Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads?

The dog head tilt: you can’t be a dog owner and not like it.

Henlo! Photo taken by the author.

One of the most interesting and entertaining things in the world is watching how your dog responds to new stimuli. Quite often, you’ll get an adorable head tilt out of it.

A completely innocent expression of pure confusion.

But is it just confusion? Confusion itself doesn’t really explain why a dog has to tilt their head. Perhaps there’s more to the story… let’s explore it.

High Level Reasons Why Dogs Tilt Their Heads

Here’s a quick and dirty summary of why dogs tilt their heads:

• Genuine confusion/curiosity
• To see better
• To hear better
• To show possible empathy
• Possible vestibular syndrome or ear infection
• It has been positively reinforced

All of these claims have gained some sort of traction. But they are scientifically backed to varying degrees.

Let’s look at each one in order and see if they make sense.

Genuine Confusion/Curiosity