Wagging Tails

A recent New York Times article summarizes research on differences in tail wagging by dogs. The article was published in the journal Current Biology recently. This link gives the doi locator for the article. Here is the citation:

Quaranta, A., Siniscalchi, G., & Vallortigara, G. (2007). Assymmetric tail-wagging responses to different emotive stimuli. Current Biology, 17, R199-R201.

Because we each first came to psychology as animal researchers, we naturally perk up when we find articles that stimulate our original interests. This particular article describes observational research conducted on pet dogs which indicates that their tail wagging direction differs depending of whether the stimulus causing the wagging is familiar or unfamiliar.

The 30 dogs observed were more likely to wag their tails to the right when presented with a familiar stimulus (their owner), but when presented with a large, dominant dog (a Belgian Malinois ) they were more likely to wag their tails to the left. The two other stimuli used, an unfamiliar human and a cat also led to right-side tail wagging, but with a lower amplitude.

Also of interest here is their method, naturalistic observation. From initial, unstructured observations, the authors conducted a more formal and controlled experiment. Their research serves as a good example of how scientists move from observation to experimentation.