I want to pass this article along especially for those with children. We have a State and Federal Certified Service Dog and his vest does say to ask before petting. In our case, it just means that our dog is very friendly and we need to keep him focused when working and approaching and petting him can cause him to not focus on his job. However, dogs in general should always be approached with caution, especially with children. I have seen too many small children run up to pet a dog and the dog nips at them. Usually the response is but he/she was wagging his/her tail. Here is some information about wagging tails. What a Dog’s Tail Wags Really Mean: Some New Scientific Data Specific tail wags provide information about dogs’ emotional state. Perhaps the most common misinterpretation of dogs is the myth that a dog wagging its tail is happy and friendly. While some wags are indeed associated with happiness, others can mean fear, insecurity, a social challenge or even a warning that if you approach, you are apt to be bitten. In some ways, tail wagging serves the same communication functions as a human smile, a polite greeting or a nod of recognition. Smiles are social signals and are thus reserved mostly for situations where somebody is around to see them. For dogs, the wag seems to have the same properties. Since tail wagging is meant as signal a dog will only wag its tail when other living beings are around-e.g. a person, another dog, a cat, a horse or perhaps a ball of lint that is moved by a breeze and might seem alive. When the dog is by itself, it will not give its typical tail wags, in the same way people do not talk to walls. Like any other language, tail wags have a vocabulary and grammar that needs to be understood. Up to now scientists focused on two major sources of information, namely the tails pattern of movement and its position. However new data adds a third important dimension to understanding the language of the canine tail. Movement is a very important aspect of the signal. Dogs eyes are much more sensitive to movement than they are to details or colors, so a moving tail is very visible to other dogs. Evolution has made tails even more visible, such as tails with a light or dark tip, a lighter underside or a bushy shape. The tails position-specifically, the height at which it is held-can be considered a sort of emotional meter. A middle height suggests the dog is relaxed. If the tail is held horizontally, the dog is attentive and alert. As the tail position moves further up, it is a sign the dog is becoming more threatening, with a vertical tail being a clearly dominant signal meaning, Im boss around here, or even a warning, Back off or suffer the consequences.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 04:51:45 +0000
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