It’s one of the sweetest thing dogs do – tilt their head when we talk to them. Your heart melts every time.
Why do they do it?
As with so many things about dogs there has been little research on this, but there are a range of reasons put forward for this cute behaviour.
Tilting the head might help the dog hear better. Dogs can hear frequencies we can’t, but their ability to detect the source of sound is not as good as ours. Tilting the head makes minuscule changes in the time it takes sounds to reach each ear, so might help them hear better.
We humans do a similar thing when we turn our ears towards someone talking to us at a noisy party, or even cup a hand round an ear to help us hear better.
Some people think that dogs can’t hear our normal voice range frequencies as well as they can hear high frequencies, which might also be a reason for them head tilting when we speak.
Dogs also use both ears to triangulate the source of a sound. Their ears act as stereo receivers, so tilting the head and adjusting the outer ear helps them better detect the source of the sound. This is most probably why some dogs tilt their heads so much when they hear certain sounds on the TV.
The great Dr Stanley Coren thinks vision might also be a reason. Dogs muzzles get in the way of their sight. Just try holding a fist up in front of your nose to see just how much your vision is affected. So, tilting the head allows the dog to better see the source of the sound and helps him to see our faces and read our expressions better.
Dr Coren did an experiment on 582 dogs to test this theory and found 52% of flat nosed breeds tilted their heads when spoken to but 71% of longer nosed breeds did. This statistically significant difference suggests head shape and size of muzzle affects how much a dog tilts his head.
It may be simply a rewarded behaviour. Let’s face it, when your dog tilts his head when you’re talking to him, it’s so damned cute that you melt – and you’ll reward the behaviour with your vocal response. And behaviours that get rewarded get repeated.
Finally, there could be a medical reason. If your dog tilts his head a lot or especially if he walks with his head tilted, shakes his head frequently, or staggers, it could be a sign of an ear infection or vestibular problem. Ear injuries, brain disease, thiamine deficiency or toxic antibiotics can all cause vestibular problems in dogs. Get it checked out by your vet if you’re worried.
Keep training,
Carol