Hey BrainStuff, Cristen here.
Our question for the day is “Why do dogs
tilt their heads?”, and I’ve gotta warn
you: This is one of those questions where
the answer is “No one knows for sure.”
But we do have some educated guesses.
They tend to fall into three categories: Sight,
Sound, and Psychology.
Sight is the easy one.
Imagine that you have a snout.
At certain angles, it would block certain
parts of your vision.
We know that pooches can watch human faces
and respond appropriately to expressions of
emotion, like happiness or anger.
Research published over the past couple years
has found that dogs systematically look at
our entire faces, especially our eyes, to
get a handle on our emotions.
So it makes sense that a dog would tilt its
head to better see your face, and therefore
determine whether treats are on the way.
But not all dogs have long muzzles.
If sight were the only factor in head tilting,
brachycephalic babies like pugs would never
tilt.
Let’s look at Sound.
Dogs’ hearing tends to be at least twice
as sensitive as humans’ – we hear sound
waves that occur in the range of about 20
to 20,000 vibrations per second (or Hertz).
Dogs, depending on their breed and age, can
hear sounds of about 40 to 65,000 Hertz.
Meaning they can detect sounds of much higher
pitches from much further away.
Dogs cope with all that audio information
partially by moving around their pinna: their
fuzzy, scritchable outer ears.
So some canines – especially those with
floppy pinna covering the front of their ear
openings – may tilt their heads to move
their pinna and hone in on the sounds you’re
making.
Furthermore, dogs have muscles that let them
better process sounds in their middle ears.
Those muscles just happen to be governed by
part of the brainstem called the nucleus ambiguus
– yeah, it's called the nucleus ambiguus
- which just happens to also govern facial
expressions, gaze, vocalizations, and head
movements.
This could mean that dogs reflexively tilt
their heads, sort of as a byproduct of trying
to concentrate on a sound.
Or, as Stephen R. Lindsay says in his “Handbook
of Applied Dog Behavior and Training,” that
brainstem connection could encourage head-tilting
as a form of communication.
Meaning that when Buddy tilts his head, he’s
trying to say that he’s paying attention
to me.
He sees me!
He really sees me!
But, as with all studies into animal behavior,
this Psychology factor is the most difficult
to figure out.
Some researchers suggest that dogs tilt their
heads so often because they know we find it
stinkin’ adorable.
Specifically, because we respond with praise
or other positive feedback when they tilt.
Studies have shown that dogs use social cues
with humans that they don’t use with each
other, like direct eye contact, to elicit
positive responses.
Maybe all that head tilting is just the very
cutest form of emotional manipulation.
Do you know a head-tilting dog?
If so, let us know why you think they tilt
– and link us to a video.
We always need more dog videos.
You can learn what your dog’s yawn means
in this video over here, and about all kinds
of animal behavior – human included – at
HowStuffWorks.com.
