Wagging tails and tongues

Written By: Tipsy Table - Aug• 15•14

I know, we promised not to get into gossip about celebs, and certainly it is off limits to even discuss someone as strange and irrelevant as Miley Cyrus. After all, we just retired all of our bad jokes about “Achy Breaky Heart” when this twerking, jerking offspring sprung out from Disney to prime time. Well, sometimes we will have to rise above our principles and such occasion is the intersection of popular culture with scientific discovery.

So, here we were, hearing on National Public Radio that a recent series of “elegant” scientific tests had determined that a dog’s tail wagging direction is related to his or her emotions.

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/01/242126859/the-tails-the-tell-dog-wags-can-mean-friend-or-foe

“Dogs can pick up emotional cues from another dog by watching the direction of its wagging tail, a new study suggests. In a series of lab experiments, dogs got anxious when they saw an image of a dog wagging its tail to its left side. But when they saw a dog wagging its tail to its right side, they stayed relaxed.”

You can imagine what excitement this caused around the table. This serious science suggested to us that there just might be some rhyme and reason for the Cyrus tongue wagging.

Compare the tail wagging of dear Django Skyy Blue, circling right. Knowing our sweet dog, this is proof enough for us that this is a signal of friendship that should cause no anxiety.

In contrast, observe Miley wagging her substantial tongue decidedly to the left. This should strike fear into any dog or human. Even before she tries to sing, she is threatening. Though we admit this is not a scientific study, perhaps it could promote more serious study.

Miley tt

© Evan Agostini / Invision/ AP

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