Why do dogs wag their tails? You asked Google – here’s the answer | Jules Howard

As luck would have it, this is rather a prescient question for me right now. At home, we are attempting to coax a neurotic four-year-old out of a dog-bite avoidance technique that works as follows. Upon seeing from a distance any four-legged animal that may or may not be a dog, the four-year-old elucidates an escape response that involves her climbing the torso of the nearest adult and wailing an ear-piercing song of terror that is deeply embarrassing to her zoologist father. Her new-found fear of dogs is understandable, however. Our pet cat (he of” fame) is now no more after being killed by two huskies that had escaped in the night from their owners. While explaining this news to the four-year-old, the two specific words “DOGS” and “KILLED” seem to have become clogged-up somewhere in the digestive system of her cognition, hence the sudden phobia which we are working hard as a family to resolve.