26/07/2026
When a dog wags its tail what does it mean? 🐶
Often we think it means the dog is expressing happiness and whilst that is often true it's not the end of the story.
Perhaps instead of thinking about a tail 'wag' (because we've been conditioned to think that the word wag = positive emotions) we should rather think about tail 'movement'.
Tail movements vary widely between breeds but the individual dogs themselves have a range of different movements to express different emotions. Your dog might communicate complete joy, happiness, uncertainty, concentration, anxiety, fear, or anger through different tail movements. Probably more too!
In addition to this body language signals should never be read in isolation, and instead the whole dog should be assessed when trying to understand what they are communicating.
(I don't just own a pet shop... I'm also a dog trainer, qualified hydrotherapist, and have worked with dogs for over 15 years. Feel free to pop in to chat about your dog 🥰)
