Tail Talk

It’s pretty obvious that a dog’s tail is a crucial element of his communication.  Even humans can read a lot of what dogs say with their tails, but we tend to miss the subtle things, and misinterpret some of the obvious ones.  A wagging tail does NOT always mean they are happy. 

As previously mentioned somewhere on here, I grew up with cats- different tail language altogether!  A cat’s tail wagging is a baaaaad sign- you are about to get swatted, make no mistake.

One thing I learned pretty quickly, when I first got a dog, is that a tail raised in the air, still or stiffly wagging, is not the same as the stiff upright cat tail (which is friendly, and how kittens greet their mother).  Stiff upright tails signal trouble brewing.  It is a sign of a dominant or wanna-be dominant dog- at best, it is one dog telling another, “I’m the boss,” and if the other dog agrees, it doesn’t go any further.  But sometimes it is a sign of a fearful dog who thinks that he must prevent the other dog attacking him by looking as big and scary as possible. This kind of dog is paranoid that the other dog will attack him, and can misinterpret friendly or neutral advances as aggression, and will aggress back in return. 

That’s the kind of dog Bruno is. At first I thought he was naturally dominant, the way people talk about Akitas (which he resembles) and was just intolerant of other dogs getting in his personal space.  This is how it usually goes when he meets a new dog- his tail is curled over his back, his hackles come up, and his posture is very stiff.  He will cautiously try to sniff the other dog, and it tries to sniff him.  At some point in the transaction, usually while the other dog is trying to sniff his butt, he whips around and goes ballistic- barking, snarling, rapidly biting the other dog over and over.  I can easily break it up, the other dog never appears to have actual wounds, but it’s scary and embarrassing. 

It got me thinking- does Bruno’s curled Spitz tail make communication harder for him?  A lot of the curled-tail breeds have reputations for being unfriendly to other dogs (Akita, Chow, Malamute, etc), so I wondered, maybe they can’t help it- other dogs might see them as trying to dominate simply because of their tail position.   Perhaps in Bruno’s early life, other dogs “put him in his place” for his tail being up, so he learned to pre-empt that and get them first. 

Or does having a curled tail actually make a dog feel more dominant?  What is the connection between mind and body here?  In the same way that forcing yourself to smile can make you feel better if you keep doing it…

I guess it goes without saying that I think tail docking is unethical not just because it causes pain, but because tails are so vitally important in dog communication.