Why does a dog wag its tail? Still a mystery to scientists

Turin, Italy: Many people believe that if a dog is wagging its tail, it is a sign of happiness. However, this is not always true. Scientists have not yet found the final answer to the question of why a dog wags its tail.

Although scientists have learned a lot about what the different ways of wagging the tail can mean, it is still a mystery why dogs wag their tails more than other animals. We don’t even know how much of the tail wagging is under the dogs control and how much is not.

Silvia Leonti, an ethologist at a university in Italy, said that a dog’s tail wagging is the most common animal behavior people observe, but many dog ​​behaviors still occur. It is a puzzle.

Silvia and her team reviewed past studies and addressed various questions related to tail wagging. He also speculated about the origin of this particular behavior, saying that tail wagging may have fulfilled some human need for rhythm. Or it may be that this behavior is a reflection of the transference of friendly relationships and other traits from humans to dogs.

Silvia and her team’s findings and questions are published in the journal Biology Letters. Similarly, Emily Bray, a dog specialist at the University of Arizona, says that people think tail wagging is a sign of an excited dog, but it’s actually more complicated than that. Silvia and her team’s findings suggest that dogs can wag their tails to communicate.

The results also show that wagging the tail in different ways also changes the target. For example, a dog will wag its tail more to the right when it is showing interest or wants to approach something, while a wag to the left can indicate uncertainty or It means that the dog wants to back away from something.

Similarly, wagging the tail close to the legs and down can be a sign of submission or fear.