WEBVTT - Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Christian Seger. Here, our question for the day is why

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<v Speaker 1>do dogs tilt their heads? And I've got to warn

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<v Speaker 1>you this is one of those questions where the answer

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<v Speaker 1>is no, one really knows for sure. That's right. Humanity

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<v Speaker 1>has created a telescope that can observe stuff thirteen point

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<v Speaker 1>five billion light years away and nail polish that dries

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<v Speaker 1>in under sixty seconds. But we don't know exactly why

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<v Speaker 1>dogs do this cute thing, but we do have some

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<v Speaker 1>educated guesses. They tend to fall into three categories, site, sound,

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<v Speaker 1>and psychology. Site is the easy one. Imagine that you

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<v Speaker 1>have a snout at certain angles, it would block certain

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<v Speaker 1>parts of your vision. We know that pooches can watch

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<v Speaker 1>human faces and respond appropriately to expressions of emotion like

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<v Speaker 1>happiness or anger. Research published over the past couple of

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<v Speaker 1>years has found that dogs systematically look at our entire faces,

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<v Speaker 1>especially our eyes, to get a handle on our emotions.

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<v Speaker 1>They also remember our expressions and associate happy faces with

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<v Speaker 1>positive outcomes and angry faces with negative outcomes. So it

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<v Speaker 1>makes sense that a dog would tilt its head to

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<v Speaker 1>better see your face, and therefore determine whether treats are

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<v Speaker 1>on the way, but not all dogs have long muzzles.

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<v Speaker 1>If site were the only factor in head tilting breakas

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<v Speaker 1>aphelic babies like pugs, for instance, would never tilt over.

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<v Speaker 1>On Psychology Today, dog behavior writer Dr Stanley Coren shared

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<v Speaker 1>the results of his informal survey of five eighty two

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<v Speaker 1>dog owners. Of those, seventy one of people who owned

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<v Speaker 1>longer faced pops said their dogs frequently tilt their heads

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<v Speaker 1>when spoken to. In comparison, just fifty of people who

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<v Speaker 1>owned short snouted dogs reported frequent head tilting. The difference

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<v Speaker 1>is statistically significant, but it indicates that something else is

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<v Speaker 1>contributing to this behavior. Let's look at sound. For instance,

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<v Speaker 1>dogs hearing tends to be at least twice as sensitive

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<v Speaker 1>as humans. We hear sound waves that occur in the

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<v Speaker 1>range of about twenty to twenty vibrations per second, or hurts. Dogs,

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<v Speaker 1>depending on their breed and age, can hear sounds of

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<v Speaker 1>about forty to sixty five thousand hurts, meaning they can

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<v Speaker 1>detect sounds of much higher pitches from much further away.

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<v Speaker 1>Dogs cope with all that audio information partially by moving

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<v Speaker 1>around their pina Their fuzzy, scritchable outer ears, So some canines,

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<v Speaker 1>especially those with floppy pina covering the front of their

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<v Speaker 1>ear openings, may tilt their heads to move their pinna

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<v Speaker 1>and hone in on the sounds you're making. Furthermore, dogs

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<v Speaker 1>have muscles that let them better process sounds in their

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<v Speaker 1>middle ears. Those muscles just happen to be governed by

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<v Speaker 1>part of the brain stem called the nucleus ambiguous, which

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<v Speaker 1>just happens to also govern facial expressions, gaze vocalizations, and

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<v Speaker 1>head movements. This could mean that dogs reflexively tilt their

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<v Speaker 1>heads sort of as a byproduct of trying to concentrate

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<v Speaker 1>on a sound, or, as Stephen R. Lindsay says in

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<v Speaker 1>his Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training, that brain

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<v Speaker 1>stem connection could encourage head tilting as a form of communication,

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<v Speaker 1>meaning that my dog Winchester, that's his name. For instance,

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<v Speaker 1>when he tilts his head, he's trying to say that

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<v Speaker 1>he's paying attention. Lindsay notes that in his twenty five

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<v Speaker 1>years of training experience, socially apprehensive dogs don't tilt as much,

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<v Speaker 1>But as with all studies into animal behavior, this psychology

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<v Speaker 1>factor is the most difficult to figure out. Some researchers

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<v Speaker 1>suggest that dogs tilt their heads so often because they

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<v Speaker 1>know we find it so stinking adorable, specifically because we

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<v Speaker 1>respond with praise or other positive feedback when they tilt.

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<v Speaker 1>Studies have shown that dogs use social cues with humans

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<v Speaker 1>that they don't use with each other, like direct eye contact,

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<v Speaker 1>to elicit positive responses. Maybe all that head tilting is

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<v Speaker 1>just the very cutest form of emotional manipulation. Check out

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<v Speaker 1>the brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this

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<v Speaker 1>and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.