# Show us your tails! Does your Chi's tail curve to the same side?



## debrawade10

Krystal pointed out that Lily's tail was the same side in two recent pics. Funny, I've had dogs my whole life and never noticed this. I started thinking about it and realized she is DEFINATELY a righty. I put these pics together from when we got her to now. How about everyone else??
Is yours a lefty or righty.
I also think I'm correct in saying that Lily's tail is a fault in the breed standard. The tip shouldn't go past the back I believe. 
Anybody have any interesting info on it. Like, can dogs be left or right "handed" like us?

Just found an interesting article on this:
Since tail wagging is meant as signal a dog will only wag its tail when other living beings are around-e.g. a person, another dog, a cat, a horse or perhaps a ball of lint that is moved by a breeze and might seem alive. When the dog is by itself, it will not give its typical tail wags, in the same way people do not talk to walls.

Like any other language, tail wags have a vocabulary and grammar that needs to be understood. Up to now scientists focused on two major sources of information, namely the tail's pattern of movement and its position. However new data adds a third important dimension to understanding the language of the canine tail.

Movement is a very important aspect of the signal. Dogs' eyes are much more sensitive to movement than they are to details or colors, so a moving tail is very visible to other dogs. Evolution has made tails even more visible, such as tails with a light or dark tip, a lighter underside or a bushy shape.

The tail's position-specifically, the height at which it is held-can be considered a sort of emotional meter. A middle height suggests the dog is relaxed. If the tail is held horizontally, the dog is attentive and alert. As the tail position moves further up, it is a sign the dog is becoming more threatening, with a vertical tail being a clearly dominant signal meaning, "I'm boss around here," or even a warning, "Back off or suffer the consequences."

As the tail position drops lower, it is a sign the dog is becoming more submissive, is worried or feels poorly. The extreme expression is the tail tucked under the body, which is a sign of fear, meaning, "Please don't hurt me."

Just as there are different dialects to a human language, such as a southern drawl or a New England twang, there are also dialects in dogs' tail language. Different breeds carry their tails at different heights, from the natural nearly vertical position common to Beagles and many Terriers to the low-slung tails of Greyhounds and Whippets. All positions should be read relative to the average position where the individual dog normally holds it tail.

Movements give additional meaning to the signals. The speed of the wag indicates how excited the dog is. Meanwhile, the breadth of each tail sweep reveals whether the dog's emotional state is positive or negative, independent from the level of excitement.

As a result, there are many combinations, including the following common tail movements:

● A slight wag-with each swing of only small breadth-is usually seen during greetings as a tentative "Hello there," or a hopeful "I'm here."

● A broad wag is friendly; "I am not challenging or threatening you." This can also mean, "I'm pleased," which is the closest to the popular concept of the happiness wag, especially if the tail seems to drag the hips with it.

● A slow wag with tail at 'half-mast' is less social than most other tail signals. Generally speaking, slow wags with the tail in neither a particularly dominant (high) nor a submissive (low) position are signs of insecurity.

● Tiny, high-speed movements that give the impression of the tail vibrating are signs the dog is about to do something-usually run or fight usually. If the tail is held high while vibrating, it is most likely an active threat.

We can now add another newly discovered, feature of dog tail language that may surprise attentive pet owners as much as it surprised scientists like me. It now appears that when dogs feel generally positive about something or someone, their tails wag more to the right side of their rear ends, and when they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left.

Giorgio Vallortigara, a neuroscientist at the University of Trieste in Italy, and two veterinarians, Angelo Quaranta and Marcello Siniscalchi, at the University of Bari published a paper describing this phenomenon in the journal Current Biology. The researchers recruited 30 family pets of mixed breed and placed them in a cage equipped with cameras that precisely tracked the angles of their tail wags. Then they were shown four stimuli in the front of the cage: their owner; an unfamiliar human; a cat; and an unfamiliar, dominant dog.

When the dogs saw their owners, their tails all wagged vigorously with a bias to the right side of their bodies, while an unfamiliar human caused their tails to wag moderately to the right. Looking at the cat, the dogs' tails again wagged more to the right but more slowly and with restrained movements. However the sight of an aggressive, unfamiliar dog caused their tails to wag with a bias to the left side of their bodies.

It is important to understand that we are talking about the dog's left or right viewed from the rear as if you are facing in the direction the dog is viewing. That means that if you are facing the dog and drew an imaginary line down the middle of his back that positive right-sided signal would appear as tail swings mostly curving to your left.


This is not as strange a finding as you might think at first. Research has shown that in many animals, including birds, frogs, monkeys and humans, the left brain specializes in behaviors involving what the scientists call approach and serenity. In humans, that means the left brain is associated with positive feelings, like love, a sense of attachment, a feeling of safety and calm. It is also associated with physiological markers, like a slow heart rate. Contrast this to the right brain which specializes in behaviors involving withdrawal and energy expenditure. In humans, these behaviors, like fleeing, are associated with feelings like fear and depression. Physiological signals include a rapid heart rate and the shutdown of the digestive system.

Since the left brain controls the right side of the body and the right brain controls the left side of the body, activity in one half of the brain shows up as movements on the opposite side of the body. For instance chicks prefer to use their left eye to search for food (approach behavior) and right eye to watch for predators overhead (avoidance). In humans, the muscles on the right side of the face tend to reflect happiness (left brain) whereas muscles on the left side of the face reflect unhappiness (right brain). So now we can add to this that positive feelings pull a dog's tail to the right and negative feelings pull it to the left.

Unfortunately, if your dog's tail is docked to a short stub it is going to greatly reduce your ability to spot this signal and deduce what your dog is feeling at the moment.

Stanley Coren is the author of many books including: Born to Bark, The Modern Dog, Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? The Pawprints of History, How Dogs Think, How To Speak Dog, Why We Love the Dogs We Do, What Do Dogs Know? The Intelligence of Dogs, Why Does My Dog Act That Way? Understanding Dogs for Dummies, Sleep Thieves, The Left-hander Syndrome

Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd. May not be reprinted or reposted without permission




18 Reader comments join the discussion here!


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## Chiluv04

I don't think any of my chi's hold their tails curled up like that. However, my bailey has one crooked ear lol, it never has or will stand up straight or pointy lol, also his lip gets stuck on his right tooth sometimes. It's kinda cute. Here's a pic of the ear
View attachment 45282



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## debrawade10

Awww, Bailey....I love your ear! We need a pic of his lop also!


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## Chiluv04

I have to catch him when he's doing it, it's the funniest thing! Though usually when he's doing it, it's followed by drooling because he wants some of whatever mommy's eating lol. He's my little k9 vacuum cleaner!


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## elaina

here's Tootsie when she was a puppy. she has a curly tail and it curls to one side too 



then, this one, she was alittle older and you can see her curly tail here too and Minnie has no curl in her tail



and here's one more


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## debrawade10

elaina said:


> here's Tootsie when she was a puppy. she has a curly tail and it curls to one side too
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> 
> 
> then, this one, she was alittle older and you can see her curly tail here too and Minnie has no curl in her tail
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> and here's one more


Tootsie has that tail!! Hers is always the same way also. Just kind of interesting...


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## Moonfall

Douglas' tail curls straight up his back and barely touches it. 

I have noticed chi body language can be very different from other breeds too. My boy carries his tail straight up (curved over the back) almost all the time. He prances around really proudly. His ears are also usually forward, considered a sign of aggression in some breeds. Rough play elicits a lot of vocalization and growly sounds. I play a game where he bites my nose, and he bares his teeth for it, but he is not being aggressive. He is playing rough. Same with walleyes. He will give me wall eyes when he is being silly. 

I know his body language really well but strange people sometimes cannot read it- it is very very subtle and not the same as my other dogs.


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## LadyDevlyn

Romeo curves his dead center over his back. The tip barely touches his back. Candi's tail is curves a tad more than the standard calls for, but it goes to the right. 


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## *Chloe*

All of mine go over the center of the back


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## MilesMom




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## Jayda

Sapphire is 90% a righty! Used to go straight over her back but the whole white tip is fur now. She might end up with a long plume. Hope it ends up like her dad below.



Prince's tail really fans out but goes straight up and sort of over his back.



Lady's is very fluffy and goes straight over her back.


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## debrawade10

Moonfall said:


> Douglas' tail curls straight up his back and barely touches it.
> 
> I have noticed chi body language can be very different from other breeds too. My boy carries his tail straight up (curved over the back) almost all the time. He prances around really proudly. His ears are also usually forward, considered a sign of aggression in some breeds. Rough play elicits a lot of vocalization and growly sounds. I play a game where he bites my nose, and he bares his teeth for it, but he is not being aggressive. He is playing rough. Same with walleyes. He will give me wall eyes when he is being silly.
> 
> I know his body language really well but strange people sometimes cannot read it- it is very very subtle and not the same as my other dogs.


I agree with you 100%. I had done obedience at a k9 training center with the two sisters that are chi x Frenchie mix. When I enrolled Lily when we got her 2 yrs. later, you could here laughing and snickering from the class. It was filled with dobes, GSD's, labs & boxers.
She was like your Douglas, prances, struts right past them all and out shown and performed all. One lady who owned a beautiful Cain Corso came up to me and said her and her policeman husband had the best time watching her show them all how it was done every week. She is very much how you describe Douglas. Thanks for your input!


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## Saqqara

I've never paid attention to direction. Cai has a nice fluffy tail that he either holds straight up or down. Now it's starting to drag on the ground if he holds it down

This is him around 3 months




I don't have a recent pic of his fluffy tail but this is when the fluff was just starting out


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## Chiluv04

Saqqara said:


> I've never paid attention to direction. Cai has a nice fluffy tail that he either holds straight up or down. Now it's starting to drag on the ground if he holds it down
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> This is him around 3 months
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> I don't have a recent pic of his fluffy tail but this is when the fluff was just starting out



I must say, he has such a beautiful coat of fur 


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## Saqqara

Thank you! His coat got twice as thick as that pic for the winter. He is losing the winter coat now which means lots and lots of grooming.


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## Chiluv04

You're welcome! He's a good looking little guy 😊


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## Moonfall

I have some good photos of the weird body language stuff. I swear he has such odd body language compared to other dogs.

His facial expressions are subtle. I can read them but usually no one else can.

https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/72413_4646564485652_144575248_n.jpg

The infamous tail-
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/527704_4641047107721_1169445706_n.jpg

They are both older pictures. I can just see how puppy facey he is in the tail one. Wow. I can't believe how much he's changed in the past year!


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## KrystalLeigh

Moonfall said:


> I have some good photos of the weird body language stuff. I swear he has such odd body language compared to other dogs.
> 
> 
> 
> His facial expressions are subtle. I can read them but usually no one else can.
> 
> 
> 
> https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/72413_4646564485652_144575248_n.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> The infamous tail-
> 
> https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/527704_4641047107721_1169445706_n.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> They are both older pictures. I can just see how puppy facey he is in the tail one. Wow. I can't believe how much he's changed in the past year!



Douglas reminds me so much of a deer in the first pic! He's a handsome guy!!

I'll have to find a good pic of Odie's tail. It's crooked. 


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## KrystalLeigh

Here are a couple to show how it's crooked at the end:





Sometimes she holds it mostly straight



But sometimes to the left side


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## coco_little_bear

Aww I had noticed that on Lily's pictures! I think it's cute. 

Lilo's tail is right in the centre. Sometimes it gets closer to her back, but doesn't touch it.









It varies with Rocky. I had never really paid attention to it until now, but after looking at pictures I realised his tail is sometimes on the left! He has a fluffy tail, there's a long bit at the end that is just hair and that tends to rest on the left. lol Like on this picture:


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## Angel1210

Angels tail is like Lilo's - curved over the center. He is pretty much always on the alert!


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## debrawade10

LadyDevlyn said:


> Romeo curves his dead center over his back. The tip barely touches his back. Candi's tail is curves a tad more than the standard calls for, but it goes to the right.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


I can't imagine that a curved tail to the right or left actually means anything as these articles suggest. I would think it has to be in the breeding/genetics, just something that I had not noticed before.


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## debrawade10

coco_little_bear said:


> Aww I had noticed that on Lily's pictures! I think it's cute.
> 
> Lilo's tail is right in the centre. Sometimes it gets closer to her back, but doesn't touch it.
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> It varies with Rocky. I had never really paid attention to it until now, but after looking at pictures I realised his tail is sometimes on the left! He has a fluffy tail, there's a long bit at the end that is just hair and that tends to rest on the left. lol Like on this picture:


Great pics Camille....looks like he is a lefty!!


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## debrawade10

KrystalLeigh said:


> Here are a couple to show how it's crooked at the end:
> 
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> Sometimes she holds it mostly straight
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> 
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> But sometimes to the left side


I love these shots of Odie...her personality shines through, she is such a beauty, love her tail!


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## debrawade10

*Chloe* said:


> All of mine go over the center of the back


Beautiful picture...again, I think it has to be breeding/genetics..or at least a big factor must be.


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## debrawade10

Moonfall said:


> I have some good photos of the weird body language stuff. I swear he has such odd body language compared to other dogs.
> 
> His facial expressions are subtle. I can read them but usually no one else can.
> 
> https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/72413_4646564485652_144575248_n.jpg
> 
> The infamous tail-
> https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/527704_4641047107721_1169445706_n.jpg
> 
> They are both older pictures. I can just see how puppy facey he is in the tail one. Wow. I can't believe how much he's changed in the past year!


All three of mine have different body language, reading is a must and makes that bond just that more special!


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## debrawade10

Angel1210 said:


> Angels tail is like Lilo's - curved over the center. He is pretty much always on the alert!


Angel sounds like such a spunky guy, I love your descriptions of him!


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## KrystalLeigh

debrawade10 said:


> I love these shots of Odie...her personality shines through, she is such a beauty, love her tail!



Thank you! Her tail is a bit goofy but it's part of her charm.  


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## charchi

I was going to post something about this subject before because i noticed that my females tail goes to the right and my males goes to the left, from behind it looks really cute, so i was going to ask , if this was a male, female type thing what do you think anyone else like this.?


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## charchi

Oh i forgot to mention another funny thing i have noticed about my chis is the very tip of their tails some times quivers, the best way to explain it is it reminds me of a rattle snake thats how fast the tip moves. looks really weird, this usually happens when their going off to sleep, anyone else seen this?


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## Lola's mommy8

Beautiful chihuahuas!!


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