If You Want to Know if Spot Loves You So, It’s in His Tail

[Kacey]

If You Want to Know if Spot Loves You So, It’s in His Tail

From the NYTimes (note: accessing the complete article requires free registration and login)

The Center for Neuroscience/University of Trieste
A Matter of Degree Seeing its owner, the dog wagged harder to its right. Shown an unfamiliar dog, the bias was to the left.


Every dog lover knows how a pooch expresses its feelings.
The Tail's Tale



Enlarge This Image
Marcello Siniscalchi/University of Trieste
Right Brain, Left Brain The muscles on either side of the tail apparently reflect emotions like fear and love registering in the brain.



Ears close to the head, tense posture, and tail straight out from the body means “don’t mess with me.” Ears perked up, wriggly body and vigorously wagging tail means “I am sooo happy to see you!”
But there is another, newly discovered, feature of dog body language that may surprise attentive pet owners and experts in canine behavior. When dogs feel fundamentally positive about something or someone, their tails wag more to the right side of their rumps. When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left.

<snip>

Research has shown that in most animals, including birds, fish and frogs, the left brain specializes in behaviors involving what the scientists call approach and energy enrichment. In humans, that means the left brain is associated with positive feelings, like love, a sense of attachment, a feeling of safety and calm. It is also associated with physiological markers, like a slow heart rate.

<snip>

Dog tails are interesting, Dr. Davidson said, because they are in the midline of the dog’s body, neither left nor right. So do they show emotional asymmetry, or not?

<snip>

Thus when dogs were attracted to something, including a benign, approachable cat, their tails wagged right, and when they were fearful, their tails went left, Dr. Vallortigara said. It suggests that the muscles in the right side of the tail reflect positive emotions while the muscles in the left side express negative ones.

 

[MA-Caver]

So, umm... how'd you be able to tell if the dog's tail is cut short like say a Boxer, a pug or more importantly on a Doberman and Rottweiler?
Besides on some dogs the whole *** shakes when they're wagging their tails.

Also the position of the tail out from the body means as much (didnt' see the article mentioning it) Sticking straight out, it doesn't fear or doesn't need to fear you... tucked under and it's trying to (instinctively) protect it's balls/genitals and thus is nervous.

The ears speak volumes as well.
Straight up and perky (on some cropped dogs, or on uncropped they're up as much as their muscles will allow) they're ready to hear whatever command you're gonna give 'em and eagerly follow. Fetch the stick? You betcha!
Laid back partially, they're expecting a fight. The ears are down enough to protect them but up enough to catch any other stray noise that maybe behind them.
Laid back fully they're expecting to get hit/beaten, and will most of the time not resist or retaliate.

Of course if our (human) noses were as sensitive as a dog's then we'd get a plethora of information right there.... just as they do (about us). But of course this means we'd have to stick our noses in THEIR butts to ascertain their current mood. As dogs release scents based on their moods. Everything from nervousness to fear to arousal... they try to pick it up on us which is why we sometimes (embarrassingly) find their noses trying to get into our crotch or buttocks whenever the opportunity arises.
The saying: "they can smell fear" is oh so true. Pheromones and adrenal glands will speak louder than words that we are or not afraid of the animal. This helps the dog ascertain it's standing with you. Learning how to read your animal will help you ascertain your standing with them. Remember they're pack animals and they abide by a hierarchy ... you are the alpha male/female and thus expected (by the dog) to act as such. But they are (or can be) trained to fight in your (and your pups) defense for the better of the pack (your family).