Your dog’s tail wagging direction can indicate its emotional state. If a tail is wagging more to the right, this means relaxation. A wag to the left shows uncertainty and fear.
A frequent misconception about dogs is that a wagging tail always implies a happy dog. While it is true that many tail wags are displayed in happiness, tail wagging can also be a sign of unease or insecurity. Your dog’s tail can tell you a lot about his mood, both by its position and the direction of its wagging.
Tail Wags to the Right Indicate Relaxation, Left Insecurity
Studies have shown that a dog is more relaxed when his tail is wagging to the right. A wag to the left indicates your dog is facing something with which he is not familiar, and his heart begins to speed up, and he shows other signs of anxiety.
Research has proven that dogs exhibit clear hemispheric preferences (right vs left brain) in more than mere wags of a tail. These preferences have also been exhibited in the way the dogs react to emotions, sounds, and smells.
How to Tell Which Way Your Dog’s Tail is Wagging
When you take your dog for a walk in an unfamiliar location, closely observe his tail; does his tail go slightly more to the left or to the right? If his tail is more on the left side (his left), this is a sign of uncertainty. A wag to the right (his right) shows that he is relaxed.
It is important to realize that this is in reference to the dog’s left or right as if you are facing the same direction as the dog.
Dogs Respond Emotionally to Seeing Other Left or Right Tail Wags
While it may have taken us humans quite a long time to realize this quirk of the tail wag, dogs have most likely been doing and observing it for ages. Research has found that dogs can immediately decipher the motion of a tail wag in a different dog.
Dogs will respond emotionally in regard to the direction of a tail wag. A study conducted in 2013 discovered that when a dog sees another dog wagging its tail to the left, the observing dog becomes more stressed, and when he sees a tail wagging to the right, he becomes more relaxed.
