October 2009

It’s almost universally understood by humans that a wagging tail means a dog has friendly intentions. There are a few exceptions, but this is almost always true.

Of course, a dog can wag his tail in many different ways. After all, a dog uses his tail for communication purposes. The better we are at reading a dog’s body language, including what he’s saying with his tail, the better we can understand what dogs are saying to us.

Researchers have discovered that it makes a big difference whether a dog wags his tail to the left or to the right, for instance. They claim that dogs wag their tails to the right when they are happy and relaxed. They say that dogs wag their tails to the left when they are anxious, frightened and feel like running away. According to the researchers, these are examples of the way the different halves of the brain control a dog’s emotions (or any mammal’s emotions).

The researchers tested 30 family dogs to obtain these findings. The dogs included 15 males and 15 females from the age of 1 to 6 years old. They placed each dog in a large wooden box covered with black plastic so he or she couldn’t see outside. The researchers filmed each dog’s reaction to four different stimuli: to the dog’s owner; to an unknown person; to a dominant, unfamiliar dog; and to a cat.

Dogs wagged to the right when their owner came to the box. Dogs wagged to the right when they met the unfamiliar person and the cat. The unknown person received less wagging than the dogs’ owners, but the wagging was still to the right. The cat received even less wagging, but the wagging was still to the right.

However, when the dogs met the dominant, unfamiliar dog (a four-year-old male Belgian Malinois); the wagging tails went consistently to the left.

When the dogs were left alone, by themselves, their tails also wagged to the left, which may suggest that dogs preferred to have company.

In real life, instead of a laboratory experiment, it may be difficult to detect this left-right bias, but you can try it at home and see if your dog is wagging his tail toward the right when you’re together. Or, find a cat and see how your dog wags his tail. See how he wags his tail when he meets an unknown person.

When you meet unknown dogs you should also keep in mind that a dog that wags his tail very stiffly is not being very friendly toward you. A stiff tail wag is the equivalent of going through the motions of being friendly without really meaning it. You should definitely keep your guard up with such a dog.

Keep in mind, too, that different dogs have different tails. It’s easy to read the plume of a Setter. It’s harder to read the tail of a Corgi which are sometimes born tailless or docked very short right after birth. Always try to read the rest of a dog’s body language to confirm their reactions.

How does you dogs tail wag in different situtions?

Until next time…..

If you’re ever spent any time playing with a litter of puppies then you know that it can be like playing with a school of piranhas! You can be attacked on all sides by sharp little teeth and they really hurt! Yes, puppies bite when they play. Why do they do that?

If you’ve ever spent any time watching children play then you know that they exhibit many behaviors that are a) natural to humans (they cry, they hit each other, they run, they get angry, they laugh); and b) they engage in play that prepares them for things later in life. All of these same things are true with puppies, too.

When you watch young puppies playing you’ll see them attacking each other head-on. You’ll see them ambushing each other. You’ll see them engaging in stalking behavior. All of these behaviors are natural to dogs. They are hunting behaviors. Young puppies practice being hunters, which is one reason why they practice biting things — including you when you try to pet them and play with them. You’re just one more thing they’ve caught.

Of course, puppies also bite when they play because, like babies, they put everything in the world into their mouths. They like to taste things. They like to chew things. They like to use their new teeth as soon as they start getting them.

But, mostly, when they engage in play, they are practicing being grown-up dogs. Whether they are alone or with their littermates, they like to use their razor-sharp little teeth to play.

When you bring your puppy home with you, you will have to teach him that this is not appropriate behavior. His mother and siblings will have begun to teach him some of these lessons. When your puppy played too roughly or bit someone too hard, it’s likely that his littermates stopped playing with him. If your puppy bit his mother then she probably bit him back harder. She may have made him cry out. He would learn from these lessons that it was better to play nice and behave. But, he has to learn the same thing with people.

When you bring your puppy home you should teach him that when he bites you when you’re playing together that you will stop playing with him for a minute. If he bites again, stop playing with him for a longer time. Yelp when he bites you to let him know that he hurt you. If he bites again, stop playing altogether.

If you do this consistently then your puppy will get the message that you won’t play with him if he bites.

Remember that puppies don’t know any better but they do learn quickly. You can teach your puppy not to bite you very easily. You should also be sure to teach your puppy this same lesson if you have children in your household. You will need to supervise to make sure that your puppy doesn’t bite them when playing since puppies don’t always respect children. But if you insist that your puppy not bite, he will get the message.

Until next time……..

Dogs can mean a lot of different things when they lick. Believe it or not, licking is a form of communication for dogs, as well as something dogs use for grooming and eating. So it can serve multiple purposes. That makes it complicated and a little hard to figure out at times.

Licking begins in the whelping box, along with most of the behaviors that your dog displays. A mother dog licks her pups to stimulate them when they’re first born. Licking encourages their circulation, it rouses them, it removes the membrane covering them when they’re first born, and it stimulates them to nurse. Later on the mother will lick them to encourage their bowel movements and to wash them. Of course, to someone observing a mother taking care of her pups, all of this probably looks like maternal love! And it may be, but it still serves many purposes.

As they get older, puppies will lick their mothers (and other adult dogs) around the lips to try to stimulate them to regurgitate partially digested food for them. This is quite normal for wolves and wild dogs, but our domesticated dogs can do it, too. This behavior — licking a mother figure around the face — may be retained later in life. Perhaps this is the reason why dogs try to lick people around the face? In some cases this could be true.

As communication, puppies will lick around the faces of their elders to show their submission. A dog may also lick their owner’s face for this same purpose.

Dogs also engage in licking behavior out of nervousness or because of feelings of anxiety. Licking may help to relieve the nervousness. A dog may lick as a way to try to appease someone higher in the “pack” and the pack may include their owner. If your dog is nervous or anxious, or fears that he has made you angry, he may try to lick around your face as a way to make up with you.

Dogs can also lick people as a way of getting attention. Like other behaviors, licking can be learned and become a habit if you reinforce it. For instance, if your dog licks you and you think it’s cute, you may laugh or pet your dog. This will encourage your dog to lick you again in the future because he’s getting positive attention (or any attention) for performing this behavior. If your dog is very socially bold he may become very pushy about this behavior and try to lick your face whenever he feels like it. It can be difficult to break this habit once it gets started.

Some dogs can lick things compulsively. This licking is usually directed at their own grooming but it can also include things such as woodwork or furniture. In some cases it may also include the owner. Dogs may lick toes, feet, hands and faces in a compulsive way. You may need to talk to your veterinarian about medication to help with these compulsions and you will need to work on changing your dog’s behavior.

Dogs may lick someone’s face for a lot of different reasons depending on the individual dog. If you want the behavior to stop, try to figure out what’s motivating your dog. Is he nervous? Is the licking a habit? Is he trying to get attention? Once you know why your dog is licking you, then you can work on what to do about the behavior.

What about your dogs…tell us why they lick your face.

Until next time……….