The most predominant theory about tail wagging is that it is a gesture of friendship or even submission, but what about reports in which men are bitten by tail wagging dogs? or dominant dogs wagging towards submissive dogs? I dug up an interesting theory today:

“ Tail wagging is indeed a state of conflict. But the conflict is arising from the following condition, it is the state of the body vibrating with more energy than the body at that moment is able to conduct given whatever action is currently available to it. In other words, there is more energy trying to go through the pipe, the dog’s body, then the pipe can accomodate. Wagging the tail is the body’s physiological response for dissipating the excess energy. It would feel better to the dog if the body could process the energy in a straightforward active range of behaviors, for example making hearty physical contact, but for a number of reasons which we’ll discuss when we consider the nature of fear, it can’t.
Hence the state of conflict.”

for the entire article, check out Natural Dog Training

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