Why do Dogs wag their tails?

Easy to answer right? They do it when they are happy - but that is not really correct. There are a lot of things a dog can tell via wagging, even wagging differently depending on what they want to say.

So basically the tail wagging is a tool for communication. But why? Most other mammals use their tails for other things, like locomotion for example.

Even other canids like wolfs, don’t really wag their tails a lot.

Now scientists came up with some new theories to why the tail wagging could have evolved in dogs. Link is in the description

One explanation may be the “domestication syndrome” hypothesis, which relates to the human domestication of dogs, staring about 35,000 years ago. Here, tail-wagging is a behavior that humans unintentionally selected for, because it was linked with other preferable traits, like tameness or friendliness toward people. Tail-wagging may have simply been a byproduct.

Another theory, the “domesticated rhythmic wagging” hypothesis, suggests that humans selected for tail-wagging during domestication, because we are drawn to rhythmic stimuli.

If one of those is correct is something only time will tell, as those are just hypotheses for now and need proper research.

Sources:
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