This is a great question, one that none of us really know the answer to. Of course, it actually includes several questions: Do dogs learn to associate a smile with good things? Or a frown? And/or are dogs inherently able to “read” our faces because their expressions are so like our own? Or, do none of our expressions have any effect on our dogs? Do they take cues about our internal states and future behavior from other clues, our voices, our posture?
A friend and colleague sent me information from the just concluded Canine Science Forum in Vienna (thank you Julie!!!) about a study done on that very topic. Anais Racca, from the University of Lincoln in the UK, showed 21 dogs 6 images, two each of a person and a dog looking “negative” (we’d call the human’s face angry), “neutral” and “positive” (classic smiling-faced human, open-mouthed, slap-happy dog). They measured what’s called a “Laterality Index,” or how often the viewing dog’s eyes went left, right or stayed on center. In human research, there’s a suggestion that more negative emotions are processed in the right hemisphere (or left eye) and vice versa.
Their primary question was whether the dog’s would respond similarly to the expressions of the people as they did to the dogs. A summary of their conclusions was that the dogs were more sensitive to the facial expressions of their own species (not surprising) BUT did show different responses to “positive” versus “non-positive” (negative and neutral) expressions in both humans and other dogs. Interestingly, they noted that prototypical “neutral” faces in humans are still evaluated in a negative way (cold, threatening)–thus we tend to lump “neutral” in a similar category as “negative,” and so did the dogs.
Of course, this is a small study, and there are all kinds of issues that it brings up, but it is interesting as far as it goes. Based on my experience, it appears to me that many dogs are adept at reading human facial expressions. Just like people (who we know from Paul Ekman’s research vary greatly in their ability to ‘read’ faces), some dogs are a lot better than others. It would be great to see a study that continued the one above, and that also tried to tease out learned versus inherently correct interpretations of the facial expressions of another species–us.
I’d love to hear what you think… have you had dogs who seemed much more attuned to your facial expressions (or other indicators of mood or future behavior)? If you say yes, tell us how you think you can separate your facial expression from body posutre, voice, etc etc. Just to get you started, I’ll mention that I call Willie “Trisha’s mood ring,” but I suspect much of his response is based on extremely subtle changes in my voice. As soon as I’m done here, though, I’m going to go smile at him!
On another note, I had a great time spending a morning at the Int’l Society of Human Ethologists. Wish I could’ve spent more time there. I especially enjoyed a talk about how people perceive facial structure… (turns out that wider faces, measured at the top of the cheekbones, are considered less trustworthy than more narrow faces. Love this kind of stuff!). I had to leave before a study about the benefits of bringing dogs to the workplace, darn, but will try to contact the author of the study directly sometime in the future.
Meanwhile, back on the farm: It’s hatefully hot here, I feel so sorry for my sheep. No air conditioning for them. It’s making exercising the dogs rough, I’m not good in hot, humid weather, and neither is Willie (he had a heat stroke one summer when I was out of town, and like many dogs, he’s never been the same–though he was always especially heat intolerant. But then, so am I. Me and Willie: peas in a pod.
Here’s Hope and Will playing chase a few minutes ago. Look at Hope digging in to try to keep up. Wow can that little dog haul . . .
Needless to say, I didn’t let them play long. Here’s where they ended up after just a few minutes:
Cassie says
I’m not sure if my dogs understand regular facial expressions,though I suspect they do- but I think
it’s doubly hard since the expressions correlate so strongly with body tension and position as well.
I know my dogs know the “eyebrows up – You are being ridiculous” look. I’m not quite sure what it means other than- “Calm yourself sir” But I may also have a body position that goes along with this.
It does remind me of another question though- When my dog looks at me, then the object he wants, then me, then the object or place he wants, then me, etc… Is this a manner of showing me his intent (please can you release me, I only want to go eat the duck food, see I’m looking right at it) or is it an uncontrollably strong desire to go to that other place that he wants so bad he can barely look at my face?
In other words, can I attract his attention to an object by sending my attention back and forth as well? Do dogs communicate this way to one another? I often see dogs doing this when playing keep away with a toy, before pouncng on said toy- but I’m not sure if it’s intentional or not. I do not think my dogs do this before stealing a toy they are trying to be sneaky about (But then, if they’re being sneaky they’re avoiding eye contact in the first place)
Cindy M says
Trisha, it might be useful to consider and contrast this study with studies done of people with autism and how they process facial expressions. Studies show that neutral facial expressions create the greatest worry and anxiety in autistic people, and this is believed to result from the uncertainty of outcome, ie the unpredctability a neutral face conveys.
Autistic people process human facess in the part of their brain where neuro-typical humans process objects. One might wonder if dogs do the same. Autistic people must consciously learn the meaning behind human facial expressions-they don’t learn the meanings “naturally.” I would guess it would be similar with dogs. I would bet dogs don’t understand the inherent meaning behind human facial expressions, but that they learn to read them, like any antecedent, to understand what comes next.
Roberta Beach says
What a great question particularly because I, for one, have to account for all the non-verbal & verbal cueing I do mostly without thinking. One thing I got from a trainer and then Cesar Millan is to stand tall to direct a command. I get a much more clean, immediate response if I am standing tall asking for a sit either verbally or hand signal, than if I am hunched over – seems then like I am pleading instead of “commanding.” I think when I use a softer, sing song voice, my face must soften, too – I hope so; would be great to get some on video – I am sure I would be shocked.
We are having the hot weather here in MO, too – heat index of 115 today w/dew points in the 80s. Don’t want to see my electric bill for next month….
Lisa says
I remember a study being mentioned on the news once (way, way back, before I was training and paid attention to specifics) that “smiling” at humans was a learned behavior, which they apparently determined when the same dogs did not greet other dogs that way. Don’t suppose you’ve come across any studies like that in your travels?
Shelly V says
Calvin, my male pug mix, is the best marriage counselor we’ve ever had. He is so sensitive to the slightest tension in a room, much less voice, body posture, or facial expression. If he were human, I would categorize him as emotionally austic. He just seems to feel it and know. My husband and I have learned to communicate better because we hate seeing Calvin slink out of the room at the slightest “tone” in our voice.
He is also really good at reading facial expression, specifically. He will sometimes come and stare at me, and I’ll make different faces at him to see his reaction. If I make the excited face, he gets all wiggly and starts trying to lead me to his leash. I figured this out when I started playing with the effects of calming signals when made by humans.
Ah, if only I could say the same for Lucy, my female pug. She is, well, classically female? 95% of the time, she is the biggest sweetie, and then there’s the other 5%. She is sensitive, too, but she doesn’t know what to do with it. We have been working with Sudden Environmental Contrasts for about a year now. :sigh:
Either way, we love them! Tricia, I know what you mean about you and Willie. Calvin and I match like two peas, as well. He’s my Luke.
Kat says
I think Ranger reads the whole package, facial expression, posture, voice, scent, etc. rather than just one cue. I was interested watching my husband and Ranger just a minute or two before I opened the blog. Ranger was soliciting petting very theatrically making a big production about how wonderful it was and how he needed more, more I say, more, right there, more. The more Ranger hammed it up the wider my husband’s smile became and the wider Ranger’s corresponding grin. As my husband started chuckling at Ranger’s antics Ranger began making a panting noise that sounded like he was also laughing. The more he did this the more my husband laughed and the more husband laughed the more Ranger laughed until they were both convulsed on the floor.
Ranger was definitely reading my husband and responding in ways that would please him (after all the more he pleases my husband the more inclined husband is to continue the petting which is pleasing to Ranger). However, I’d be hard pressed to say exactly what he was responding to.
My questions: Do dogs laugh out loud? Did Ranger make a panting noise that sounded like laugher in imitation of laughing, by accident and continued because he received positive reinforcement, something else all together? I’ve seen Ranger laughing silently at a joke he’s played but the vocal sound was new–heh, heh, heh. How I wish I’d had a video camera handy.
Frances says
Sophy in particular is very good at reading both dogs and people, but, as you say, I suspect it is the whole package of face, posture, etc. Meeting dogs and people she doesn’t know she quickly assesses whether they are likely to be friendly, ignores those that are not, and offers polite canine greetings to those that are. If humans accept these in good part, she moves on to her human greeting mode “Hi, look how cute I am, any chance of a biscuit?”
On whether dogs follow our gaze – I suspect this is like pointing with a finger, and something dogs learn to do with humans by experience. Having said that, mine will follow each other’s gaze to see what it is that is worthy of attention (bit like getting a whole streetful of people gazing at the sky!). It seems to be taking them a while to generalise that to following mine, even when I am staring at the toy they are hunting for.
Sheryl says
I’m not sure how much my dog recognizes my facial expressions. I do know I have to make a conscious effort to smile at her because when I’m giving affection & praise my mouth tends to be pursed (“such a good dog” has lot of “uh” sounds), and when I’m training I tend to purse in concentration, so I have to remember to sit there and smile while I’m perched with the clicker.
By the way, I rarely comment but I adore your blog (and your books)
Derrick says
We have a black lab that I’m sure recognizes my facial expressions. He might not understand our kid’s expressions yet but even if I fake a smile he will act differently.
Heidi Meinzer says
Sophie my Shepherd mix is much more sensitive to face, body, voice than our current Lab, Boomer, who just loves life and is happily oblivious to most anything. This current study reminded me of what I found most surprising in the Secret Life of Dogs video you blogged about before — that dogs tend to read our faces from left to right, just like we read human faces. This single fact demonstrates how unbelievably in tune with us dogs really are. Their evolutionary development to be able to “read” us is truly amazing!
Margaret says
I thought dogs didn’t always have the greatest middle distance and close up vision because their eyes are separated by a gigantic schnozz? One of the interesting things that I’ve observed in my pooch is that he’s pretty active in looking for corroborating clues. For instance, he’s, I think, a good little problem solver but has an unusually hard time learning words. But, I’ve noticed several times, if he just gets a verbal command, he’ll look around to check if there’s a gesture that reminds him of what it means or, on a couple hilarious moments in dog school, to check out what the other dogs were doing. I wonder if the hard thing for dogs in the task in this test was figuring out facial expression, which they don’t get as clear a fix on, absent the other corroborating clues (stance, tone, etc) that they’re usually looking for? I vaguely recall a recentish paper on dogs’ performance on interpreting human pointing compared across breed types, which found significant breed variations – herding dogs and others bred for close communication with humans performed the best…as did brachycephalic dogs, in their case, presumably in good part because they could see it better.
Katrin says
When I was competing with Niche in the obedience ring, I condition him to recognize that me smiling at him was a cue that he had done something correct and to continue to do it. When I couldn’t have any other reinforcer in the ring I could smile at my dog and he then knew he’d done something really good and I was please with his behavior. It worked out very well for him. He could very easily recognize my smile and still gets all excited when I smile at him even though we haven’t competed in about 4 years.
Jillann says
My Olivia watches our faces intently. I can also have her follow my gaze to look at something as well as finger pointing.
However, she’s deaf from birth. So many of the ‘normal’ things don’t work for her – clicker training for example.
jillann
Alexandra says
Copper is extremely sensitive to my moods, to the point where I have had to actually work at controlling my level of frustration at the computer or some other project because he will get very up set and engage in all sorts of appeasement behaviors to get me to calm down. Even a heavy sigh from me brings Copper running into the room in distress. But, I do think he keys much more off the total package of my body language and maybe metabolic state than any one thing. He also seems to know the second I wake up before I even roll over or open my eyes. He “smiles” back when I smile at him, though.
My other dog is pretty keyed in to my moods as well, but she is more aloof and certainly doesn’t hang on my every word. She is generally anervous dog and I have noticed that she gets far more worried about negative facial expressions directed at her than Copper does. When those expressions are general anchor directed at her, she just leaves the room.
Alexandra says
That should say “and not” instead of anchor. I post from a mobile device so the autocomplete does strange things sometimes!
Beth says
Hmmm. It can be so hard to tell because sometimes we interpret what we see to mean something that it does not.
That said, I was working on longer “stays” with my female Corgi. She was on a nice little sit/stay, looking a little wilty (ears at half-mast, sort of melting a bit into the ground because we’d been working in a class longer than she was comfortable with). Anyway, I was facing her, and without any other movement that I am aware of, I smiled. I smiled because she looked so unhappy and was trying SO hard to be good, bless her. Anyway, as soon as my mouth and eyes crinkled in a grin, she broke her stay. I guess I normally smile when I release them, and she took that as her release.
My male tries very hard to watch my face while we work, to the extent that when doing heel-work he is frequently crooked on his halt as he tries to shuffle around to get a clearer view of my facial expression.
Karissa says
My dogs absolutely read facial expressions. They know that when I give them a “stern” look, that means listen NOW (generally when the young one thinks staying outside would be more fun). When my oldest completely blows his contact at an agility trial (doesn’t happen much these days, thankfully), I don’t say anything, I just stop and give him a look. He’s high as a kite when he does this, but there is still a small part of him that deflates because he knows I am disappointed in him. All of them can tell when I’m happy or sad and it tends to affect their own moods.
As for this dreadful hot spell, I find that our main (if not only) activities lately all involve playing with the hose or going for a swim at the river. It’s too hot for anything else!
Laura Anne says
I think that my dogs respond strongly to facial expression but probably also are reacting the body language that I am unaware of. If I go into a room with a frown on my face, the dogs stay where they are and don’t approach me. If I approach them while frowning, they lower their heads, their ears go back and they get the “Oh no, what now? What did I do?” look. If I am happy and smiling, they come over the join the fun. Because of physical limitations that keep me from moving quickly and bouncing around, when I want a dog to play, I exaggerate my smile and open my mouth and move toward them. The dogs love it. The Aussie comes over and jumps forward and back to start that kind of “get me” game. The Shepherd-Whatever immediately goes to get his toy, starts squeaking it and brings it to me to throw.
My husband comes from a family that is VERY reserved and controlled. He is a warm and friendly person, but he has a hard to read face that is less mobile than mine. I have noticed that dogs don’t immediately warm up to him.
Now that you have opened this subject, I am going to try to be aware of my facial and body language and of the dogs’ responses for the next few days!
Can someone PLEASE tell me how my dogs know that I am getting up to get ready to give them baths, even when not one item of bathing equipment is in sight??? They leave the room and go to hide!!!
Jessie says
I tend to think my dog does understand facial expressions in humans, although as you rightly pointed out, it’s extremely difficult to isolate a facial expression from our body posture, tension and movement.
Jess will respond to an eye or eyebrow movement! But again, my suspicion is that my body is also echoing that eye or eyebrow movement.
And I’d wonder how we’d accurately separate the dog’s response to a facial movement from our total posture. Dogs don’t fall for faked emotion too often in my experience, at least not in handlers they know well. They’re incredibly accurate observers of our behavior and know when the face isn’t matching the body.
There probably is some ‘dead giveaway’ to the dog of our intent, but I’m really unsure how we could accurately separate our body movement, our tension, our facial expression, our vocal tone, etc. accurately to isolate what determines the dog’s response to us. Or if the dog’s response to a facial expression varies based on all the other things we humans unconsciously do along with those expressions. Maybe the face must be read in concert with everything else, as it usually is in human to human interaction?
Interesting question, though!
Liz says
Just this morning I was driving with the dogs in the back of my station wagon. I looked in the rearview mirror and smiled at Forest for putting his cute little face on the back of the seat to watch the world go by. He caught my eye in the mirror, saw me smile, and started wagging his tail. I noticed it, kept smiling and he kept wagging his tail. At some point I think I said something to him in a happy voice, but I am sure that at the point he saw my face in the mirror he was cuing off of my expression only.
So, I think thats a pretty good sign that he can very much recognize and differentiate my expressions.
He is a sensitive boy, very tuned into the stress levels in our household and while we are out training. I definitely have to make conscious efforts to keep things light during agility. We have made huge strides in that department with a new trainer and with me keeping things happy happy, he has made huge strides in our training.
Carrie says
Two of my three border collies seem to understand that if I give them “the look,” make my eyes very big by opening them as wide as I can and staring at the offender, they need to cut it out and calm down. I also usually freeze my body, so they may be reading that as well, but the offending dog always seems to stop as they make eye contact. It seems to click as they look at my eyes. I don’t know if they can read anything else on my face, but I think they can get a lot from my eyes.
My male border collie just gets me, so I can’t always be sure if he is reading my eyes, tone, body language, or something else. Even if he is in another room and cannot see or hear me he reacts to my emotions. One night he was lying in the bedroom while my husband and I were up watching a scary movie in the living room. The movie startled me. I did not make a nosie, or speak. I just did a little-tiny spasmy jump on the couch. That dog sprang out of the bed in the other room way down the hall and ran directly to me sniffing every inch of me to make sure I was alright. He didn’t turn his head to the speakers, so I doubt the movie itself startled him. I told him I was ok, and he relaxed and ambled back down the hall to the bedroom to resume is nap.
Terry says
I think my 2 deafies are very much in-tuned to facial expressions, far more than my hearing dogs. Then again, is it the expressions or the combination of body stance and other cues that I might be giving. My “No” for them is what I call a “scowlly-face”, with hands on hips. Do they end up learning an association of the facial expression to the rest of the body language? My other dogs I think read more the body language and voice. I know for them my tone says a huge amount, even when I try to keep it neutral.
Susan says
I can furrow my brows and shake my head at Oscar and have the same effect as saying, “No” at close range. Bulging my eyes also works at a slightly longer distance, and I have had other dogs respond to the big eyes, too. If Oscar looks at me just for basic confirmation or acknowledgment, I will simply smile and nod. The big, happy smile comes with more body language, so it’s hard to know if a big smile could stand by itself.
My sister has large eyebrows, and Oscar was clearly scared by her moving them up and down at him. It was probably the first time he had met her, and he had likely never seen such a weirdo! There is no doubt he picks up on strangers’ expressions.
Similar to other comments, Oscar is sensitive to moods and gets particularly upset by crying, arguing or a raised voice. He used to be upset by these on television, too, but now it is just live people, even a passing crying baby. He is my sensitive fellow.
Miki says
Late to this thread, as usual…..
I swear my Tucker (10 y.o. std. poodle) learned to smile by watching my face. He puts on a big toothy grin when he meets people, both those he has met before and new people who are paying some kind of attention to him. I can also encourage him to wrinkle and lift his lips by doing a little tease game – raising my own lips in a toothy grin while talking silly to him.
Yes – it can be scary to people who don’t know he’s “smiling” (I always let them know that’s what he’s doing). And, yes, he’s obviously been rewarded for doing it from those who recognize the behavior as a “smile.” But I still think he essentially learned the behavior from observing my face.
Cora says
I wonder if it’s possible that the dogs in the study had difficulty interpreting the emotion of an image versus understanding the emotion on the face of a real-live human. Without knowing the details of the study, I’m just curious if that would make a difference. I’ve often wondered to what extent dogs can attach meaning to symbols; would my dog respond to a picture of me the same way she responds to the real me? I don’t know, in her specific case, I don’t think that she’d recognize my image. I’ve heard from other people that their dogs “watch” TV and will run up to the screen, for example, if another dog or animal is shown. My dog doesn’t do anything like that (and believe me, I have a huge sample of TV watching to examine!). I also, quite some time ago, saw a dog on Letterman that appeared to recognize numbers, in that he would bark 6 times when shown a card with the number 6, and so on. Is it a question of natural ability/superior intellect or can recognition of images be trained? Would training the dogs in the study to recognize various types of images have made a difference in their ability to interpret the emotions of an image. Like Trisha said (and maybe like all good studies), it raises lots more questions…
Melinda says
I definitely think dogs respond to facial expressions. Try sitting in front of your dog and making a goofy face they have never seen before. My dogs will act with a bit of curious uncertainty at first: “is she playing? I think she’s playing. Is she just being silly? Should I be silly? What are we doing?” Then relax your face into a smile and see what happens.
Years ago when Opie was an unruly shep-o-lescent going thru his “I’ll do what I want” teenage phase, my attempts at verbal corrections were going nowhere fast. But Sparky could control him with The Look. So I started watching Sparky’s facial expression, particularly her eyes and mouth, as she interacted with Opie. Relaxed and open when she was playing with him, closed mouth but a look of serenity around her eyes when she wanted him to lay and watch the world go by, tight-lipped and hard eyed when she wanted Opie to STOP. THIS. MINUTE. I practiced changes in facial expression in the mirror, particularly trying to adopt the hard-eyed Look that was so successful in helping Opie understand that Sparky means business. Lo and behold, it worked! It only took a couple of instances for him to see The Look coming from my face to snap that fellow back into his place in the world. He is now a confident, biddable dog with a whole repetoire of facial expressions. The one I love best his his head-waggling smile.
Sarah says
Can dogs really recognize a 2 dimensional image as representative of a 3 dimensional object? It would never have occurred to me to show my dogs pictures of things, I’d have assumed they wouldn’t recognize the picture for what it is. Now I want to experiment.
I don’t think any of my dogs recognize facial expressions more than the other dogs. I do think they know what a smile is, but that could be a learned cue. It’s something I try to remember to use when I have a dog working in obedience, particularly in Utility when there is frequently a long stressful time before I can offer the dog any other feedback.
Jodi says
Hi Patricia,
I would love to read the study about the benefits of dogs in the workplace. Could you please let me know who the author is and how to access it?
Thanks!
Carrie says
Melinda said “Try sitting in front of your dog and making a goofy face they have never seen before.”
I completely forgot about how much fun I have had doing this in the past until I read Melinda’s comment. If you have never sat in front of your dog and stuck out your tongue, their reaction is hilarious. (Or at least my dogs were hilarious) My older two tried to figure out what it meant. “Do I sit? Is she happy? Should I try and snuggle or shake?” My littlest was convinced there was some sort of thing living in my mouth for about a week. After the first couple of times I did it she would get really close to my face and move her eyes from my eyes to my mouth and back. Her way of saying “Let that thing out, please.” She would jump back when she saw my tongue and creep ever so slowly towards it. She eventually got tired of this game, but I forgot how quickly they all responded to such a change in my face.
Frances says
It is so good to see Will and Hope playing so happily together – it must make you smile every time, after working so hard to get over the early wobbles. I wish we could share the weather more equitably – we have a hose pipe ban (for drought), still have a flood warning, and it is so chilly this morning that I have actually given in and put the central heating on for a bit!
I wonder if an Aunt Sally type set up – a large board, or door with a face sized hole cut in it – may be a way of testing how much of a dog’s reaction is to face, and how much to body language? Sound proofing may prove tricky, however. My dogs know when I wake up, presumably because my breathing changes. They know when I am going to give in and admit to being awake by the intake of breathe needed to tell them Good Morning, which is the release signal that starts cuddles and games. We probably find it just as difficult to control our breathing as we do our expressions …
Dana says
I have two dogs. One who is always at my feet and the other who likes to do his own thing. I have been testing them (for fun) for months to see how they react to my expressions. I always sit still so it’s just my face, I hope, they’re responding/reacting to. My dog, who is always with me, reacts with a cocked head, or will get up and sniff my face if I make an “excited face.” (I never make an angry face.) If I catch my independent dog looking at me and I make an excited face I really don’t get a reaction. There is a huge difference between these two dogs, the one who reacts and is so attached to me has a very expressive face and always seems to be listening when I talk to him, to my husband or am even on the phone. My independent dog does not have an expressive face and sometimes is not listening to me when I have (had) his attention and am talking directly to him.
Melissa says
Here’s the way I see it after raising a wild hare…
A hare is a solitary, flighty animal that relies on running faster than everything that wants to eat it. They have no history of domestication. I got my hare at what I guess was around a week old. You know when you first get a puppy and it feels like chaos for a little bit? It feels like you are deaf and blind and dumb and just can’t find out who this animal is and how to talk to them. It was like that with my hare for about the first 8 months of his life. Then, slowly, over the next 10 months he gradually learnt to talk Melissa. He can’t talk human, only me. He is good with my mum, as she talks like me with her body, but no one is exactly like me. I think he recognises me by the whole package as well. They way I move, how I talk, the sequence I do things in, the rituals I have, how I smell… To him, the most important messages are in muscle tension and balance. This makes sense to me. Hares rely on camouflage to protect them, and when it fails they run blindly as far and fast as they can. I think it behooves a hare to know instinctively if an animal is stalking them or getting ready to pounce, or has spotted them. My hare is scared of stares, body weight forwards, and tense muscles. I can be as nonchalant as I know how, but if I am the slightest bit tense (because I’m going to try to catch him, for example), he knows and he becomes impossible to trick. I usually have to get someone else to catch him. He can be tricked by anyone but me.
So my thought is that dogs probably pay a lot of attention to the balance of weight and muscle tension as well. But unlike hares, they have other cues they are naturally interested in, like eyes and the mouth. My Erik is not bothered by shouting or crying, but you should see him with the appeasement when my jaw tightens and I look at him as I do it. It baffles me, because I have never followed it up with any aversive. I don’t punish when I’m cross. The tight jaw is me trying hard not to hate him until I’ve calmed down. It’s me reminding myself he’s a dog and he doesn’t know any better so I have no business taking it out on him. So why does he feel a tight jaw and hard look means he desperately needs to mend things with me somehow? It doesn’t make sense! Erik has been fascinated with faces since he was about 6 weeks old. His breeder has photos of him looking into her face, and he does this often. He doesn’t just look, he studies! He studies human faces and tries to make sense of what he sees, I think. People he has just met get the most scrutiny.
My other dog doesn’t notice facial expressions, I think. He maybe knows a smile and soft, happy eyes, but he seems oblivious to anything else.
s says
I don’t think my dogs read my facial expressions – they are more in tune with my body language and verbal output (sighs, etc). one of my dogs rides in the front of my car and she watches me a lot so I tried to do smiles and frowns and anger without making any noise (hard to do – even when I tried an aggravated face I had to work not to emit any air out of my mouth at all!) and see if she reacted (at stop signs and such so as not to go off the road) and she didn’t react differently.
She will however at the first start of a raised voice or a discontented sigh react strongly – she takes off to her dog bed as far away as she can be – she gets very upset at loud noise, especially when its negative noise (vs the constant chaotic noises of our household full of kids!). So, I don’t think she takes the time to see the facial expressions – I think she slinks at the first negative tone she hears.
Beth says
Just a thought, but with the huge genetic malleability of dogs, it makes sense to me that certain breeds or types of dogs would be more inclined to have individuals among their numbers that respond to facial signals than other breeds or types. For example, herders and close-working gun dogs were selected to bond tightly to their people and work hard for them. Modifying behavior to suit their humans, and responding to cues from a distance, were crucial to making a good working dog.
Scent-hounds and terriers…. well, for many of them, working closely with a human was just not a big part of the job. Anyone who has ever hunted behind a beagle, for example, will have tales of beagles gone missing during a hunt and not being found for days or weeks. Those stories are rare with setters or spaniels.
Then, within lines, you would have differences among individuals. Even among people, there are some who are good at reading social cues, others who can’t do it at all, and a wide range in the middle who are fair-to-middling at it, or can read people they know well but strangers not at all.
I think this is one area of dog behavior where speaking in generalizations will probably not be accurate.
Donna in VA says
Since I have Max here at work, I did a peek-a-boo experiment. Cover my face w/ my hands, open the hands to reveal a scowling face. Cover, Surprised face. Cover, happy smiling face. Repeated. There was no voice or change in body posture. I got the same reaction from him each time, just staring at me intently. Go figure. I’m looking forward to the dogs@work post – we have a fairly open & cooperative workplace but a dog limit has been requested (1 usual dog, occasional other dog visitors. Max is an occasional dog visitor.)
Lindsay says
Patricia –
I am a huge admirer of your work and your knowledge. I live in Baltimore, where this tragic story has dominated the news headlines this past week:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-md-ar-dog-shooting-inquiry-20100805,0,1509558.story
Please let this story remind us all of how desperately education of dog behavior and dog play is needed in this country.
Karen says
I am glad to see that Will looks soooo happy with Hope!
trisha says
Quick comment, more on this later. Wish I could say that Will and Hope always play well together, but they don’t. They have their good days and their not so good ones. Sometimes Willie is the problem, sometimes Hope (depending on where they are and what they are doing). I’ll write more about this soon, lots to talk about regarding it, but right now am at Best Friend Forever Conference, one of the best behavior conferences I’ve ever attended. About to post right now about one of the talks….. on dominance, what it is and what it isn’t. A great talk by Suzanne Hetts.
em says
Sorry to chime in so late-I’ve been out of town. Otis used to have a lot of resistance to looking at faces in a sustained way-he still doesn’t like too much eye contact, but he sometimes I swear he can read minds. Ultra sensitive is the only way to describe it-he picks up on the most subtle cues. Back when he was in the throes of his reactive phase, any time I felt the slightest doubt or concern about a situation, it was like he became the physical manifestation of my emotions. I don’t know what he cued off of, honestly, because he could do this (get tense/reactive toward a ‘problem’ that I noticed) even when his back was to me. He WAS really sensitive to facial expressions though, especially eye contact. When a person approached smiling and relaxed, he almost never reacted in a tense way. When a person reacted in a nervous but submissive way, avoiding eye contact and skirting around us, he was similarly quite calm. The trigger for tension/reaction was the sidelong glance- a sliding corner-of-the-eye peek. That reaction was really objectionable, either from humans or dogs-possibly because, for dogs at least, it often signalled a dog who was nervous but not prepared to back down. In dogs, the side-eye often presaged a snap or lunge-maybe Otis extrapolated to predict this behavior in humans, despite never actually experiencing it? Thankfully he got over the leash reactivity issue, but he is still scarily good at reading people, especially me!
p.s. Kat, I don’t know if you’ll come back to read this old thread, but Otis and his dog friends often make a ‘chuffing’ sound (mouth open, faces relaxed and ‘smiling’) when engaged in really fun wrestle-play. This sound seems to only go along with very fun play among very good (totally trusted and loved) dog-friends. I’ve always thought of it as laughter.
Joh says
I sometimes ask myself if my dogs are just that good in reading my body-language and facial expressions because I’m so “bad” with words.
I like to think of myself that I’m not much of a chatterbox, but in my dogs ears I must be one 😉 And I can’t help myself I tend to use the same word for different things (e.g. “here” means sometimes “come here” and sometimes “here lies the food, that I dropped and probably some other things…) and different words for just one thing.
So, in a way, if my dog wants to understand me, she has to read me.
Anne says
My dogs definitely read facial expressions. I have been around dogs that did not seemed so tuned in, but I think Aussies are generally very focused on their person’s emotions. I did a test once with Hank. He was lying at my feet, eyes closed, looking asleep. I looked down at him, and he looked up at me. I had a tiny smile and his tail started wiggling. Then I got a huge smile and he jumped up and danced around. So my vote is yes they do.
Ed says
The problem with all this is that many, many dogs are – if not good are reading – at sensitive to our bodies. Have you ever tried to use any of your body-block work while wearing a domino or other mask? 😉
All my critical or “mean” looks include bringing my weight forward and being stiffer and I try to avert my face and pull back a little (this one isn’t instive with me because I want to watch my dog) when I’m not get what I want, especially with Ms. Reactive who percieves my withdraw as very negative (and just about everything else I do or say as the BEST THING EVER!!! YAY!!!). Not sure if dogs read the “mean” face (which is subtle) or the stiff face at all – and if they do, they likely react more to the body.
An Aunt Sally set-up would be very interesting. Although a person who can’t go anywhere is probably the least intersting kind of person to a dog.
It would be interesting to duplicate the Donna experiment with a third-party watching tapes of Donna with the face obscured to ensure that the body posture is the same. (In yoga and dance class, I am often very very wrong about what I am doing with my body, and rely on the instructor, if not the mirror for the sad truth.)
And then there
Ed says
Oh, and one more thing on this – “My husband comes from a family that is VERY reserved and controlled. He is a warm and friendly person, but he has a hard to read face that is less mobile than mine. I have noticed that dogs don
Steve B says
My experience is purely anecdotal, however… In Stanley Coren’s book, “The Intelligence of Dogs,” he has a series of tests, one of which has to do with facial expressions. I haven’t read the book in several years, so correct me if I’m wrong, but the one test has you put the dog in a sit/stay facing you. Keep very still with a neutral expression, then break into a big grin and “measure” the dog’s response. Not very scientific, but it did make me aware of my dog’s responses to my expressions and body language.
About that time there was also an article in the Washington Post: “Researchers Peg East Asia as Origin of Co-Domestication” by Rick Weiss, published Thursday, November 21, 2002. At one point it states “dogs demonstrated an uncanny ability to interpret human communicative cues — gleaning information from subtle hand gestures and even getting the meaning of a human glance…”
This was just my first exposure to the topic. I certainly believe, because of our co-existence for so long, dogs have evolved to read our facial expressions as well as body language, at least to a point.
Elizabeth Deitz says
This is a little off-topic, but I was reading a recent study about cross-species “contagious yawns” between dogs and humans. Fairly interesting findings which you can read at http://scienceblogs.com/thoughtfulanimal/2010/07/yawn_yawn_yawn_yawn_yawn_conta.php
One very interesting finding was that children with autism spectrum disorder do not exhibit this “contagious yawn” . Is it possible that this cross-species contagion is an indication of empathy possibly?
Kim says
“In human research, there
Jana Rade says
Actually, my own experience aside, I saw this fascinating video where they were doing an experiment and proved that dogs indeed to watch facial expressions.
Not only that, apparently our expressions are clearer on the right side of the face, and when a dog put in front of a large screen TV, right side was where they looked.
Unfortunately cannot find the video since 🙁
Nancy Williams says
Trisha.
I have never responded to a blog in my life, and it took me days to figure out how to do this! I was so moved by your story of Hope and Willie, and the difficult decision that you face that I had to comment.
I work with dogs for a living, and know the heartache personally that people face when dogs don’t get along.A rule in our house whenever we adopted a new dog was that put up with our beloved little dog Josie, a feisty Jack Russell. At this time, the same rule applies to my little Sheltie also named Wille. The well-being of your resident dog, of course is always an owner’s first concern!
A number of dogs that we adopted did not “make the cut” and were re-homed. The decision was very difficult but everyone needs to be safe and happy. My heart is with you and your decision.
Soon, I will be getting a puppy (the first time in 20 years as I always adopt) and I will be facing the same problem. BTW, if Hope cannot fit in with your training plan, we all have no doubt that it is not possible.
Loved seeing you, and your talk on emotion in dogs at the Best Friends Forever Conference.
Nancy
Nancy Williams, MA, RVT, ACAAB
http://www.dogswithissuees.com
Debbie Slade says
First I
Savannah says
I think dogs do have varying levels of response to facial expressions, but I don’t know how much of that is lack of recognition and how much is lack of desire to respond. Obviously a dog who is closely bonded with his owner will be more responsive to those expressions he recognizes.
My own Standard Poodle is incredibly adept at reading my moods. I’m sure lots of this is body posture, etc., but I can get him to respond to face alone. Big smile= wagging tail. Widen my eyes comically and he’ll launch into a rapid fire series of play-bows, barks, snorts, and bounces– clearly an invitation to play, but not one he’s ever offered under any other circumstance.
Francis Armond says
Hello everyone.Im glad that i found this site. You see im a dog groomer at a reputable corporation,been doing so for 5 years now..On average i see about 4 to 6 clients a day 5 days a week. so thats 20 to 25 dogs every week. I have come to realize that dogs do react to our expressions, there is no question in my mind..If i am combing a dogs coat, and run into a tangle and it pulls against the dogs skin, the dog would usually yelp and then immediately stare at my face, once they see im not angry they just go back to their regular stance..I have some clients whose dogs stare at my face during the whole grooming process. I dont stare back at the dogs, but i will usually smile at them occasionally followed by groomer talk, which is baby talk for dogs.I even have one client who has to keep one of my hands inside his mouth while being washed..in my mind hes saying” Screw up once bud. and ill rip your hand off”.
Every single dog i groom will scan my expressions frequently throughout the 3 hour process..
Well time for work now, i will be more aware of this today and will make a mental note of all the dogs i do and how they react to my expression, ill even try a few frown faces… well bye and keep posting.
casey says
I’ve been in a family that always had dog or two, currently we have two black labs. I think both of them exhibit the ability to recognize my facial expression based on how much they wag their tail. If i smile at my dog when shes, for example, laying on the floor of my kitchen, she’ll wag her tail and smile back the way most dogs show happiness, but if I make an exaggerated frown, she immediately stops wagging her tail and looks coy. I think that the way you raise your dog has a lot to do with the way they respond to your face but it just makes sense that, in parallel, we as humans can recognize dogs emotions (tail under the legs, ears raised, smiles, anxiety) as well. It’s not just coincidence that dogs appear to be smiling when happy just like humans do, why is it so far-fetched to think that dogs can associate facial expressions with mood?
Erick says
I firmly believe dogs can read the expressions as signals. if you ascociate the frown witha treat the dog will lern the frown is a positive signal, rather than negative. now this may be counter productive in most cases since the frown is usually indicitave of a negataive response. I know my dogs, all 3 shar pei, will respond to a smile in a positive manner. I can be working at my office desk and if one comes and places their head on my lap for some attention if I welcome the distraction from my work or whatever I happen to be doing I will smile and the tails begin to wag and the doggy smile appears, of course I usually floow this with other affection, so in my opinion the smile becomes precursor to a reward. if I am too busy to take the time for affection at that point, a mild frown gets the reaction of my dog stepping away to try again later. they usually will repeat the head in lap every couple minutes untill I relent and give them the attention. which of course re-enfoces the place head in lap for attention. but the reactions to the smiles are key in so far as they have learned the smile produces good results the frown produces nothing. I must emphasize that I do not punish or scold after frowning, I jsut frown then ignore the dog. and this produces the result of the dog ascociating the frown with no reward.
I believe they can interpret the smile and frown based on the reward/or lack of. most people dont smile when their dogs rip open the trash, and most people don’t frown when their dog does a new trick, so in my opinion at a very young age they learn to interpret the smile/frown as positive and negative signals. I do not believe its innate for a dog to respond negatively to a frown, if they have never seen one they have almost no basis for comparison. sure dogs smile but they also show teeth for other reasons. maybe if a dog having never seen a smile before were negatively re enforced every time they saw a smile they would interpret it different.
I am far from expert on dog behaviour in any sense, I can just comment based on the interactions I have had with my own dogs and experiences. if you smile every time you take away your dogs favorite toy I believe the dog will quickly learn that the smile means its going to lose its toy. it will become then an at least partially negative signal. it might even begin to confuse the dog as to the meaning of the smile if you smile when punishing (aka taking the toy) and smile when rewarding. how great the confusion I cannot say. it may just learn that the smile is irrelevant as a que to situations and in the future ignore the smile or frown and use other ques to base its reactions on.
other facial expressions can be just as important as signals to my dogs. my shar pei when they wish to play will approach do a play bow and growl if I raise my eyebrows they know from me the game is on because, for some reason I tend to raise my eyebrows and begin playing, its just a habit of mine and they have learned that it means playtime. if its not the proper time for play I generally just shake my head I cant think off hand weather I frown or provide other signals as well but they tend to move on some times after attempting to get me to play again as if I didn’t understand their first que.
so to sum up my rather long winded (sorry) comment I believe they can interpret face signals after they learn how they apply but I do not believe it to be innate for dogs to recognize human facial expressions. the re-enforcement for the facial expressions began as soon as we started interacting with our dogs so it may well be one of the first ques they learn to interpret.
I apologize profusely for my many typos and grammatical errors this lap top and slow wifi is not kind to me with this tiny keyboard since my typing skills are rather poor at best, I do hope I do not come across as an uneducated lout I am just not much of a typist.
serge says
my dogs recognize that a smile = safety.
im really strict with them and i dont like them to touch me most of the time. but when i smile at them they know its okay to approach me and be affectionate.
Flora says
I have an extremely emotional husky, she literally cries when she sees me after school or my parents after work.My dog necognizes when I’m sad (or at lest I think so). Whenever I have something on my mind or when I’m sad she comes and puts her head on.my knee and gives me a “what’s wrong?” look or keeps giving me her paw! Its so adorable.. also when I smile to her she moves her tail and gives me a big smile back!! Of course my high voice exites her more.. I’ve never been able to disapline her but whenever she did something wrong my dad would give her an annoyed stare looking displeased and she would look away lowering her ears.. so I guess she kinda feels what we feel 🙂 oh and from what I remembet when she was a pup she used to be scared when I wore my glasses, she seemed like she didn’t recognise me, now its not a problem though 🙂
Min says
Many thanks so much! That is actually good to hear!