Why do dogs tilt their heads at people? Is this selling cute?

I believe that many people who have owned dogs will find an interesting phenomenon. Dogs tilt their heads to one side when you are talking to them, and sometimes even when the doorbell and telephone ring, they will. So what is the dog trying to express by tilting his head? Are they just selling cute?

Some scholars have put forward their own views on why dogs tilt their heads, which are actually based on certain facts. What are the sayings? To sum up, there are about three mainstream views. Let's talk about it one by one this time.

The most mainstream view is that dogs tilt their heads to better hear the specific location of recognized sounds. Then why do you say that? Dogs have very strong ears. We can often see that dogs' ears can move left and right, for example, when they are nervous and afraid, they will press back; Another example: when I want to go out to please you, I will also press my ears back; And when you listen carefully, you will be moved.

This is because the dog's ears are connected with very developed muscles, and there is also an area in the brain that controls the movement of the ear muscles, which we call the nucleus accumbens. This nucleus is also responsible for communication, facial expressions and head movements of dogs. This means that when dogs want to express themselves, their ears will move with them because they are controlled by the nucleus accumbens.

In addition, the dog's hearing is very developed, which is manifested in the positioning of sound. In particular, they have a very strong ability to recognize the sound coming from the horizontal direction and can distinguish the specific direction of the sound, including direction and distance.

But for dogs, their ears also have some shortcomings, that is, their ability to recognize sounds in the vertical direction is far less than that in the horizontal direction. Therefore, they need to find a way to recognize the sound in vertical direction. How to use it is: tilt your head and listen.

When the dog's head is tilted, if the sound comes from above, the upward ear will hear the sound, and the downward ear will hear the sound later. Through this short time difference, the dog's brain can estimate the specific location of the sound coming from above, and the same principle can also be applied to the sound coming from below. In this way, the dog can recognize the sound in the vertical direction well. In fact, not only dogs, but also canines have such characteristics, such as foxes and wolves.

In addition to identifying the specific location of sound, some people think that dogs tilt their heads and try to understand what their owners are saying. As mentioned above, controlling the nucleus accumbens of the ear also controls functions such as communication. Therefore, based on this cognition, some people think that there is a certain relationship between dog head tilt and communication. For example, when the owner is talking, it happens to be something that dogs often hear. In order to confirm this information, they will have the characteristics of tilting their heads and moving their ears.

See the master clearly

The third view is more controversial. Many people support it, while others question it. People who put forward this view believe that the dog tilts its head to see who is talking to it. Why do you say that?

Although dogs have a strong sense of smell and hearing. However, compared with humans, dogs have relatively poor visual ability. Not only do they have fewer cones, but the color of the world they see is relatively dim. At the same time, compared with humans, they are still highly myopic. If the dog's snout is long (the mouth and lips protrude forward), there will be a blind spot below the middle field of vision.

You can clench your fist and put the tiger's mouth on the tip of your nose to simulate it, and you can feel the existence of this blind spot well. Many dogs have long mouths, such as Corky and Hal.

When the dog tilts its head, it can see a blind spot that it could not see before. It has also been found that short-kissed starlings rarely tilt their heads, probably because they don't have this blind spot.

Therefore, some people think that the dog's head is tilted to better see the owner who is talking to it. You know, the dog's language system includes voice, expression and body language. Through this language system, they have strong emotional ability. Therefore, it is necessary for dogs to see the owner's expression clearly, so as to better perceive what the owner wants to express.

However, this statement is controversial, because some dogs with short kisses sometimes tilt their heads. Take myna for example. Although they seldom tilt their heads, they do so occasionally. Of course, no matter which of the above three, or all three situations. The dog's "cocked head" behavior is to better adapt to the environment.