Wag the Tail

What happened was that they were in a situation where a dog was wagging his tail and then....it attacked someone. And they wondered if dogs wag their tails other times besides when they are happy.

A dog's tail is a part of a dog's body language and allows them to communicate.

The answer is yes; dogs wag their tails when they are happy but also when they are feeling "alert" or "agitated".

A dog's tail is part of a complex system of body language that the domestic canine uses (along with "verbal" cues such as barking, growling or whining) to communicate. A wagging tail indicates excitement or agitation - but whether he means it as an invitation to play, or to warn another dog or person to stay back, depends on other body language.

A wagging tail that curves down and backs up into a "U" usually indicates a relaxed, playful dog. If his ears are erect and pointing forward, and he is in the classic "play bow" position, he's inviting you to play.



A tail that is held higher, whether wagging or not, indicates dominance and/or increased interest in something. If the end of the tail is arched over the back, and is twitching back and forth, you may be faced with an aggressive dog.

The tail is a purely social indicator for other living things. A dog doesn't usually wag his tail when alone. For instance, say you pour your dog a bowl of food. He may wag his tail excitedly at the prospect of eating. But if he comes upon the bowl already filled - without anyone being around - he most likely will not wag his tail. He may still be happy to eat, but there's no one around to whom he can communicate his state of mind.

Some researchers studied the Tail Wagging and Brain Lateralization. Here are the info's
Source: here
There is a large body of evidence indicating that, in most people, the two halves of the human brain are specialized for different functions. In other words, there is evidence for lateralization (sidedness) of brain function. The goal of this project is to look for evidence of lateralization in another animal, man's best friend. By studying the behavior of animals besides humans, we can hope to gain an understanding of when and how lateralization of brain function evolved. This broad approach is called comparative neuroscience, because comparisons are made between the brains and behavior of different species. The remainder of the Introduction is a brief synopsis of the evidence for brain lateralization in people, and a general description of the tail-wagging experiment for dogs.

The earliest evidence for lateralization of brain function in humans came from studies of people who had brain damage on one side of the brain due to injury or stroke. The most obvious finding was that each side of the brain controlled the opposite side of the body. Damage to the left side of the brain can cause loss of sensation, weakness, or paralysis in body parts on the right side of the body. Conversely, damage to the right side of the brain can cause loss of sensation, weakness, or paralysis in body parts on the left side of the body.

Another finding was that damage to the left hemisphere of the brain frequently caused the injured person to experience difficulty in producing or understanding language. Some patients might be able to understand language (as evidenced by their ability to act in response to a question or request), but be unable to give a spoken response. Other patients might be able to speak, but when they did, the grammar was so garbled that they could not be understood. Collectively, these different types of problems with language production, comprehension, or both are called aphasia. In the majority of people, the brain areas specialized for language are in the left side of the brain. Some people (anywhere from 5 to 40% of the population) have a right-hemisphere specialization for language, or both hemispheres involved in language production and comprehension (Chudler et al., date unknown, Brain Australia, 2003).

Damage to the right side of the brain tended to cause problems with spatial perception. For example, patients with damage to the right hemisphere might ignore sensory stimulation that occurred on their left side. When asked to draw a clock face, they might draw a complete circle, but then put all of the clock numbers on the right-hand half of the clock face. The symptoms could even extend to the patient's perception of their own body. For example, they might neglect to shave the left side of the face, or to dress the left side of the body. They might not even recognize the limbs on the left side of the body as their own. Patients with right hemisphere strokes may also lack awareness of or insight into their condition (Brain Australia, 2003).

The finding of brain lateralization in humans leads curious scientists to wonder how and why such specialization of the two brain hemispheres evolved. Comparative neuroscience can be used to try to answer these types of questions. One place to look is in other mammals, which are fairly closely related to humans. In this project you'll measure one behavior of dogs—tail-wagging— to see if there are left-right biases that might indicate some degree of brain lateralization in dogs.

If you've been a good observer of your pet dog, you've no doubt noticed that it behaves differently in different situations. For example, when you come in the door, your dog recognizes you and welcomes you. When a stranger rings the doorbell, on the other hand, the reaction may be quite different. Many dogs will bark warningly in this situation. Recently, researchers in Italy found that dogs wagged their tails further to the right when they could see their master, and less far when presented with a stranger. Do you think their findings are a fluke, or do you think it is possible to measure lateralization in tail-wagging behavior in different situations

Raising Chickens at Home

With the prices in gas and the scares over various contaminants in food, there has been a growing trend towards growing one's one vegetables and fruits at home as well as acquiring chickens to produce eggs. According to a variety of sources, chickens are one of the easiest farm animals to raise and to keep at home.

The majority of people can say that they have heard of people owning their own chickens. This is because chickens are among the easiest, most forgiving creatures for a small farm to manage. Books on chickens suggest that they can suffer from a number of awful parasites and problems but this is only a possibility. The majority of chickens, when raised correctly, are perfectly fine.

One of the benefits of chickens is that they're easy. They'll call anything home, make dandy pets, are pretty much self sufficient in the summer, and will even reproduce themselves for you. On reproduction, it is necessary to provide a basic form of shelter and protection for them to set in.

The one thing chickens won't do for their owners is make money. For the most part, they'll pretty much break even while providing fresh eggs, fertilizer, and hours of entertainment. They'll also do an excellent job of keeping the yard bug free.

While many people do not want roosters around due to their noise, many other people do want a rooster for the simple reason that he'll keep all of the hens laying eggs. Roosters aren't necessary for egg laying but they do provide social structure to the flock. Without a rooster, one of the hens will stop laying eggs in favor of taking on the role of rooster.

In addition to social structure, roosters have been known to defend a flock of chickens from dogs and lead the flock to safety during a storm. An added benefit is that they have colorful little personalities. Unfortunately, roosters do crow, loudly and with style. While some people love the sound of a rooster in the morning, it might not be appreciated by the neighbors.

Many people feel that they must get rid of a chicken once it stops laying eggs but this is not true. If your birds are your pets, it doesn't really matter if they no longer produce breakfast as well. Some people who keep chickens will eat the chickens at a certain point, but those who keep them as pets might not. Even when the chicken no longer produces eggs, it still produces fertilizer and keeps the yard free of bugs.

Raising chicken in the backyard is a good start for future poultry business in the future. Most of the homes in the farms raise chicken without any effort for feeding them and taking over. But if you're residing in urban area maybe you should think twice raising in your home. For me it's not worth the effort raising them.

Article Source: here

Types of hamster

As for the second post i would to connect my 2nd post to my first post. Russ is a teddy bear hamster under the family of rodents.

Hamsters belong to the Rodential orders of mammals. So, what exactly is a rodent?

Rodents are by far the largest mammalian order. Rodents are characterized by front teeth adapted for gnawing and cheek teeth adapted for chewing. Rodents have enlarged, chisel-shaped upper and lower front incisors that grow throughout their lives. These have hard enamel on the front surface and soft dentine on the back surface, so that unequal wear keeps the chisel edge sharp. There is a gap between the front teeth and the cheek teeth. When the lower jaw is in a forward position, for gnawing, the upper and lower incisors are in contact but the upper and lower cheek teeth are not; thus, wear on the cheek teeth is avoided. The cheeks are drawn in behind the incisors when the animal is gnawing, so that bits of hard material cannot be swallowed. When the lower jaw is pulled back into the chewing position, only the cheek teeth make contact.

The approximately 1800 rodent species are divided on the basis of their anatomy into 3 suborders. The Sciuromorpha, or squirrellike rodents, include the various species of squirrels, chipmunk, marmot, ground hog, prairie dog, gopher, pocket mouse, kangeroo rat and beaver. The Hystriomorpha, or porpupinelike rodents, include the porcupine, cavy, guinea pig, chinchilla, as well as many species whose name include the term rat (e.g., the South American bush rat).

Hamsters belong to the third suborder Momorpha, or mouselike rodents. Other animals in this category include the great variety of mouse and rat species, as well as lemming, vole, muskrat, gerbil, dormouse and jerboa.

The rabbits and hares were once classified as rodents because of their large, chisel-shaped incisors. However, they are quite distinct anatomically and have a long, separate evolutionary history; they are now classified in an order of their own, the Lagomorpha.

source:types of rodents

First Post - Thank you Russ

Hi! This is my first post for this blog. And i would like to introduce to you my pet. His name is Russ.javascript:void(0)