The tell tail clue to a happy dog: They wag it 'to the left'

Using a robot, an international team, led by Victoria University, has found that the way canines use their tails is more subtle than people thought, and friendly dogs wag them to the left, the 'Laterality' journal reported.

In their study, involving 500 dogs, the researchers looked in particular at whether the animals were hesitant or not as they walked up to the robot, as stopping or pausing can be a sign of lack of confidence, doubt or fear.
In the first batch of the study, 56 per cent of the animals approached the model without hesitation when the tail was wagged to the left, but only 21 per cent had such a direct approach when it went to the right.

When the researchers excluded incidents where owners were present and may have influenced the behaviour of their pets, the results were similar -- 41 per cent of the dogs approached continuously when the tail was wagging to the left, while only 28 per cent did so when it was on the right.

According to the team members, they did not know whether the dogs' behaviour was the result of experience or an inherited predisposition. But they say the results suggested that the controversial practice of tail docking in some breeds could disrupt communication between animals.

Animal psychologist Roger Mugford said it proved that dogs were even more sophisticated communicators than animals more closely related to man such as monkeys.
"It is ground-breaking stuff. We know that dogs, in a sense, have language, but it is more complicated because it is not just them wagging their tails, but also giving out chemical displays," the 'Daily Mail' quoted him as saying.

He added: "If you are going to present a signal to a dog, it is sensible to put it on your left-hand side because that is where dogs, unusually among other species of animals, tend to look.

"It is another example of the similarity between dogs and humans. They are a lot more human than we give them credit for."