The Tail Tells the Truth: What Your Dog Is Actually Saying

Hello, dog peeps. Jack here. Just a quick one before we get into this episode. You may or may not be aware that when I'm not talking dog stuff with Max, I in fact interview people who are incarcerated in prisons across the United States on a show called One Minute Remaining: Stories from the Inmates. And that show has been nominated for an award in America. And I would love your support if you've got 60 seconds to click the link in the show notes of this episode and just vote for my show. That would be amazing if you could. Thank you very much indeed. Oh, and don't forget to verify your email address. Otherwise, the vote does not count. Thank you.

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It's the Dog People Podcast with your host Jack Lawrence. Secretly, I decided to.

Start this podcast for some free dog training advice. You know, Malinois seem to be like the dog at the moment. Like I think people see them on Instagram doing these incredible things. Yeah.

Go oh my god that's awesome. And then they get one like oh my god what the fuck I done? And Max O'Neill.

You would not believe how many people I meet and I go what made you want to get say an Aussie Shepherd? They go I don't know. I go had you met one before? They go no. If you want to ask me how often I walk my own dog a week, it's only twice a week.

It's the Dog People Podcast, the podcast hopefully giving you a no-nonsense approach to dog training so you never have to shout, it's okay, it's friendly. My name is Jack Lawrence. Max O'Neill, Down Under Dog Trainer. And today we are sort of dispelling a myth. A number of people listening to this may already know this, but there's a lot of people still. And I said to Max, when we were talking about this, topic before we started recording that I only just saw this recently on another Instagram. We're talking wagging tails and the old school mentality or thought process that obviously has been passed down over generation to generation that a wagging tail means a happy dog.

Yeah, that's it. It's one we hear all the time. And, you know, clients will say, hey, like, you know, my dog's a bit reactive, but we can't work it out because his tail's wagging or, you know, he's always super happy. He's always super happy. But then, or sometimes he's bitten another dog, but he's wagging his tail right before he did it. Or, Little things like that. So it can be confusing and I get it. Like, I grew up thinking wagging tail equals happy dog. And we're not to say that that's completely untrue, but there's just a lot of nuance to it. And we want to go through it today so that you guys can, you know, walk away armed with 3 key things that you can look for and go, gotcha. Next time I see a dog, I can just, you know, look at that end of them, analyse it, and have a bit more understanding about what they're thinking and feeling in that moment.

So do you want to start with a happy wagging tail? Like, if we, if we are looking at a dog and a happy wagging tail, what would that look like?

Yeah, so when we think of like what a happy wagging tail looks like is number one, the tail should be not cocked up in the air, not tucked between the legs. It should be either parallel to the spine or held like fairly loosely. This can vary breed to breed. Some breeds will wear their tail quite high, but as long as it's not jacked up like scorpion tail.

Rigid as.

Rigid as or tucked under. Number 2, it shouldn't be super rigid. It should kind of be floppy. They shouldn't be tensing the whole thing. It shouldn't be like a stiff windscreen wiper kind of chop chop chopping through the air. It should be almost a bit more like loose and wavy.

Yeah.

And then number 3, we like to see sort of like a medium speed. You know, we'll get more into the, you know, the full analytics of it later, but when we see those crazy fast wagging ones or like a bit of a slow unsure one, you know, they can be a little bit of cause for concern potentially. We want it kind of that nice in the middle. So parallel to spine, loose, medium speed. That's a nice proper happy wagging tail. But we'll start to get into the nuances now.

Well, here's a live tail translation. I just saw Nelson's over here today playing with Kira outside, but I just saw him go towards the fence. And I've got a very tall fence. You can't see through it, but he just went towards the fence. Tail was up.

Yeah.

Kind of rigid, but still wagging.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's like, hey, someone's out there. That's like, I think someone's here, but I'm also not fully sure. Like, that's his, like, sussing it out. And then if he does clock someone, You just go dead stiff and then, and then it'll go. Game on.

Attack mode.

Yeah, that's rumble. Let's get into it. So when I'm looking at a tail, and we're going to talk general tails here, we'll get into some breed nuances later, I'm generally looking at, is the dog wearing this high? Is the dog wearing it low between the legs? Or is the dog wearing it sort of parallel to the spine and kind of out flat? Is the tail wag like furiously fast? Is it nice and sort of medium? Or is it You know, maybe it's a bit slow and unsure, or has it stopped wagging entirely? And then lastly, I'm looking for, is it cocked tight or is it nice and sort of like floppy and loose? They're the main 3 things we want to look for. So high or low, fast or slow, floppy or loose. Cool. So let's start to break down what each of these little criteria pieces mean. When a dog wears their tail high, it shows they're sure of themselves and they're confident. So Nelson, as a breed, you know, as a Rottweiler, will wear his tail quite high. But even as an individual, that's how he wears it. He's very sure of himself. He's very confident. There's kind of like a— if we think of the highest he can wear it, where it like scorpions over his body, if that's 10, he kind of wears it at like a 6 to 7, 8 most of the time. He's really sure of himself, but he's not walking around like jacked over as much as he can. That's, that's good. That shows he's nice and confident. It's when dogs kind of put it up as all the way as they can get, when you see that like tail go all the way up to 12 o'clock or even further, like we said, scorpion over, that's when they're generally feeling like Hey, something's going on. I've got to make myself look and feel and appear bigger. So like when someone— we saw this person at the gate, then if there was someone at the gate, we would have seen it fully go over, and he goes into like that extra sort of mode.

Yeah.

You'll also see if there's 2 males squaring off and neither of them are sort of backing down, then they'll really put it up to kind of communicate like, hey, like, I'm puffing myself up here.

It's a really good one to be aware of, especially if you do frequent Potentially dog parks, which we obviously, we know our feelings on dog parks, but even in areas where dogs are off leash and you've got more room, like I will often be walking along and I'm keeping an eye on other dogs that are around and seeing, you know, how they look. And as soon as I see any dog hit the rigid and be staunch, tail going straight up and just solid, I'm like recalling Kira and we're going to remove ourselves from this situation because the dog is clearly not happy with what's going on.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, exactly right. It's good when our dogs are sure of themselves. But then what you'll see is like Nelson might go and meet another dog. They'll start wagging. You'll see the tails drop. It's kind of like, okay, the guard's coming down. I come in, I'm confident. I'm showing you like, hey, I'm like sure of myself. But my whole demeanor is going to soften and everything will settle down a bit once they're playing. Like if we wait for him and Kira to run past the door again, we'll see the tails kind of come down to more of a neutral sort of thing. So up high is confident. It's like having good posture. Yeah. If you stand like you're nice and sure of yourself and confident, it's good. But when you see those dudes who stand, you know, Chest out. Watermelons under the arms, chest out. You go, okay, like,

yeah,

this dickhead's either looking for a fight or trying to show off.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No different for dogs. So that's one of the big indicators is when you see that dog like giving it everything they've got, putting that tail as high as they can. And like Jack said, every breed will be a bit different. Like, you know, some dogs it's straight in the air, some dogs can curl it over. And this will vary breed to breed a bit. Like some dogs naturally will wear their tail quite high. If you think Akitas, like it'll curl over. Pugs, same. Yeah, it's one of those things that is intentionally bred into certain breeds to make them look or feel or appear tough and a bit intimidating. Other breeds, it's just kind of in there, like pugs have got a curly tail. Sometimes it's, you know, a bit by accident. Sometimes it's better designed, like a lot of water dogs, like poodles, will wear their tail intentionally quite high, but that was bred into them so their tail is not dragging through the water and getting all wet.

Oh, okay.

So, you can sort of see...

It's amazing how we've been able to breed these things into animals.

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So that's, that's tails up. We then got kind of tails neutral. You'll see like when Nelson and Kira run past the window, they're both relaxed, they're at ease. They're not like, you know, neither of them are trying to be the big dog, neither of them are feeling insecure. Their tails are just relaxed. So your dog's, you know, as we can see, Kira's parallel to the spine. Yep. Every dog's relaxed tail will look a little bit different. Kira's, you know, runs pretty much parallel to the spine being a cattle dog. Nelson's relaxed tail, it still sits maybe 20, 30 degrees up, but that's his relaxed spot. That's kind of As low as he can wear it without having to actually put energy into tucking it.

Yeah.

So your dogs, when they're sitting there loose, this is— it's loose body language. If I'm sitting here on the couch right now, I've not got my shoulders up and chest back trying to look like some idiot, but I'm not sort of like hunched over and bunched in. I'm just relaxed. That's your dog's tail too. That just shows they're feeling nice and comfortable. They're not trying to make themselves appear bigger, and they're not trying to make themselves feel or appear small. That's what we want. When we look at them tails tucked, or what your tail— your dog wearing their tail low. Some dogs, when they're really gassed, will let their tail drop and it will just run in a straight line down to the ground. A lot of labs do this. That's fine. That just shows, hey, the energy's gone. I am gassed. I just cannot be bothered holding this thing up anymore. Nothing wrong with that. It's when we start to see them tuck it a little bit that maybe shows they're feeling a little bit insecure, a little bit submissive. Dogs will show this. Like, Nelson met a dog this morning, a 7-month-old male Vizsla, who, when they met, you know, they came in, Nelson had his tail high but not too high. The dog put his tail low, and it was just a little bit of a, hey, just let you know, like, I'm not challenging you at all. You're the big boy here. That's all cool. They did that for like 2 seconds, and then what was really cool, right on cue, both their tails evened out. Nelson's tail dropped, the other dog's came back up, and then they had the most amazing play.

So can the, can the, the dog with the tail tucked, can that be a warning sign that that particular dog actually might Yeah, 100%. So it's fearful.

Yeah. So whenever a dog's feeling overly, you know, dominant, tail right up, that can show like, hey, they're feeling a bit overconfident. They might test their luck, see what they can get away with, or maybe they're feeling a bit combative and competitive. But equally to a tail on, like, tucked under them, they might not be going out and seeking conflict because they're quite insecure. But if a dog gets too close into their space, absolutely. I'll see a lot of dogs who'll tuck it, sit their bum right down and hide. And then when they finally feel like avoidance and submission is no longer working, they'll absolutely resort to aggression to get them away. I see that happen a lot.

Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. So why do people get confused, do you think, you know, between the wags?

Yeah. So that's fair. So when we think of a tail wagging, I typically think of it as like, it can mean so many different things, but we typically think of it like arousal.

Yeah.

Okay. Like obviously if a dog's asleep, it's dead still. The moment they sort of get up and see you, it starts wagging a little bit and then it just kind of constantly goes a little bit throughout the day while they're just doing stuff. Obviously, the more excited they get, like if you pull out their favourite thing, like it's just going, going, going.

Oh, I know when Kira's happy because her entire body vibrates. Yeah. It starts with the tail and then her ass is just going, I don't have enough tail because I'm so excited.

And at some point, like, you know, your dog's happiness meter, so to speak, can be full even when the tail's only wagging at half speed. Like there's a— when it gets to that extra gear where their whole body's going, like at that point it is just arousal.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's not always, you know, happiness, happiness. Like, and you can sort of just get a bit— it's one of those things where you can sort of vibe it a little bit. Like, sometimes that really slow moving tail can be really like uncertain or like, I'm not sure. Like, sometimes you'll see dogs meet, the tail will slow right down. It'll be a little bit unsure. It'll speed back up as they're feeling more confident, and then it'll go rapid fire when, you know, they're playing. So it's one of the things that doesn't always indicate happiness. It can be, you know, a fast tail can sometimes be really panicked, anxious, aroused. Slow tail can be a bit unsure. And then we sort of just look for like a good medium speed is what we want. That's, that's what we want really. So speed, you know, isn't everything. It can mean a whole host of different things, but typically think of it like arousal. Like your dog's tail going crazy, crazy, crazy isn't, isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not a good— it's not the thing we should always aim for. Like, I need to get that tail wagging 100 miles an hour. It just shows that it's like absolutely hyped.

Comes back to neutrality, like, because that's the key word really when it comes to dogs. It's just neutral. You want them to be neutral to a lot of things. Obviously Different when we're training, when, you know, Nelson's doing his bite work or Kira's doing, you know, our training, you obviously want that intense high drive. But in general with dogs, neutrality is really the key.

It's key. That's it. People like, we think of like a fast wagging tail as excitement. And that's why it does get a little bit confusing because a lot of people will say, hey, my dog's tail was wagging right before they bit or right before they started barking, whatever. And again, because it indicates arousal and excitement and, you know, Yeah. Emotions like that, it can be wagging right before. Like, we'll put a video up in the group, but often when Nelson's on the back tie doing his bite work, you zoom in on his tail and it's, oh, he's wagging his tail right before he goes in and, you know, gets in a fight and bites someone. Like, and that's pretty normal. And that's a lot of dogs at the club. They'll be sitting there barking furiously, tail going, you know, you'll see his tail's up like he's feeling confident. If he was going into bite work with his tail tucked, like, okay, he's actually really you know, not liking this, he's actually shitting his pants. We wouldn't see that as good. But yeah, his tail would be wagging. That just shows they're aroused, they're excited, they maybe are anticipating what's about to happen in there, and they're feeling all the emotions that same way someone might sit there and tap their legs and be a bit jittery. Yeah, so too can a wagging tail.

Okay.

And then lastly, we've got the stiffness of it. So you can see like your typical floppy side-to-side tail, and then you can see a stiff windscreen wiper. That can also be a bit of a good indicator of whether our dogs are feeling like Happy is like loosey-goosey or like tight, tense. Think of like, you know, those moments where you might see someone's jaws or fist clenched. That's the kind of same moments we'd have a tail that's a bit clenched. So if your dog's feeling mentally tense, physically they'll show that in their tail. So if I see 2 dogs where their tail really starts to stiffen, you know, same if we've had dogs board with us, we've had other intact males and they'll get on great. But every now and then you'll just notice they're getting a bit pushy or a bit competitive and they're both getting a little bit tense with each other. But all right. Every— both of you go away, decompress in your crates, come back out, and the body language is much better.

Yeah.

But if I'm watching those tails and seeing they're all nice and loosey-goosey, we're happy days. And one of the things we do is we work with daycares and do education stuff for staff. Like, we'll go around and go do a big thing on body language, what to look for, how to manage it, intervene, etc. And one of the big ones we're constantly looking for is just these things in the tails. Is the tail stiff or loose? Loose tails is good. Is the tail Too high or too low? Okay, let's see what's going on there. And then lastly, like, how fast the tail's wagging. Sometimes when those dogs get into that overdrive, we will take them out and just bring them down because we go, hey, that level of arousal is not really conducive to anything too good, and we don't want that to start to feed. Because if all the dogs start to get it and all start to bounce off each other, it all ends up a bit hectic. So if I, you know, were someone that was going to a dog park, these would be the things I'd look, look for. Just those 3 key areas in the tail.

Okay. Well, if you've got any questions, as always, the Dog People Podcast on Facebook and also YouTube, I think is a good sort of source to just watching videos of how dogs are reacting. I mean, not that you want to look up dog fights on Instagram, but it's interesting to watch what happens before and the body language and that sort of stuff. And it's a good thing to— obviously, you don't— no one's— we're not expecting anyone to become body language experts, but at the end of the day, if you've got just that little bit of knowledge The next time you're out, you know, it could save you a lot of pain and heartache by just going, you know what, that doesn't— and that's the thing is like, if in doubt, get out.

Yeah, that's it.

I mean, you know, I mean, that's the thing. I mean, if you're not sure, just remove yourself from the situation and/or your dog from the situation.

Yeah, risk reward, hey.

But as always, any questions, Dog People Podcast on Facebook or on Instagram. We'll see you on the next one. The Dog People Podcast is a Mashed Pumpkin production hosted by Jack Lawrence and Max O'Neill. Edited, produced, and audio production by Jack Lawrence.

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