• Tail Wagging?? My Duna never wags at us, but you know she's pleased to see us as she comes up to you with her ears down and has a grin on her face. she wags just a little, when she meets other dogs, but just slightly. Will she wag as an adult? I do miss those happy wagging doggy tails!!!!


  • Tail is too stiff to wag, and way to undignified.It cant uncurl.

  • Houston

    Otis does wag his tail ever so slightly and he puts his ears down when he greets you, and this morning he said 'Good Morning" when I let him out of his crate….his first "real" (?) Barooo deep from his thoat..yeah.


  • All 3 of mine wag their tails…
    Brando (tight curl, flips back & forth - not as animated as Liyah's) wags his when he wants to play with Ruby or Liyah or is about to get his dinner.
    Ruby (loose one curl, actually moves more than Brando's) only wags hers to welcome me home.
    Liyah wags non-stop (tight curl, flips wildly back & forth)...for play, food, attention...anything that makes her happy, which is pretty much everything. 😃


  • Gossy's tail is a tight cinnamon bun so it looks odd when she "wags" it - usually only when she's on scent of something and then it just wags kind of slowly (if you can picture what I mean). Sometimes she'll wag it when I come home from work and usually just flattens her ears (makes her look earless :)).


  • My Basenji mix died and I'm going to get another soon.. I was wondering: Can you tell when they're only a few months old if they're going to be waggers when they're adults?

    My mix wagged his tail pretty much non stop whenever he was standing. He was always really happy. Whether playing, if I had a toy, when I said anything to him, when I got home, when he was following me around, anything. Only time he didn't wag was when he was relaxing, pointing, or eating.

    It would be very very weird for me to have a dog that didn't wag their tail. If they wag as a puppy will they wag when grown up? I worry that their tail will change or something and it stops wagging.

  • Houston

    I don't know needless to say since my puppy is only almost 5 months, but he has coinsistantly gotten to be more and more of a wagger. it is so cite to see that cinnamon bun wag ever so slightly on his back, I love it.


  • @innociv:

    My Basenji mix died and I'm going to get another soon.. I was wondering: Can you tell when they're only a few months old if they're going to be waggers when they're adults?

    My mix wagged his tail pretty much non stop whenever he was standing. He was always really happy. Whether playing, if I had a toy, when I said anything to him, when I got home, when he was following me around, anything. Only time he didn't wag was when he was relaxing, pointing, or eating.

    It would be very very weird for me to have a dog that didn't wag their tail. If they wag as a puppy will they wag when grown up? I worry that their tail will change or something and it stops wagging.

    My 5mo b-pup, Liyah has been a serious wagger since before I took her home at 11 weeks. She still is a big wagger (maybe even bigger)…I don't anticipate that changing as her personality is super happy, outgoing, playful and wiggly. Everyone she meets always comments about how happy she is and practically wiggles out of her skin :D:D. Her personality reminds me so much of another Eldorado bitch I know (Liyah is also from Eldorado, but only distantly related to that girl) that is 2 years old. I anticipate Liyah behaving very similar to this other girl when she is older (the other girl was just like Liyah as a pup).


  • Well I wondered because I don't think not wagging their tail doesn't mean they aren't happy. But I like lots of tail wagging showing their happiness..

    Thanks though!


  • Out of all my B's I only have had a couple that were real tail waggers… baby puppies at about 5 or 6 wks will begin to wag their tails if they are going to be big tail waggers (at least in my litters)... and I agree wiht innociv, not wagging doesn't mean they are not happy puppies/adults...


  • @tanza:

    and I agree wiht innociv, not wagging doesn't mean they are not happy puppies/adults…

    Oh, I completely agree…dogs have many different ways of showing happiness...tail wagging isn't everything.


  • I have had, over the years a variety of tail 'expressions' - I had one that her tail would just slightly undulate, several waggers, a couple of tip waggers, and the previously mentioned - helecopter rotar tail. Sometimes it is VERY subtle.


  • There's a B who goes to the same dog park I do - his little tail is so curled it nearly curls around twice - when he's happy or wants to play that little tail opens up a little and wags like a spring - it's adorable!


  • Aww that's cute.

    That's why I wondered. I've kind of noticed it seems it's harder for them to wag when it's tightly curled. The ones with less curl more often seem to be waggers. But sometimes they still try either way, or they'll uncurl it some when they wag to wag it easier.

    Thanks for the responses!


  • My Ty has a tightly curled tail, not even to one side or another, straight over the back and curled within it's self. He wags for greetings (hula like gyrations from the hips down with the tail going 90 miles an hour). Katie has a loose curl and NEVER wags unless she's done something wrong and thinks it's funny.


  • Jaycee wag's her little bun and her butt very cute and she is so happy when she is doing this.

    Rita Jean


  • My Duna Never wags her tail at us, but howls with happiness and her ears are straight backwards…I wish i could see her little tail wag like other dogs do!!! 😞

  • First Basenji's

    Hee hee I just read all the posts about tail wagging…....made me smile. We call it "wobbling" in our house. When we come home Haley's tail "wobbles"........just adorable.


  • @Basenji_Boy:

    I find the tails very interesting. Some of ours wag tails, some don't. Our domestics have tails you couldn't uncurl if you wanted to….unless you broke their tail. The African's tails are very loose and go limp when they relax or sleep. When the AF female eats, its completely limp, hangs straight down.

    Just an observation based on what I see with mine.:)

    Hmmm…
    Are we risking introducing hemivertebrae by breeding for tighter and tighter curl in the tail in domestics?

    -Nicole


  • @Kalima62:

    My Duna Never wags her tail at us, but howls with happiness and her ears are straight backwards…I wish i could see her little tail wag like other dogs do!!! 😞

    Kananga doesn't wag his tail much really either. He will, however, do his "happy spins" and then take off running with a B-500. It's almost like he's winding himself up. I laugh every time. 😃

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