Why do dogs wag their tails?
Ask the average person how to teil whether a dog is happy, and they will advise you to look at its tail -- if the dog is happy, the tail is wagging. Unfortunately, this is only partly true. Rapid tail wagging, where the side-to-side swings are not very iarge, is actually a sign of excitement rather than pleasure. It is when the 'ail wags broadly at a moderately fast rate that the dog is trying to say either "Iím pleased" or "I like you."

Some tail wags have totally different meanings. A slight wag with the tail held at its normal height, for example, usually appears when greeting someone. It can be interpreted as "Hello there," but can mean "I see you looking at me. You like me, donít you?"

A slow wag with the tail held lower than its usual height is a sign of insecurity. It often shows up when a dog is working on a problem -- trying to understand what is going on. During dog training, I interpret this signal as "Iím trying to understand you. I want to know what you mean, but I canít quite figure it out." Once the dog finally solves the problem, the speed and size of the tail wags will usually increase until it becomes the broad wag that we interpret as happiness.

Why do dogs bark?
That was the question asked in a cover story of Smithsonian Magazine. After a nine-page analysis, the final conclusion was: they bark "just for the hell of it."

The gist of this learned study was that barking is the hallmark of domesticated dogs. Although wolves and coyotes can howl, growl, snarl, whine, and bark, they seldom do the latter. It was the consensus of these noted experts that canisfamiliaris, are actually animals stuck in a middle ground between infancy and adulthood. Barking is just the manifestation of "juvenile" vocal behavior. In other words, the extravagance and apparent meaninglessness of barking is that a dog remains a metamorphic adolescent for life!

Some dogs, the article states, may "learn" to bark when they want to be let into or out of the house, or want food or attention. But primarily, barking is a functionless behavior or an "indecision" to meet new problems. Stuck in adolescence, the dog barks so much because that is what a juvenile does.