why do cats and dogs have different feelings when moving their tail?

Question

when dogs move their tail it usually means they are happy and excited but when cats move their tail it means they are agitated and pretty upset with something. Anyone know why?

Answer 1

because they are two different kinds of animals

Answer 2

A cats tail has many uses. It's used as a balancing pole, it tells other animals that their aggitated, or happy, excited, or just calm.

Have you noticed that the tail twitches when they hunt? That's an excited stage.

It doesn't always mean they're aggitated or upset. Usually when they're aggitated, their fur stands up.

Cats are, and always will be mysterious creatures. What they do, and how they act, can be many different things. They unpredictable, and often moody, but they make great mousers! LOL

When a dog wags it's tail, it's usually happy, but that's if they body is relaxed. If the body is tense, it's saying that it's aggitated, or ready to fight. A wagging tail isn't always a good sign. If the ears are back, and the body is relaxed, it's happy. If the tail is wagging sort of slow, and the body is tense, it's ears are up and head is down a little, it's ready for a fight. That's the easiest way to tell if a dog is friendly or not. Cats on the other hand, don't really show much when they're going to attack, a human at least, unless they're standing the way they do when they're hunting.

Answer 3

Ahhh good question, but thats not necessarily true.
Dogs can wag their tails for a few main reasons and it looks differently. They are happy/excited (the tail is at normal height), or they could be aggressive (the tail would be erect and high up), or afraid (which the tail would be tucked low) 3 different emotions but all wagging.
Cats can move their tails for the basically the same reasons. Just the tip of their tail flicking means they are curious or scared, the entire tail kind of flopping side to side usually means aggression, they are happy when their tail is straight up or moving in a question mark shape.
Its all about body language! Try watching your animal or other animals when they move their tails, you'll see the difference! Great question by the way!

Answer 4

Actually, when a dog wags his tail, it means... it could mean a lot of things, from "I'm happy to see you" to "I'm not sure what's going on and I'm agitated." Depends on the position of the tail (up, down, neutral), speed of the wag, and type of wag (graceful sweep or jerky), plus position of the ears, head and/or body posture...

See, it's not as simple as most people think, as anyone who's been bitten by a wagging dog can tell you.

One thing that is true, generally - when a cat's preparing to pounce, it often waves its tail. When a dog's preparing to pounce, it often keeps its tail high and still. Why? Theories abound.

Answer 5

Cats have different ways of communicating just like any other animal. Cats meow when they are happy or when they want something (most of the time anyway) and when they are mad they wag their tales slowly, to show you they are mad before they launch at you. It is kind of a warning for some cats. Thats just how they express themselves I guess. There is really no way of telling exactly why they do that, It will always be a mystery I guess.

Answer 6

Well thats just the way god made them and somtimes cats do that because when they get petted it feels good so they`ll swish their tail.

Answer 7

That's the God made them, and guess what they do not really come with good instruction books. Sorry, but when they show the teeth we all know what that means!!

Answer 8

They are two different species and different species have different body languages.