As semi-professional scientists, Eko and I like to stay up on the latest in canine research. I usually have heard of, or at least thought about, most of the the research I see in the paper. That’s why I was surprised when I read an article that said dogs indicate their mood by which direction their tail wags.
A 2007 study showed that dogs will wag their tail to their right side for positive emotions and to their left for negative emotions. Of course I immediately had to go back through my photos to take a look at Eko’s tail.
I don’t have a lot of puppy Eko photos, but the three I do have where he is wagging his tail? In all of them he is wagging it to his right
I also noticed that before a play pounce, Eko’s tail is generally to the right as well
And when I mentioned the word “treats” at the beach? A lick of the lips and a tail wag to the right!
Hm, maybe these scientists are on to something
A newer study also suggests that dogs can pick up on what direction other dogs are wagging their tails and therefore know what mood those dogs are in.
I also looked at a couple videos where Eko is happy and in both of them his tail wags from the center to his right. I have never heard of this phenomenon before so I will have to dig deeper and go through some more video. I am also going to pay more attention to Eko’s tail next time he is nervous or skittish. Stay tuned for more science!
