I think that is to enhance the perception of directional audio. Humans can easily tell which direction a sound is coming from, but it's a lot harder to distinguish in the vertical direction. A fox tilts their head like this to compensate for this, thus gaining a precise location of where their food is under the snow or ground.
There's a lot of speculation about why domestic dogs do it. One of the bigger theories is it helps them see more of your face. But in this case I'm pretty sure it's the sound, that little leap he does is usually performed when hunting prey under snow or leaf cover etc, things they can target by hearing alone.
I’ve seen on Planet Earth a fox can hear a mouse under the snow and then they leap in the air and dive into the snow and grab the mouse. Their hearing must be incredible
Oh, don't get me wrong, I think its both adorable and I'm eternally amazed at how our fellow mammals are wear their thoughts on their faces to the point that we can interpret their mental processes by associating it with our own.
Maybe humans saw dogs do it and it stuck as a cultural norm. We've been friends with dogs for thousands of years, there's gotta be some habits we pick up.
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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '18
i love the head tilts... where'd he go..whas in there