When a dog shakes water off its fur, the action is not just a random flurry of movements — nor a deliberate effort to drench anyone standing nearby.
This instinctive reflex is shared by many furry mammals including mice, cats, squirrels, lions, tigers and bears. The move helps animals to remove water, insects or other irritants from hard-to-reach places. But underlying the shakes is a complex — and previously mysterious — neurological mechanism.
Now, researchers have identified the neural circuit that triggers characteristic ‘wet dog’ shaking behaviour in mice — which involves a specific class of touch receptors, and neurons that connect the spinal cord to the brain. Their findings were published in Science on 7 November.
“The touch system is so complex and rich that [it] can distinguish a water droplet from a crawling insect from the gentle touch of a loved one,” says Kara Marshall, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. “It’s really remarkable to be able to link a very specific subset of touch receptors to this familiar and understandable behaviour.”
Research article was featured on the cover of this issue of Science, with a glorious picture of a brown bear doing the “wet dog shake” (https://www.science.org/toc/science/current)
Research article: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq8834
Please let me know if there is paywall
And you expect to… Change my mind… about something I already agree with you about… You’re not very good at convincing people are you
The technical mumbo jumbo is greek to me, so all I can read is “Why do dogs shake when they are wet? Because they can feel the water!”
I trained mine to do this when I say shake. I hope nobody tries to go for a handshake on a rainy day
Why dog no shakey when in water?
Did you read it? Because of the high sensitivity. Their skin can tell between a bug and a drop of water. Submersion would feel even more different, not triggering the response
Am I really being shamed for making an obvious joke comment. Like fr this topic is niche I’m not gonna pay to read an article so I can more accurately shitpost on the internet.
