The way dogs wag their tail can tell you a lot about how they’re feeling. Now a new gadget claims to translate these wags into emotions so that owners can record the highs and lows of their pet’s day.
Dubbed TailTalk, the sensor attaches to a dog’s tail and works in a similar way to a Fitbit to measure both movement and speed.
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Left wagging, according to its creators, often suggests negative feelings such as anger or aggression. Meanwhile, right wagging happiness or excitement.
But because dogs move around so much, this bias in direction often goes unseen by humans.
The gadget, invented by New York-based firm DogStar Life, is designed to pick up on these subtle cues from a tail wag.
“It basically combines an accelerometer and a gyroscope much like the Fitbit, but it’s picking up on the way the tail is moving,” DogStar Life chief operating officer and co-founder Mike Karp told Yahoo News.
“The idea is to capitalise on all the research that’s been done in the last two to three years on what tail movement means, and translating that into emotion.”
The TailTalk device sends data it has collected throughout the day to a TailTalk app for iOS and Android via Bluetooth.
The information appears in the form of a graph, which allows owners to add key events and times into a notes section to keep track of what their pet was up to during the day. It also provides a happiness score for each day.
Karp hopes the information will enable owners to create a more stimulating and happier day for their dogs.
The firm launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise $100 000 to develop the technology further. In six days it raised $36 272.
What a dog’s tail wag means
– Left wagging (when facing the direction the dog is looking) suggests negative feelings such as anger or aggression.
– Right wagging is indicative of happiness or excitement, according to recent research.
– Broad wagging suggests a dog is happy and isn’t threatening you.
– A slight wag, with each swing of only small breadth, is often a tentative “hello.
– A slow wag with tail at “half-mast” shows the dog is feeling insecure.
– Small, fast movements suggest the dog is about to either run or fight.
– Daily Mail
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