Why wag dogs so much? – NRC

It is the ultimate happy dog ​​image: the ecstatic crushing when you get home, or if you fill the food bowl. But sometimes your dog also wags in other situations. If he wants something, for example. Or if he feels insecure or threatened. What about that?

A ‘Why’ question is always tricky: do you purpose for the cause (‘by which’) or on the goal (‘where’)? In animal behavior there are even possible perspectives, wrote biologist and Later Nobel Prize winner Niko Tinbergen In 1963. How does the behavior work, mechanistically? How does it develop during a life? What does it serve for? And how did it evolve?

There are many animals that wag, for example drinking lambs, eating deer, irritated horses and satisfied pigs. Water play champion are the dogs. Vos, Wolf and Coyote: they all do it. But the main prize goes to the dog.

Italian biologists deployed in 2024 Biology Letters Existing wagon research at a glance, according to the Tinbergen system. First, the mechanism. It is mainly the small brain that controls wagging. They regulate motor skills, but also anxiety and pleasure reactions. But something also happens in the big brain. Dogs wag asymmetrical. Often there is a slight deviation to the right, controlled from the left hemisphere. That happens in response to something positive. They wag a little to the left in an uncertain or negative situation, controlled by the right hemisphere. It is not known exactly how that works, but it is clear that dogs that can distinguish different wags in great detail, together and in roboths. For example, they show more stress when seeing left than with rights.

Dog puppies start wagging when they are four to five weeks old, first of all in response to something nice. Only later does it become more nuanced. Wolven puppies, on the other hand, almost never wagging. And grown up adult dogs gradually more right than left as they get to know a person better.

The conclusions are not clear about the function of wagging. In any case, the behavior serves as a social signal, to dogs or to people. A low quartel stands for reassurance, or good intentions. If the entire abdomen moves, the low quartel indicates a low status or full submission. And a high wagon indicates excitement, but it can be both positive and negative. For us it often keeps guessing.

Finally, the evolution of wagging. From around 35,000 years ago, people started domesticating wolves. That has led to the dog characteristics that we appreciate, such as their kindness, work of work and ‘cleverness’. In contrast to wolves, for example, dogs can follow a pointing human finger. It also led to external characteristics, such as hanging ears, stains and a Boller forehead.

Probably the many wagging, just like the hanging ears, originated as a side effect of domestication, according to the Italians. People have not consciously selected it, but those characteristics are genetically linked to desired behavioral characteristics (the ‘domestication effect’). The tame silver foxes from the famous Russian domestication experiment also wagged a lot, although they were only selected for kindness.

But, the article concludes Biology Lettersmaybe something plays through that. Wagging appeals to our human preference for rhythm and cyclical movements. We find that reassuring. Perhaps we have always rated dogs unknowingly as a friendlier as they wagged more, and weighed that in breeding selection.

So perhaps the answer to our initial question is also: because people like it.

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