Might just be sociological affectation. Located in the middle/inner ear and brain stem, the vestibular system is responsible for balance and coordination. Even though dogs have a far greater reaching spectrum of audibility than do humans, they do not have as acute of a locator of the sound they hear. Wolves tilt their heads when listening just as your dog sometimes tilts hers. Their head positioning makes a huge difference when it comes to hearing most minuscule undulations in frequency. There is a simple solution to this problem: tilt your head. In many Asian and European cultures, this means "crazy.". That’s why your dog might tilt its head when you make strange or unusual noises. People from south Indian states such as Kerala are very enthusiastic head-wobblers, whereas in the mountains of north India, the gesture is less common. Despite being able to hear an incredible range of frequencies, dogs can’t locate the source of a sound as well as humans can. One of the most adorable things dogs do is tilt their head when we are talking to them. Has anyone else noticed that dogs do it too? "Head-cocking in primates typically occurs during visual inspection of objects. Cute, right? I always kinda thought we were actually mimicing dogs to just as a way to communicate that we're confused or pondering something. are the answers written over there or something?". Not so cute, however, are underlying medical causes for a head tilt. Certain African tribes, rather than scratching their heads to 'think', actually rub their noses with their index finger. The brain that controls the middle ear muscles also controls vocalization, facial expressions, and head movements. So when we coo and smile and giggle when our dogs adorably cock their heads at us, perhaps we are just positively reinforcing the behavior to happen more. Birds in general, do not have the stereoscopic vision that humans have, since their eyes ate too far apart on their heads to focus the way we do. There was an ask post about this a while ago (primarily to this expression's use in movies, if I recall correctly) but my hunting hasn't revealed it yet. The secret of attractiveness is all in a tilt of the head, according to a new scientific study. Attractiveness is all in tilt of the head. But is that all there is to it? Discussion Ideas Why do dogs, wolves, and other canids tilt their heads when listening?… [4], The gesture is common throughout India. A form of nonverbal communication, it may mean yes, good, maybe, ok, or I understand, depending on the context. SCIENCE Do dogs and wolves hear better when they tilt their heads? An unenthusiastic head bobble can be a polite way of declining something without saying no directly. Dogs tilted their heads to the left after hearing these. Sometimes we give the dog a treat or are motivated to provide them with some other reward like a car ride or a walk. Indeed, dogs tilt their heads not only in response to human voices but also any odd noise they've heard. Sometimes when we encourage our pups to do things with too much frequency because we think it's cute or funny, it can mask an underlying problem. The canine head tilt melts our hearts each time and causes us to shower them with smiles and encouragement.It’s quite possible you’ve found that perfect noise to make them tilt their heads, or perhaps your dog just does it randomly. I've actually given this some thought recently, and I think that, regardless of what the origin of this behavior might have been, we just do it now because it's so recognizable. This indicates that, like humans, dogs process language in the left hemisphere of their brains and emotional content in the right — and the head tilt is a bodily reaction that helps canines differentiate between the two. 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