this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five

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Why does Dog and Human language differ on what shaking head means? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 8 hours ago by allo@sh.itjust.works to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
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Dogs even not trained by other dogs shake their entire body (like shaking head but entire body) as one of the common ways to express 'im comfortable, good, everything is ok'. When I communicate to my dogs in their language, I often think when doing a shake for 'yes its ok', that this is one of the unusual areas where dog communication and human communication is nearly opposite and I'm curious why. Why does a human shaking their head mean No while a dog doing a similar shake, but of their whole body, translate not explicitly but very closely to Yes?

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[–] celia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Even among humans this varies, I remember that in some countries shaking your head horizontally means yes and vertically means no. This means it is a cultural behaviour in humans, but an innate behavior in dogs. I don't think it makes sense comparing those two behaviors.

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 3 points 8 hours ago

India is the one that I know of that differs in some way. I'm sure there are more.

[–] allo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 hours ago

thanks. secretly that's what i thought :)