Do You Know When Your Dog is Sad? Understanding Our Dog’s Facial Expressions
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Dog lovers know that guilty look on our dog’s face when he swipes a piece of bacon from the kitchen counter or decides every paper towel or kleenex in the house is his personal property. We also know when our dog is happy and sad, but did we know there was real science behind our four-legged friend’s facial expressions?
Scientists believe that as humans we have evolved side-by-side with dogs for the past 100,000 years, and have developed a natural empathy with dogs. A study found people are able to identify a precise range of emotions in dogs from slight movements in their facial expressions.
Humans are naturally attuned to detecting how their pets are feeling and can correctly spot when the animals are happy, sad, angry, scared, or even surprised and guilty, the experts say. Volunteers were shown a range of different images of the same dog and they were able to detect the exact emotion of the animal.
Dr. Tina Bloom, a psychologist who led the research, said: ‘There is no doubt that humans have the ability to recognize emotional states in other humans and accurately read other humans’ facial expressions.
‘We have shown humans are also able to accurately – if not perfectly – identify at least one dog’s facial expressions. Although humans often think of themselves as disconnected or even isolated from nature, our study suggests there are patterns that connect, and one of these is in the form of emotional communication.’
The study, published in the journal Behavioural Processes, used images of a police dog named Mal as it experienced a range of different emotions.
Researchers praised the five-year-old Belgian Malinois to make it feel happy resulting in the dog looking straight at the camera with its ears up. Mal was then reprimanded to trigger a ‘sad’ reaction, causing the animal to pull a mournful expression with eyes cast down.
The surprise was generated using a jack-in-the-box causing the animal to wrinkle the top of its head into a frown.
Range of emotions: During the study, volunteers were shown a range of different images of the same dog and they were able to detect the exact emotion of the animal
To stimulate disgust causing Mal’s ears to flatten, scientists fed him some medicine, and nail trimmers were brandished to create fear causing his ears to prick up and the whites of the eyes to show. To elicit anger a researcher pretended to be a criminal causing Mal to snarl. The photographs were then shown to 50 volunteers who were split into two groups according to their experience of dogs.
Happiness was by far the easiest emotion to recognize with 88 percent of the volunteers correctly identifying it. Anger was identified by 70 percent of participants.
About 45 percent of volunteers spotted when Mal was frightened, while 37 percent could identify the relatively subtle emotion of sadness.
The canine expressions that were hardest for humans to identify were surprise and disgust. The study by Dr. Bloom and Prof Harris Friedman, both from Walden University in Minneapolis, found those with minimal experience of dogs were better at identifying negative emotions. She said this was perhaps because dog owners convinced themselves their pet was not aggressive and so the associated facial expression was just playing.
The animal psychologist is now hoping to explore whether this apparent natural empathy with canines was something we shared with all mammals.
Beverley Cuddy, the editor of Dogs Today, said dog lovers would feel vindicated by the research. She said: ‘I am not at all surprised science has finally accepted what we knew all along – dog and owner communicate perfectly well without words.’
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I use this logic on the wifey.
OMG!!! NO!!! I’m not saying she’s a dog!!! oh eck….. 😉
Mike, they left a couple out like the “poor, pitiful me look” when the dog is manipulating for a treat. Rascal is one of the best at this. Or how if you watch his eyes he will look at you and then at the food on your plate so there is no doubt what he wants. In our house we have Rascal and a 17 year old cat that simply allow us to live in the house and serve them.