I’ve been wondering this for a while. What useful purpose does having a tail serve? It’s not as if they’re used to swish flies away from their @rse.

balance.

Communication.

To wag of course.

Duh.

To knock stuff of the coffee table.

So that Wayne knows when she’s “got a headache”..?

I’ve been wondering this for a while.

Really ,did you forget how to work the internet? 😛

They act like rudders, helping with a bit of counterweight for sudden changes of direction. And as above, for balance. Lots of dogs also wrap their tails round their paws / noses for warmth when sleeping.

Wafting away Doggy farts.

because it provides an advantage, if it didn’t evolution would have got rid of it.

As for the advantages, communication, balance, rudder when swimming etc

To hit toddlers in the face

mine’s seem to be to spatter mud on the ceiling

because it provides an advantage, if it didn’t evolution would have got rid of it.

this is wrong on a number of levels

mine’s seem to be to spatter mud on the ceiling

let’s hope it’s mud…

Because our forebears decided they looked better that way.

Because they don’t use loo roll.

Communication.

^^^This mostly, from what my vet said and everything I have read. See:

http://www.k9puppydogs.com/html/dog_s_tail.htm

Because they’d look silly with spoilers.

To get to the other side.

Because their horns don’t work….

Communication is a big one, obviously when they are happy they wag but a different wag means different things. EG a springer has a different wag for when she is on a scent.

Every time we say “poop” here tails gives a little wag. The faster we repeat “poop” the faster her tail wags. So her tail is powered by poop! 😀

anagallis_arvensis – Member

this is wrong on a number of levels

Like a killing spree in a multi-storey carpark.

All vertebrates have tails. (all vertebrates share the same skeleton structure infact)They have probably kept it for balance purposes, although bit uneccesary on modern domestic dogs

People think the tail helps a cat land on its feet but I saw a video the other day showing how the cat turns the front and rear halves at different speeds to land on its feet. Nothing to do with the tail.

this is wrong on a number of levels

OK, I will bite. Can you expand on why that statement is wrong

Firstly you assume evolution would get rid of the tail, it wouldnt necessarily. Flightless birds have wings for example. Secondly dogs were created from selective breeding not natural selection.

Isn’t it to cover their bumholes? Cos bumholes really aren’t pretty are they?

to save on buying a leash

Firstly you assume evolution would get rid of the tail, it wouldnt necessarily. Flightless birds have wings for example. Secondly dogs were created from selective breeding not natural selection.

First point is very vague so either of us could be correct, although if the tail didn’t provide some advantage it would more than likely have gotten bred out by the Canis, why carry around that extra weight which needs food to sustain if it gives you no advantage over the dog with the shorter/smaller tail.

Secondly dogs weren’t created by selective breeding, they are the result. Which is something completely different as we took wolves with a predisposition to people and they allowed themselves to be domesticated. If they didn’t have this predisposition we wouldn’t have managed to do this as happened with jackals, coyotes and wild foxes in Africa.

something to look at while they’re licking their bits

Don’t most flightless birds still have a use for their wings other than flying though? (genuine question) I’m trying to think of a bird that doesn’t fly which doesn’t use it’s wings for something or other…mating displays etc…?

OK, I will bite. Can you expand on why that statement is wrong

Evolution would not get rid of something if there was no advantage – it would get rid of something if there was a DISadvantage. Subtly different.

As for the selective breeding thing, that’s a bit of a red herring since wolves and other wild canids have them too.

I thought it was a counterweight thing, whilst running. Same reason we move our arms when we run. Running without arms is quite a bit harder afaik.

[/quote]Secondly dogs were created from selective breeding not natural selection.

What do you mean by naturally and nature, are humans not just another species on the planet and part of nature?

from a few days ago, on yellowstone thread

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Don’t most flightless birds still have a use for their wings other than flying though? (genuine question) I’m trying to think of a bird that doesn’t fly which doesn’t use it’s wings for something or other…mating displays etc…?POSTED 33 MINUTES AGO #
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thats a good point but it becomes a bit chicken and egg, do they use them for mating displays because they have them already.
The point is richc evolution occurs not just through natural selecton but often through blind luck and its not a process that leads to “improvement” and “refinment”. Dogs wouldnt necessarily lose tails if they didnt need them even if they were a wild species subject to natural selection. We still have appendix for example.

We still have tails too! Albeit eensy weensy teensy ones. 🙂

richc did not say “improvement” or “refinement”. He said “advantage”

and he was right

I never said he did its implied though in what he said which was

 because it provides an advantage, if it didn’t evolution would have got rid of it.

which is clearly not right as someone else has said if it caused a disadvantage natural selection ( not evolution) may have got rid of it. The appendix in humans has no advantage but we still have them. But it wouldnt have done in dogs because they have been bred by selective breeding.
The simple answer to the original question is that wolves had them and dogs were bred from wolves.

If tails caused a disadvantage, evolution (not necessarily natural selection), would have got rid of them, as richc said
In some cases tailessness has been a desireable trait in dog breeding, resulting in tailless (or nearly tailless) breeds.
i.e. it has conferred an evolutionary advantage

So how come humans keep having burst appendixes? The appendix confers no advantage and can be negative? How come genetic diseases were not evolved out of the human species? Why do turtles and whales have to breath air thats a disadvantage? Why do turtles have to return to land to breed?

And why have people been docking the tails of dogs for hundreds of years?