Pawedness in Dogs - is your dog a left-paw or a right-paw? And if so, what does it mean?
Not
only would being a leftie shape your dog's personality, it has a massive
influence on whether a puppy will pass or fail Guide Dog School. Recent
research by Guide Dogs NSW has indicated that dogs who are right-pawed more
likely to graduate Guide Dog School than south paws!
It's
all to do with what's called brain lateralisation. That's where different
hemispheres of the brain do different jobs. So the right brain is largely in
charge of the fight-flight response - fear, anxiety. Whereas the left brain is
largely in charge of jobs like eating. And because the nerves cross over,
right-pawed means left brain biased, whereas left-pawed means right brain
biased.
Decades
of research in other species shows that right-handed animals tend to be more
bold and inquisitive, while left-handed animals tend to be more fearful and
cautious. So perhaps it's not surprising the more anxious lefties did worse.
However, one of the best guides to Guide Dog success, believe it or not, it's about which direction dog’s hair whorls in... Pioneering work in cattle found that the position and direction of the hair whorl had a large bearing on how anxious or bold cattle were.
No-one is sure exactly why, but it's something to do with skin and brain development in the embryo, and it's independent of paw preference. And it turned out that counter-clockwise dogs were twice as likely to graduate as the clockwise. Which astonished NSW’s Guide Dog School...
So
the perfect candidate for Guide Dog School should in theory be right-pawed, left-eyed with
an anti-clockwise whorl...
View this intriguing video by ABC Catalyst Team:
where is a dog's hair whorl? I found a couple on my pup's tail bones which mirror one another, so one in each direction. I found some weaker whorls on her chest area that seem to all go counter clockwise. But this article seems to point to some specific whorl- where is it?
ReplyDeleteBelow the neck, in the middle of the chest, you'll see the left side hair pattern clash with the hair on the right side. This is the chest whorl. In dogs with short hair, it's easier to see which direction it's growing.
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ReplyDeleteA typical issue of all canine proprietors is their Dogs licking their paws. For what reason do a few Dogs lick or bite their paws? There are a few reasons so how about we show them first and see what is your puppy's reason. I find https://pawsometalk.com/ this very good website about thet pet. You can visit this site.
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