WHY DOGS WAG THEIR TAILS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 96, 15 October 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHY DOGS WAG THEIR TAILS.

Because they are pleased, of course! Quite so, but why should a dog wag its tail as a sign of delight? It appears, according to canine experts, that just as the tension of the muscles of the face makes us smile or grin when pleased, so in our friend the dog the wag. ging tail follows the same rule. A similar response of the body to emotion is seen when we are embarrassed. Most people are familiar with the twisting and wriggling of the body shown by a shy country fellow who has suddenly been taken into a room with a number of city girls. As they say in books, "he wriggles-with embarrassment." The emotion has made all his muscles so tense that he cannot stav still. 3

His wriggling about in his chair, his twisting of his hands serve as a sort of safety valve to relieve the strain on his feelings caused by his shyness in the presence of strangers. Savages and people of small restraint and 6trong emotions show their pleasure by bodily actions. Thus we real of a man that "he rolled on the foxr shrieking with laughter." This, like the wagging tail of the dog, is merely an effort to try and get an outlet for all the muscular tension. This rolling on the floor is like a cat's expression of pleasure also. The cat rubs her back against one's leg or the corner of a bookcase or a chair-leg. This is to relieve the pleased tension of the muscles of the catfs back, just as the savage's rolling on the ground is to relieve the muscles of his back. When a dog hasn't any tail worth wagging he goes through exactly tho same motions, only there is more wag than tell. A dog with a respectable tail, who does not wag it when pleased, is either an ungrateful hound, a pessimist, or over-fed, The coldness of a dogs nose is evidence of his bodily health the wagging of his tail of his mental health.