Dog myth, busted
“The tail was wagging, so he was friendly!”
A wag means arousal. The mood is in the height and speed.
Mid-height sweeping wag with loose hips: genuinely friendly. High, stiff, fast tip-vibration: on alert, not an invitation. Low and slow: unsure. Tucked: scared.
Dogs wag before play, before fear, and occasionally before a bite. Read the whole dog, the full vocabulary is here.
One minute of science
A wag means arousal, not necessarily joy. Loose, wide, whole-body wags are friendly; a high, stiff, fast wag is agitation, and a wag held to the left of centre is associated with negative emotion in research on dogs. Read the whole dog: ears, mouth, weight distribution. The full body language guide.
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