I got to thinking a few days ago. I was wondering about training the tail-wag on dogs. Is it an involuntary response to a positive stimulus? Can a dog learn to control it?

Here's my idea:
I want a dog to wag it's tail to the beat of a song (like one of those old metronomes that had the needle) or to have it just wag its tail in responce to the sound of a metronome clicking. Does that sound possible? Any comments?
Ideas about how this could be done?

Here are my thoughts:
If a dog was a puppy, and you could somehow rig its tail up to a metronome, and have it click every time the tail oscillates through one period of motion (actually, half a period). Then it would associate the sound with the feeling. After that every time it hears the metronome, it would wag its tail! Do dogs even have a sense of rhythm at all?

The things I think of when I am bored! :)

Dogs have a tremendous desire to please us, very good hearing, and fairly good learning skill. Depending on the breed of course. You'll never see a Lhasa Apso on an obstacle course.

It's possible that you could train a dog to do what you describe. Just because no one's ever done it doesn't make it impossible.

However, I'd advise against tying anything to a dog's tail. They really don't like that.

I don't have any data on how well they understand rhythm or what kind of kinesthetic feedback they perceive in their tail-wagging. I suspect the absolute best you'd be able to do is get one to synch up to a metronome. I very much doubt that a dog would be able to deconstruct music well enough to abstract the rhythm out of it.

However, I'd advise against tying anything to a dog's tail. They really don't like that.
You got that right!

I got to thinking of this because one of my dogs always whacks his tail into the funiture (not to mention my legs!) in a very rhythmic sort of way. I wondered if it was possible to get it to always move at the same frequency, or a freequency set by a metronome.

If anyone knows of any studies of canine sense of rhythm, please tell me!

Speaking of tails, one of my dogs had his tail docked as a puppy. When he wagged his little inch-long stump, it went in a circle, and in a very asymetrical pattern. It was too funny! :)

You could teach a dog to wag it's tail on command, but not at a certain rate I wouldn't think.
They aren't in control of each sweep of their tail. It just wags when they feel a certain way, and the rhythm would depend on the dog and it's mood.
You could train a dog to feel a way which makes it's tail wag on a command, if you were a good animal trainer, but not to wag it's tail to a set beat or anything.
Then again I could be wrong.

What part of the (human) brain controls sense of rhythm, or sense of time in general?

They aren't in control of each sweep of their tail.Zoologists have been discovering recently that many of the rhythmic movements that various animals make are done by putting tension on a muscle that acts as a spring, then letting it vibrate.

This is exactly how we work our vocal chords, for example. We set the tension and the air makes them vibrate. We couldn't possibly control a muscle vibrating at 1 khz by consciously managing each individual motion.

Insect wings work the same way, and probably bird wings as well. I'm sure a dog's tail is similar.

I was wondering about training the tail-wag on dogs. Is it an involuntary response to a positive stimulus?

You may want to try a Pointer Dog. When they assume the point position their tail is stiff and still - showing that they have control over it. Maybe they can be trained to wag it on queue?