Tail Wagging: It Doesn't Mean Their Happy

Hands  up, who’s had this happen?  A poorly socialised, and poorly mannered,  off lead dog has come running up to your hound with a stiff, tall, over  body wag, hackles up, lots of direct eye contact and posturing…only for  the owner to make some passing comment about ‘look at that big happy  wag!’, ‘look at that happy tail’ or ‘look they want to be friends!’

When  what is actually happening is the off-lead dog is being exceptionally  poorly mannered and is one step away from triggering a dog fight!

While  it would be wonderful if our hounds could speak English (although all  they’d probably do is ask for cheese), they communicate through a range  of body language cues, down to the smallest change in their eyebrows.   They can have entire conversations with another dog without even moving  their bodies, or at least that’s what it seems like to us humans.

Dog  body language is a very complicated affair, and a well socialised dog  will be able to, even from afar, assess another dog’s mood and  approachability just by looking at things like the position of their  ears, brows, eyes, body stance and the wag of the tail.

Unfortunately,  not all dogs are properly socialised, trained, or mannered and will  just blindly run up to any dog they see.  The owners of which are  typically the Karens that defend their dogs’ actions as being ‘friendly’  when they’re anything but and refuse to put them on a lead!  But that’s  a different matter entirely…

Let’s  get back to the point!  A dog’s body language is often so very subtle  that is largely missed by most owners but, among their repertoire of  communication is their tail.  Tail wagging stands out as the most  recognisable and commonly observed behaviours…but also the one that is  most commonly misinterpreted.

What  may seem like a simple act, wagging tails carry a myriad of meanings  and emotions.  The position, direction and speed of a wag can  communicate everything from being insecure to being confrontational, and  being able to understand what these different wags mean can make a  massive difference in understanding your hound and how they communicate  both with you but also other dogs…because while we like to believe we  know our dogs well, and see the best in them, misinterpreting your  hounds body language can have catastrophic consequences in the wrong  situation!

While over time you  will come to understand the intricacies of your hounds daily  communication quirks, it is very important to pay attention in those  early days post-adoption.

During a  hounds racing career, they will have very rarely seen any other dog  breed, if at all.  For the majority of greyhounds, in their minds, the  only dogs that exist in this world are greyhounds and they only know how  to talk ‘greyhound’.

So, when  they retire, they have a lot of learning to do in interacting with other  breeds.  And as such, as they are technically ‘under socialised’ dogs,  there is a higher chance that they will be wary, anxious, standoffish,  or reactive toward other dogs, particularly off lead dogs, so it’s  important to be able to identify their overall mood, behaviour, and  emotions through body language but also other behavioural indicators…but  we’ll cover those in future posts!

Thankfully,  most of them take to this very naturally and socialise with other  breeds fairly easily, as dog body language is instinctual and universal  amongst different breeds, there are exceptions to this.

Typically,  a hound will socialise very easily with other short haired breeds,  particularly other sighthound breeds, but the fluffier companions  (particularly the smaller, fluffier, ones) can sometimes be a bit  confusing for them at first.
Though, it’s not the  fluffy ones you really need to be concerned about…it’s the breeds that  are unable to communicate like a ‘normal’ dog.

We  speak of the frenchies, the pugs, the bostons, the boxers, the bulldogs  and everything in between.  Flat faced breeds with buggy eyes, no tails  and those rather distressing breathing sounds and grunts are,  structurally, unable to communicate.  This means that it is very easy  for them to end up in miscommunications and fights with other dogs and  confuse the hell out of newly retired greyhounds!

This  is why it is important to prioritise socialising your newly adopted  hound with ‘dog’ shaped dogs until they are more settled and socialised  before moving onto the more unusual shaped dogs!

Again, we’re getting off topic, let’s get back to tails!

There  are so many nuances when it comes to tails.  Sometimes it can be barely  a couple of inches difference in terms of position and emotional state.   We’ve put this list together as a little taster into the meaning into  different tail positions, but the tail alone can’t wholly be used to  ascertain a dog’s emotional state.  You must look at their whole  body…but that’s when things can become even more complicated and is a  subject for another day!

- The  Contented Wag: This is a very generalised, easy-going state where the  tail is held in a relaxed central position, sometimes slightly raised  when waking, with a nice relaxed body.  You’ll quite often see this  simple neutral side to side wag as your hound trots along on a walk  without a care in the world!

-  The Happy Wag: Realistically, we should all be able to see a happy wag  when we see it!  A nice big swishy relaxed tail and loose posture,  sometimes the hips will be swinging along too!  This may occur when a  dog encounters its owner or receives praise!

-  The Excited Wag: This one, we all know, that super-fast, furious  helicopter tail that is wagging all over the place and is flying around  at such speed it becomes a weapon!  This is generally the leading cause  of ‘happy tail syndrome…IYKYK.

-  The Playful Wag: Naturally you’ll see this during play sessions or  interactions with other dogs, tails may wag in a loose, relaxed and  often floppy manner.  Playful wags are often accompanied by other  playful behaviours, such as bowing, chasing, and vocalizations!

-  The Curious Wag: This one can present in lots of different situations,  and it is where the tail is held straight out horizontally behind them;  this often comes with alert forward facing ears as they watch what has  got their attention!  

- The  Uncertain Wag: Uncertainty doesn’t necessarily mean scared; it can just  be in response to experiencing something new and they haven’t decided  how they feel about it like getting fussed by a stranger.  It presents  by the tail being held in a low, central position; often with ears  pressed back or head down/looking away indicating to the other dog or to  humans that they are not a threat.  Sometimes will lift a paw, lip lick  or yawn.  We’ve quite often observed it when children are approaching  or fussing a hound.  It’s a clear sign that a hound is uncertain when  the tail suddenly goes from wagging to that long central position and  all movement just stops.  No wagging.  Just stillness!

-  The Insecure Wag:  This is a step up from the uncertain wag in that the  tail will be held completely down straight at the central position with  a very small, slight, and slow wag. Often accompanied with tense and  worried body language like looking away, lip licking, yawning, whale eye  and trying to move away.

-  The  Fearful Wag: You won’t need to look at the dog’s overall body language  with this one as the emotional state is clear.  The tail tucking tightly  between the legs or fully curved all the way up to the belly. Often  accompanied with tense withdrawn body, ears pressed right back, looking  away, lip licking, whale eye, sitting down and/or putting paw up in air  or full-on escape attempts.   

-  The Agitated Wag: This is most commonly seen in response to something in  the environment, typically being approached by another dog.  They will  take on a stiff, upright, and alert stance, ears and tail up and  staring, preparing for potential confrontation.  The tail may have a  slight stiff wag but will be largely still. This is often a clear sign  that they do not want to be approached and are trying to tell the other  dog to move on.  This posture signifies readiness for action…whether the  outcome is positive or negative depends on the other dog!

-  The Diverting Attention/Reducing Threat Wag: This is where the wagging  suddenly stops.  This is normally in response to being approached by  strangers, other dogs or being touched when they don’t want to be!  They  will then display what are called displacement behaviours such as  sniffing at the grass or weeing on something to reduce attention to  themselves and to show to they are not a threat.  This often happens  when interacting with other dogs, particularly poorly mannered and  bullish dogs that are acting very domineering.  By displacing, they are  showing they are not a threat, have no aggressive intentions and are  attempting to defuse any potential conflict.  

If your dog makes other dogs act this way, they’re rude!

-  The Aggressive Wag: This one is the one we’ve put in the picture.  This  is where the tail is held in a straight vertical position, sometimes  curving right up over the body, either rigid, with a very short stiff  wag or very fast short vertical wag.  Their ears will be forward, their  whole body will be taking on a stiff posture. Often, they will put their  head over the other dog’s body, ready to correct them should they make  one wrong step.
The wag and posture often present in  having an unknown dog come running up into their personal space, having  ignored all their previous signals asking them not to.  This is a very  confrontational posture that says, ‘if you start on me, I will  retaliate!’.
We’ve seen this behaviour most commonly  in off lead dogs that run up to unknown dogs being bullish and poorly  mannered, they are very insecure in their communication so take on the  immediate aggressive stance as a way of pushing other dogs to take on a  more submissive and social posture to de-escalate the situation prevent a  fight.  The only problem is when they run up to a dog that doesn’t back  down to their poor behaviour, and a fight breaks out!

When  you really start looking into canine body language, and learning more  about it, it truly is fascinating, and it can take years of experience  with dogs to really learn the meaning of every little gesture!  But for  now, we hope our run down of common wagging positions has helped bright  forward a greater understanding of what is actually going on when you’re  socialising your hound!