Is Your Dog Left-Pawed or Right-Pawed?
Science Has a New Way to Check

In humans, “handedness” means a tendency to use one hand more often than the other. Most people are right-handed. Dogs can show a similar pattern with their front paws, often called “pawedness”.
This is connected to brain lateralization: the idea that the two sides of the brain can be more involved in different tasks. In dogs, as in humans, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right side controls the left side. 
But dogs are not small humans. Their paw preference can be more task-specific, and many dogs may not show one clear preference across every situation.

Researchers from the University of Bari Aldo Moro tested dogs using four types of tasks.
Two were manipulation-based:
1. The Kong test
Dogs were given a treat-filled Kong-style toy. Researchers recorded which paw the dog used first to stabilize the toy while trying to get the food.

2. The food-reaching test
A treat was placed under slightly raised furniture, far enough that the dog could not simply reach it with the mouth. Researchers or owners recorded which paw the dog used first to reach for it.

Two were movement-based:
1. The stairs test
Dogs started from a sitting position at the top of a short staircase. Researchers recorded which front paw they used first when stepping down.

2. The walking-step test
Dogs walked on a loose leash and stepped down from a low platform or curb. Researchers recorded which paw came first. 

Yes, carefully.
The idea is not to force your dog to perform, but to observe natural behaviour.
You can try simple versions of the tasks:

• give your dog a treat toy and note which paw is used to hold it;
• place a treat under furniture where the dog can reach it only with a paw;
• watch which paw your dog uses first when going down safe stairs;
• observe which paw comes first when stepping down from a safe low curb.

Count only clear single-paw uses. If your dog uses both paws, looks uncomfortable, becomes frustrated, or the task feels unsafe, skip it.
Also, count left and right from your dog’s perspective, not yours. 

One of the most useful points from the study is that paw preference may change depending on the task. This matters because older approaches often used only one test and then classified a dog as left-pawed, right-pawed, or ambilateral.

The Doginburgh Inventory tries to give a fuller picture by combining different kinds of movement. The researchers also created five categories instead of three: strong left, weak left, ambilateral, weak right, and strong right. 

In the study sample, there was no single population-wide preference across all dogs. Some dogs showed a clear preference, while others were more ambilateral. The researchers reported that about 32.56% of dogs were strongly lateralized, 46.51% were weakly lateralized, and 20.93% were ambilateral.

A paw preference is not a diagnosis. It does not mean your dog is smarter, healthier, better trained, or more emotionally stable.

But it may be one small window into how your dog moves, solves small physical problems, and interacts with the world. For researchers, pawedness may help study links between brain lateralization, behaviour, emotion, and cognition. For owners, it can be a gentle way to observe a dog more closely.

Try not to read too much into one moment.

If your dog uses the left paw once, that does not automatically make him or her left-pawed. A better approach is to observe several safe tasks over time and look for a pattern. Your dog may be clearly left-pawed, clearly right-pawed, or simply flexible depending on the situation.

Either way, the most important part is not the label. It is learning to notice small details in your dog’s behaviour.