The mood of a dog can be determined by the direction of its tail movements. A dog's tail shows mood When a dog is in a good mood
Observations of dog behavior can be used as a first warning sign that the health of their elderly owners is deteriorating.
Experts at Newcastle University in England are using motion sensors to determine the normal behavior of dogs when the animals are in or out of the house.
Shedding light on hitherto unknown aspects of the lives of man's best friends, the sensors show not only when a dog moves, but also when it barks, sits, digs and makes other dog-like movements.
By studying the normal behavior of a healthy and happy dog, Dr. Kas Lada, Dr. Nils Hammerla and student Emma Hughes were able to determine the norms against which the behavior of dogs was further evaluated. This made it possible to track the slightest changes in their behavior, which could indicate illness or fatigue.
Presenting their findings at the UbiComp conference in Zurich in 2013, a project led by Lada, the scientists said the next step would be to use dog behavior as an early signaling system that lets older people know ahead of time changes in their health.
"A lot of our research is focused on developing 'smart systems' that can help older people live longer independent lives," explains Lada, who works at the Newcastle University lab.
“But the development of a system that will alert the family and those who care for an elderly person is impossible without introducing it into the private life of a person. Right now we are only taking the first steps, but the idea behind our research is to help people without invading their privacy or using cameras.”
Behavior expert Niels Hammerla adds: “People and dogs have lived together for thousands of years, which has allowed them to achieve a strong emotional and social bond. The physical and emotional dependence of a dog on its owner means that it is able to recognize any change in the owner's behavior, especially when it is no longer regularly walked, fed regularly, or simply shows displeased behavior - all of which can be a signal to the family of an elderly person that that he needs help."
How the technology works
In England, approximately 30% of families have at least one dog, for a total of approximately 10.5 million animals in the country.
Today, the development of an animal welfare indicator is very relevant, because these days animals are more likely to stay at home alone for a long time. So a team of scientists created a high-tech, waterproof collar for dogs, equipped with an accelerometer, a device for tracking movement, with data on different breeds of dogs.
“In order to determine the limit of the norm, we needed to determine what movements are habitual for dogs, for this, at the beginning of the research, in addition to collars, we also used cameras,” explains Lada.
Analyzing two sets of data, the team identified 17 dog behaviors such as barking, chewing, drinking, lying down, shaking, sneezing, and so on. the team of scientists also looked at these movements in dogs of different breeds.
"It works with all dogs," explains Lada, "we found that the meaning of a dog's behavior doesn't change whether it's a bulldog or a chihuahua."
Hammerla adds: “This is the first system of its kind that allows us to monitor a dog's behavior without our direct presence. But it also gives us a great opportunity to use our four-legged friends as "health barometers". It is already well known that animals are good for human health, and this new technology means that dogs can also help their elderly owners live independent lives in a different way than they usually do.”
It happens that the tail wags the dog, but in most cases, however, the opposite is true. It was the moving back and forth of the dog's tail that the researchers of our four-legged friends turned their attention to understand the manifestation of emotions in dogs and the connection of these emotions with the cerebral hemispheres. The dogs were examined from nose to tail, and a curious picture emerged.
Every owner and just a dog lover knows how they let you know about their mood. If the ears are pressed to the head, the whole body is in tension and the tail is extended, this means "It is better not to mess with me." Your pet's ears stand upright, and he, without ceasing, curls at your feet and at the same time waves his tail so much that it looks like it will come off? Everyone should understand what it means "I'm so glad to see you!".
And recently, scientists have discovered one very interesting feature of dog behavior, which not only the best dog breeders (with their recommendations), but even expert cynologists did not know about.
After a series of experiments on 30 dogs of various breeds, it turned out that if the dog is generally positive, then he waves his tail more to the right. If he is upset or angry with something, then the movements are shifted to the left side of the sacrum (Current Biology).
If the dog sees the owner, then its tail waves to the right, which means that it is safe to approach. If she sees a dominant dog, then the movements shifted to the left signal “I might go” (photo by Marcello Siniscalchi / University of Trieste).
Many researchers are still arguing whether the emotional asymmetry of the brain can manifest itself in any of the animals except for humans, in which the left side of the brain began to evolve along with the development of speech.
Previous work by various scientists has shown that in most animals, including birds, fish and frogs, the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for positive emotions and so-called energy enrichment. For example, in humans, the left hemisphere is associated with feelings such as love, affection, calmness and security, when they appear, the heart rate slows down, and the body experiences a feeling of peace and satisfaction.
The right hemisphere, on the contrary, is responsible for the behavior associated with the expenditure, output of energy. For people, this is: fear, depression, flight, physiologically expressed by a rapid heartbeat and a stop in the digestive system.
Since the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere controls the right side, the asymmetry of body movements is opposite to the activity of the cerebral hemispheres.
Apparently, for this reason, many birds look for food using the right eye to a greater extent (the left hemisphere, saturation of the body), and the presence of predators around is controlled by the left.
The right side of the human face tends to express happiness, while the muscles of the left side show all sorrows and sorrows. For lefties, however, the opposite is true.
Top view - the video camera captures the angle of deviation (photo by The Center for Neuroscience / University of Trieste).
"But the dog's tail is in the midline of the body, neither on the left nor on the right half of it. Can it show emotional asymmetry?" asks Dr. Richard J. Davidson, director of the Emotional Neurophysiology Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin.
Italians Giorgio Vallortigara, a neurophysiologist from the University of Trieste (Università degli Studi di Trieste) and his fellow veterinarians from the University of Bari (Università degli Studi di Bari) Angelo Quaranta and Marcello Siniscalchi answered the question Davidson and showed that - can.
To do this, they placed pets in cages equipped with cameras that accurately recorded the angle of deviation of the tail from the midline of the body. They were then presented with 4 different stimuli: their owner, a stranger, a cat, and an unfamiliar "dominant" dog.
In each case, the dog observed the person or animal for one minute. Then the experimenters took a break for a minute and a half, and then the next picture followed. The experiments lasted 25 days, 10 sessions daily.
At the sight of the owners, the dogs strenuously waved their tails with a shift to the right side; at the sight of a stranger, the movements also shifted to the right, but were not so frequent. The sight of the cat evoked movements of the tail shifted to the right, but with a smaller amplitude. If an aggressive unfamiliar dog (large Belgian Shepherd) appeared nearby, the tails immediately reacted by moving to the left.
Thus, it can be assumed that the musculature of the right side of the tail is responsible for the expression of positive emotions, and the left - negative ones.
Australian neurophysiologist Lesley Rogers of the University of New England adds that brain asymmetry is seen not only in mammals, but also in many of the lower animals from which life evolved to higher forms.
For example, bees learn better when they use their right antennae, Leslie says, and male chameleons become aggressive by changing body color when they look at another chameleon with their left eye. The toad is more likely to try to hide from a predator if it appears from the left (right hemisphere - fear), while it prefers to throw out its tongue to the right when catching insects (left hemisphere - saturation).
Chickens use their left eye to search for food, and their right eye to look around and control dangerous situations. However, if chickens are raised in the dark, Rogers notes, they don't develop normal brain asymmetries.
Sheep are very good at recognizing faces, and to tell Dolly from Molly, they use the right hemisphere of the brain.
"Chimpanzees have the same emotional brain asymmetries as humans," says William D. Hopkins, a researcher at the Yerkes National Primate Center. According to him, when the monkeys are excited, they often seem to scratch the left side of their body, thereby giving out strong negative emotions. Moreover, left-handed chimpanzees are more shy than right-handed ones. Their dominant right brain makes them more circumspect.
Brain asymmetry seems to be an ancient characteristic, Rogers concludes. This asymmetry gives the organism a certain advantage for the survival of the species. After all, animals that can do two important things at the same time (for example, eat and watch for predators) survive easier than those that are absorbed in only one thing. In addition, in animals with two hemispheres of the brain, functions are not duplicated, and nerve tissues are used to the maximum benefit.
As you can see, the study, which at first glance claimed the maximum for the Ig Nobel Prize, revealed some secrets of the evolution of the animal world. And in this case, the dog's tail not only showed scientists what kind of dog mood it is, but also, perhaps, prompted new research, because no one has yet proven that dogs do not have their own language.
People can talk, operate with different words, but sometimes we and our pets understand each other without words. But this is with experienced owners! How can inexperienced owners understand their pets?
If the shape of the dog's eyes narrowed, they became barely noticeable, this means that the pet is scared or very tense. When the dog looks a little askance or cross-eyes, then something hurts him.
Your pet's ears tilted back a little means that he welcomes you and is friendly to you. If tightly pressed to the back, then the dog is very scared. Well, being in the usual position of the ears means that the dog is relaxed and completely calm.
Of course, four-legged pets are different and their ears are different in shape, so it can be difficult to understand exactly how their ears are now located, but watch for a while and you will understand the mood of your pet.
If the dog wags its tail, then it is in a playful mood and great joy from your presence. A tail turned to the right indicates a good mood of the dog, nothing bothers her, and a tail turned to the left indicates anxiety and restlessness.
If the dog, as if repeating the habit of a cat, tries to become bigger - stretches its legs, ears and tail stand on end - this is a sign of aggression. If he clings to the ground, as if he wants to seem completely invisible, it means he is scared. When the dog suddenly froze in one position, it means that he felt some kind of danger. If the dog's breathing suddenly becomes quieter, then he is alert. If the dog wants to play, he takes the pose of the letter "C".
Bared teeth speak 100% of the dog's extreme aggression. Aggression can also be caused by sudden movements, especially by a person unfamiliar to the dog. If the dog began to growl, as if he wants to turn a person or other dogs into a threat, then he felt the danger.
If the dog began to bark, then she is happy with the owner. When the dog barks shortly and persistently, it means that he hears someone's steps at the door. If the dog howls low and for a long time, he is probably hungry or something hurts him.
We all know that a dog, as a rule, expresses mood with the movements of its tail. However, for the dogs themselves, everything is not so simple: they recognize movements and react differently depending on which direction their "interlocutors" wag their tail: to the right or to the left.
The findings from the new study show that the brain of dogs, like the brain of humans, is organized asymmetrically, that is, the right and left hemispheres have different functions.
The discovery complements earlier research by the same Italian team of scientists. First, they found that when experiencing positive emotions (for example, when meeting a beloved owner), dogs wag their tails to the right. If the dog experiences negative emotions (he saw an unfriendly other dog) or he is nervous in itself, then the movements of his tail deviate to the left. This behavior reflects what is happening directly in the animal's brain: activation of the left hemisphere entails movements of the tail to the right side and vice versa.
But does it matter to other dogs? New research shows yes.
During the reaction control experiment, the researchers showed the dogs videos of their relatives wagging their tails to the right or left (the videos showed both dogs in their normal form and just silhouettes of dogs to avoid any bias). The study involved 43 healthy dogs of various breeds. When the animals noticed that the “opponent” was wagging its tail to the left, their heart rate increased and they looked alarmed. When the dog on the other side of the screen wagged its tail to the right, the subjects looked perfectly calm and relaxed.
“The direction of the tail movements corresponds to the work of the hemispheres,” comments Giorgio Vallortigara (Giorgio Vallortigara) from the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Trento. “In other words, the dog is looking for another dog wagging its tail to the right side: the left hemisphere is activated in positive emotional states. When the dog sees a dog wagging its tail to the left, it knows that it is negative. Such a dog has an activated right hemisphere, and he experiences negative emotions; dogs watching him, in turn, feel anxiety.
By the way, not so long ago, a team of scientists from the University of Lincoln found that dogs turn their heads to the left when watching an aggressive individual and to the right when they look at a happy dog.
Vallortigara does not think that dogs deliberately inform their relatives about their emotional state. Most likely, tail movement is an automatic by-product of differential activation of the left or right side of the brain. Which, however, does not mean the discovery is meaningless: dog owners and veterinarians should take note of the new data.
"Perhaps the direction from which a person approaches the animal affects the attitude and reaction of the dog," the researcher suggests.
Every owner and even a simple dog lover knows the simplest “gestures” of four-legged friends., with the help of which you can easily understand the mood of both a well-groomed thoroughbred dog and a homeless mongrel. Maybe someday science will offer us a way to communicate with animals more humanly, but for now we can only study dog “gestures”.
Some dog emotions can be understood at a glance. For example, the dog tensed up like a string, pressed its ears to its head and stretched out its tail - with this staunch dog it says, "You'd better not come near me." If the dog has pricked up its ears, cannot stand still and is waving its tail intensively, it means that it is very glad to see someone.
It is the tail and attracted the attention of scientists, who, as a result of the research and experiments, came to an interesting conclusion, unknown until that time neither to the best dog breeders, nor to expert cynologists.
Previously, studying animals, scientists have already established that positive emotions in them are generated by the left hemisphere of the brain, just like in humans. All the negativity remained in the right hemisphere. In this case, the left side of the body is controlled by the right hemisphere, and the right side by the left. This is probably why birds, for example, use their right eye more to find food (left hemisphere: food is good), and they follow predators with their left eye (right hemisphere: danger is bad).
Now back to doggy tail which is located in the middle of the body. Can the tail speak of the dog's emotions, because it is in the center, neither to the left nor to the right of the midline?
In order to answer this question, scientists conducted a series of experiments involving 30 dogs of different breeds. The four-legged wards were placed in cages with video cameras that accurately record the angle at which the tail deviates from the line of the spine. Then the experimental subjects were offered 4 types of stimuli: the owner, a stranger, approached the cage, brought the cat, and then someone else's "dominant" dog. The dog had the opportunity to observe the animal or person for 1 minute, then a 1.5-minute break was made, and then the next stimulus followed. The experiment lasted 25 days, 10 sessions were conducted every day.
Seeing the host, the dogs began to actively wag their tails, while a clear shift of the swings to the right was observed. A stranger caused almost the same tail movements, but the swings were less frequent. Dogs even reacted to a cat by moving their tails to the right, but the amplitude of the swings decreased. But the aggressive unfamiliar dog (a large Belgian shepherd) was perceived by the experimental subjects in a completely different way: the tails immediately began to move to the left.
Thus, it became obvious that if the dog is wagging its tail predominantly to the right, then it is in a great mood. If the left side becomes preferable, the dog is clearly dissatisfied with something.
