My dog isn't wagging its tail.. why?

[lorenpinkish02]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

So, as you can tell from the title, my dog isn't wagging her tail. Now, I found her when she was about 1 or 2 months old on the street, she was beaten up and dirty, she couldn't walk normal either. I was looking for a dog anyway, so I decided that I will take her home. After a while she healed and she became a grown healthy dog. However, now she is about 2 or 3 years old and she won't wag her tail for some reason. I try to give her everything she wants most of the time, as long as it's healthy for her, and I take care of her all the time so she won't fell lonley or sad. She is a small dog by the way. I don't really know her breed to be honest, I get told different answers. When I pet her, go on a walk with her, or what so ever, she never wags her tail. She doesn't seem sad or scared, she enjoys being outside, all though she isn't the type of dog that will like every single stranger, she just ignores them. But even when she's happy she doesn't really wag her tail, only a few times a day for a couple of seconds or when I call her name and she starts running until she comes next to me. Any ideas why? I know that not every single dog wags its tail, but she barely even does that, and because of her past I don't know if she is unhappy or something, I don't know what her owners did to her or if it was another dog, but I'm just curious and a bit upset both. Any answers would help. Also, as you can tell it is a female dog, I don't know if that would help though.

 

[gypsysmum2]

I would, first, rule out some sort of discomfort by getting a vet to check it.

It may be that she came from a bad home where her mother and litter mates did not wag their tails.

You could try really encouraging her, when you see a tiny wag, with a happy voice and smiley face to see if she will wag it more.

 

[ireneadler]

When I was growing up, my parents rescued a female labrador from a dog rescue place. She was 2 years old and we suspect she had been abused by her previous owners. She NEVER wagged her tail for a good year after we got her. She was very timid, quiet and appeared just generally sad. After lots of love and attention and time- at least a year, she started to wag her tail and then it never stopped wagging

I'm not saying this will also happen to your dog but just that if she's had a rough start in life it might take her time to trust you and to feel secure. It could be that her prior survival depended on her being timid, quiet and submissive and not drawing attention to herself. Dont give up hope