Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads?

By on March 9, 2012

What Makes A Dog Tilt Its Head To The Side?

In our ongoing series on dog body language and, quite frankly, because our dogs just do some things that make us ask why? We take a look at the curious case of why dogs cock or tilt their heads to one side. Come on, hands in the air, who hasn't laughed and giggled when observing their dog hear a strange noise and responded with a clockwise head tilt in their efforts to work out what's going on. I'll bet there are even some of us who've gone out of our way to actually MAKE the noise that prompts the dog to cock its head. It's amusing to us. But why do they do it?

Why do dogs tilt their heads


Theory No 1 on Why Dogs Tilt Their Heads


Other Dogs Tilt Their Heads For Different Reasons


Your immediate response is to say something like, “Awwwww, like at Buddy with his head turned to the side, how cute!”, followed by lots of petting and soothing tones. This is a reward, and some dogs may have turned their heads to the side a few times in the beginning, but soon enough learned that this will give them lots of that lovable attention.

So if you have ever given a dog this kind of attention after it has tilted it's head in a really cute way then you have just positively reinforced that behavior. And you know what? The dog will remember this and might do this more often – not to hear better, but to feel better.

Human Speech & Your Dog


Trying To Absorb Every Sound He Can



So, trying to understand why a dog tilts his head we learn it's probably down to the dog trying to understand us or the strange noises of our world. It's been said that a dog who tilts their head to the side is showing intelligence. A very subjective position to take. Canine intelligence is still a largely disputed area of scientific study. A clever dog is not always a dog who happens to be what we like to call 'obedient'. However, head tilting by dogs does tend to suggest an advanced propensity to want to understand and identify an audible stimulus.

Well, that's enough of the serious talk on dog head tilting, let's get to the real reason your here....videos of dogs tilting their heads!

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One Comment

  1. Kevin

    April 24, 2013 at 12:23 am

    “Awwwww, like at Buddy with his head turned to the side, how cute!” Should be “look at Buddy”

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