friendly meeting after all and I might just walk the other way.
Does Your Dog Wag Their Tail to the Right or Left?
So does your dog wag to the right or left? Do you notice a difference when he’s excited or nervous?
I’m a kitty who wags her tail usually when I’m feeling mischievous. They also did a study on the positions of cat tails. We usually flick our tail when ready to pounce or attack so tell the dogs to watch out.
Kitties can be pretty scary in that way; I have no idea how to read their tails.
Upward tail means she’s interested,
lowered means not.
Twitching tip excited or fascinated
lashing full tail means she’s pissed off.
Full fluffed out tail shes terrified
Slow curling tail is pretty much meh, I would look to the other physical cues to get a full picture
Dog communication is so very interesting. I believe the right vs left tail wagginess. If we’re all outside and my dog thinks I’m going to go inside without him his tail wags left. Until I wave him inside then it switches to the right!
I’ve just started watching and it’s amazing; something I never knew about before but yet something all our dogs do clearly.
Oh wow – this is so interesting! I am going to have to pay more attention to Ruby’s tail.
This is really interesting! I’m going to have to research and see if there is a corresponding study for cats. My cats have all sorts of different tail wags.
Such an interesting topic and article! Haley mostly wags her tail to the right and when she’s really happy, it goes in circles like a windmill. I had read somewhere a while back that the direction they wag might depend on what side is dominant. Like whether someone is left-handed or right-handed. They mentioned some tests to determine which is your dog’s dominant side like:
1. Put a treat under the couch so your dog has to use her paw to retrieve it and see which one she uses.
2. Watch which direction your dog usually turns to come back to you when playing fetch.
Haley uses her left paw most of the time and usually turns to the left when playing fetch or running after her basketball. But her happy tail wag is usually on the right side. I’m not sure if the idea of dogs having a “dominant side” is true or not, but it’s interesting.
I can’t wait to try those & start paying more attention to Laika’s tail; I wonder what took me so long to catch on lol.
I really had no idea that there could be meaning to the direction of a tail wag. Both our boys can be a bit anxious from time to time so I am really curious about this. I will be keeping a close eye over the next couple of days to see if I notice any correlations to the situations and tail wagging.
I have found that if our dogs are holding their tails up and straight, that is not good.
No that’s usually not a good sign for Laika either; I know something is about to happen or move when I see that.
I saw an interesting demonstrate of this shortly after I first read about it.
When strangers walk by the house while we’re on the porch, Honey will wag in response. One day, some people from the house across the way came over to their car parked in front of our house.
They were arguing. And Honey definitely wagged to the left.
I didn’t have any idea about this! I’m going to pay attention to Luna’s tail wag from now on. Though I do wonder, what if she is wiggling her entire butt?
That means she is extremely happy
Dear dog, now I’m going home to watch the way the dog’s tails wag. LOL
they don’t tell us why dose dogs wag their tail if someone knows pleasseeee comment on it…….. thanks
I have a GSD/malamute mix with a curly tail. His tail curls over his left hip, so it appears to wag left ALL the time. I’ve been watching for a few days now, it doesn’t appear (to me) to ever wag right. But he’s friendly and sweet to everyone, dunno if the right wag is just so subtle I can’t tell???
So is It the dogs right. ,Or my right?
Jus sayin’..
Yes it would be in relation to the dog’s side, so if their tail wags to their right it’s a right wag.
Dogs have such unique ways to express themselves. it is amazing how they are responding with their body movement depending on their mood.
Will keep this in mind the next time my dog starts waggin’ 😀
A lot of emotions can be read from observing a person’s behavior so I guess the same is true with dogs, but besides obvious things like if the dog is excited or frowned, we should look into deeper things like this so that we can understand our friends even better 🙂
This is AWESOME! I never knew that. I’m definitely going to pay more attention to my pup next time his tail is wagging. Lol.
Awesome read, thank you for sharing!
Khloe
I can never tell what direction my dog’s tail is wagging. How can you tell which way is left or right, it is wagging both side equally. She does not veer her butt to the left or the right that I can tell. Even if she does, which way is left? Her or mine? Can you be a bit
It’s really hard to tell when their tail is wagging, but if her tail slows down at all you should be able to notice that it’s going slightly more in one direction or the other. And it’s going to be her right = right wag, so if you’re walking and facing the same direction as her more to the right would be a right tail wag.
My dog was in a bad fight that took me 5 minutes to break up! My dog was wagging his tail the whole time! That’s why I wanted to know reasons dogs wag their tail! Thank You for providing this detailed information.
My dog’s tail goes in a circle like hes tails from sonic. What’s that mean????♀️