Weird Animal Question of the Week: How Do Dogs Talk With Their Tails?
For starters, wagging isn't always a sign of friendliness.
Nothing is more of a telltale sign of happiness than, well, a dog's wagging tail.
It's a main method of communication for man's best friend—but "what about dogs without tails?" reader Leanne Kirby asked in comment on a recent story exploring how dogs observe left versus right tail wags.
So for Weird Animal Question of the Week, we asked dog expert Monique Udell if a pet who is tailless due to breed, accident, or cosmetic procedure has trouble communicating with other dogs or humans. (Take National Geographic's dog quiz.)
"It definitely does impact their communication," says Udell, founder of the Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
For instance, dogs with cropped tails or
