Wag the Dog - BBC

dogs, wagging his tail, as able to express their emotions, and interpret these signals correctly from their relatives, and in accordance with the received information to adequately respond to them. Previously, it was unknown whether animals perceive this “body language».

Dog’s tail – a tool that helps the animals to communicate with each other. We tend to think that if the dog wags its tail, it means that she is friendly, inviting to dialogue or to the game. However, the canine body language is not so straightforward.

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orangutans and gorillas are able to identify the image of animal it belongs to a class: they distinguish mammals, birds, reptiles … ?

functional cerebral asymmetry of the brain leads to the fact that the behavior of animals in daily life is also asymmetric. For example, for catching insects toads prefer tongue disposed in the right direction, and disappear from the predator is more likely that, if it appears to the left.

MD Anatoly Chuprikov writes like an asymmetric behavior of the animals due to the fact that the right and left hemispheres of the brain responsible for the formation of different emotions. Recently, researchers are becoming more and more evidence that

right hemisphere is responsible for the formation of asthenia (negative) emotions such as sadness, grief or fear. And for sthenic emotions (joy, enthusiasm), the left hemisphere is responsible.

Since

left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and vice versa, the motion of the body opposite brain activity.

As for dogs, wagging their tail also has a certain emotional burden. The researchers found that

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motion dog tail shifted to the right when it experiences a positive emotion such as a host. Conversely, the tail moves to the left when the animal encounters a frightening or annoying object, such as an unfamiliar dog aggressive.

After receiving evidence that a dog with a tail can show your feelings, the researchers asked the question: Do animals and are able to perceive the emotions displayed by so relatives? A group of Italian researchers led by Marcello Siniscalchi ( Bariysky University. Aldo Moro ) began studying the problem. With the results of their work can be found in the journal Current Viology .

researchers conducted experiments with 43 dogs of different breeds. The animals showed a video that was shown to the dog (either a fixed or a wagging tail with a shift to the right or to the left). Dog study participants watched the picture for a few minutes, meanwhile instruments recorded the frequency of their heart, and the researchers observed the behavior.

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Scientists have found that animals significantly quickening heartbeat when a dog wagging its tail in the video to the left. Fixed Nature’s Fliers and tail to the right dog did not cause such a reaction. Dog Behavior also confirms that the palpitations are not a coincidence: the movement of the tail to the left causing the most aggressive behavior of the participants of the experiment, while the animals remained absolutely calm, seeing a dog wagging its tail to the right. It is noteworthy that the static image in dogs caused anxiety and alertness.

Marcello Siniscalchi commented on the results as follows:

dogs are able to correctly interpret the body language of their relatives, aggressively responding to animals showing negative emotions and calm perceiving positive-minded dogs.

Alertness animals in relation to a static image of scientists explain the inability to somehow recognize the intent and mood of a fixed dog. We can say that here the dogs look up to people: experiments show that, after seeing a photo of a man whose face does not express any emotion, we tend to describe it as “threatening” or “cold” and not a “calm».