I was curious. Exactly how much control does an animal have of its tail. I mean can it wag its tail when its sad and drop it when its happy. Or is it completely based on mood. If its happy the tail wags naturally, the dog has no control. Just Curious.
I think it is one of those things like blinking. Mostly it’s autonomous but you can consciously control it as well without any trouble.
Sometimes I wonder if my dog even knows her tail belongs to her…it seems to surprise her sometimes (kinda funny actually). However, when I tug on it she will look around and (seemingly) conciously flick her tail out of my grasp.
I also swear her tail is more dangerous than the toothy end but that’s another topic.
I’d agree it’s like blinking. Or like facial expressions in general. Dogs use their tails to display a lot of information, like we use our faces.
You know how sometimes you can’t hold a straight face, that would be a dog’s tail going full force. You can wrinkle your nose when it itches; a dog can move it’s tail so it can scratch part of it with it’s teeth.
Really OT, but our Rottweiller had her tail docked when we got her and wags her whole ass.