Dogs tilt their heads to suit their liking

Experts say the real answer has to do with your dog’s understanding of others. Dogs are extremely good at reading and reacting to our body language and vocal cues. When you train your puppy to get treats from the cabinet, your dog will still get them even if your original message was lost in translation. The same goes for when you reward your puppy. Dogs have the ability to recognize specific human speech, so when you talk to them, they turn their heads to hear the specific words and inflections associated with fun activities like eating and playing.

The head tilt is related to the structure of hearing

Their head tilting movement is also related to the structure of their ears. While dogs can sense frequencies that humans can't hear, their ability to detect the source of specific sounds isn't as good as ours. A dog's brain can calculate tiny differences in the time it takes for its two ears to hear a sound, so a simple head tilt can provide them with useful sensory information. Some experts believe that when dogs tilt their heads, they are adjusting their auricles, or outer ears, to better determine the source of the sound.

A dog’s perspective determines its head tilt

Stanley Coren of Psychology Today magazine believes that a dog’s field of view can also cause it to tilt its head. If you try holding your fist in front of your nose, you'll get a better feel for your dog's field of vision. When your dog is looking at someone talking, his muzzle will block the lower part of his face, and if you turn your head to the side, you can see better. To better get emotional cues from the sounds of our voices, dogs can also read our facial expressions. Coren says that when dogs turn their heads to the side, they do so to better see our mouths, which is where our facial expressions originate.

If your dog always tilts its head, it means that it is more considerate

If your dog often tilts its head, it means that they are particularly considerate. Some experts have suggested that dogs with social phobia turn their heads less often when listening to people talking. If your dog doesn't turn its head when listening to you, you don't have to automatically label them as an antisocial dog (especially if they have pointier ears or a flatter muzzle). Even if a dog's head tilt is nothing more than instinct, when dog owners respond positively to their actions, they will tilt their heads more frequently in order to be rewarded.