Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads? Scientists Look at What’s Going On in Their Minds:
You’ve probably seen dogs tilt their head. It’s adorable, but why do they do it? According to scientists, it may be a sign of concentration and memory recall. Several animals, including humans, present an asymmetry in the way they move or perceive the environment through their senses. In dogs, these asymmetries manifest in behaviors such as tail wagging, nostril use while sniffing, or even paw preference when trying to grasp something out of their reach. A test was conducted to find how head tilts help dogs perceive their environments by having owners request toys by name and observing head tilts among forty different dogs. Through analysis of the head tilts during the experiment, head tilts were consistently similar across dogs and those who did head tilts more often seemed to associate the name with the toy faster than those who didn’t. Thus, head tilts in dogs seem to be a means for dogs to understand their owners and though we don’t know everything about them yet, is a step in the right direction to understand our furry companions.