When You’re Smiling, Your Dog Smiles With You

My Standard Poodle Raja likes to sleep in during the morning. Hours after everyone in the house has gotten up, Raja is still asleep under his blanket, dead to the world. Eventually he gets up and walks around the house looking for people to say “Good Morning!” When I see him coming down the hall, I smile at him, reach out and give him a morning massage while his tail wags furiously. If I pay attention, I see that he is smiling too.

I have always assumed that he is smiling because he loves the petting and the massage. It makes me feel good to pet him, lowering my blood pressure, which already is rising with the stress of the coming day.

But could he be responding to my smile? If I were asked this question a few months ago, I would have answered, Of course not!

Now, however, there is an article in the journal Animal Cognition by four researchers in Japan who say that dogs can indeed recognize the smiles of their owners (Nagasawa et al. 2011. Dogs can discriminate human smiling faces from blank expressions. Animal Cognition online 26 February 2011).

In their experiments, the researchers trained five dogs to respond to photographs of human faces. During the training phase, the dogs were shown two photographs: the smiling face of a university student, and the back of that student’s head. They were rewarded for choosing the photograph of the smiling face.

Then  the experimenters showed each dog a photograph of their owner’s smiling face vs. their owner’s face with a neutral expression, repeating this ten times with each dog. The dogs chose the photograph of the smiling owner’s face between 80-90 percent of the time, significantly above chance levels (chance would be choosing the smiling face and the neutral face 50 percent of the time each).

The experimenters then went one step further and showed the dogs photographs of the smiling face and neutral face of unfamiliar people of the same gender as the dogs’ owners. Again the dogs chose the smiling faces between 70-90 percent of the time.

The last experiment turned out to be something of a puzzler. The experimenters showed the dogs both smiling and neutral photographs of faces of the opposite gender as the dogs’ owners. Now the dogs fell to chance levels, suggesting that they couldn’t tell the difference between the smiling face or the neutral face of someone with whom they weren’t familiar. This last response suggests that it isn’t just simple conditioning where the dogs have learned to respond to a smile, regardless of the face.

We can ask why. Maybe dogs have to learn that the smile on their owner’s face is associated with positive things, such as a food reward, a walk, or strokes. Or maybe dogs just feel good around their owners and not as good around other people. Maybe they feel particularly good when the owner’s emotion, expressed as a smile, washes over them. Clearly we still have a lot to learn about this.

But I know one thing. I feel good when I see Raja coming down the hallway, and I am pretty sure that Raja feels good when he sees me smiling.

--Con Slobodchikoff

Comments

[Nicole]

Funny, but I also communicate with my pets (cats and dogs). I really believe that these domestic animals can understand people, not verbally, but via nonverbal communication. I'm sure it's true that when you're smiling, your dog would most likely smile as well.

http://wannareadyou.com

[Renee]

My German Shorthaired Pointer smiles with teeth. Yes, it is a smile because her attitude is soooo different than when is warning with baring teeth. She only "smiles" when we come home after hours of being gone and for me when I'm ready to feed her. Her body is wagging (not just her tail) and her head lowers with the top teeth bearing. Her tail is wagging out of control and her eyes are almost shut. When she's angry, the tail does not move, the eyes are wide open, and she is completely (almost) still.

It's so cute to see it, but I can't capture it on video. I just don't know if it's her or in the breed. I do love it though. :)

[Kerrie_eccles]

Even my bulldog, with his saggy, baggy face and apparently not noted very highly for intelligence, smiles at me. I love seeing his upturned face and big grin when I come home from work. He also smiles at other people he loves, when they come through the door, but woe betide strangers entering, which does demonstrate that not only does he recognise different people, he can tell their facial expression too. He is very susceptible to moods and will come and cuddle me if I am low or upset, I therefore wonder whether obedience is a real sign of intelligence? He is very headstrong and will not always obey commands but surely emotional intelligence is perhaps something to consider?

[ahimsa]

there has been a research study made in germany by dr. Dorit Fedderson-Peterson about smiling dogs. my dog and i participated in this study. when he is happy he will be showing all his teeth, wrinkle his nose and lick quickly over the nose, this will be show in a fast frequence. DOGS DO SMILE!

[dog health problems]

Nice experiment! In my opinion dogs will respond with your voice, face and also your movement. When I jogging in the morning my dog will run too.

Thank you for good information.

[Cheryl]

I have always wondered if I should smile at my dog. I worried it might actually scare him. This is such a great article, shedding light on a subject I have always wondered about. Glad I am not the only one! :-)

[Karen]

I love this article! I believe dogs are definitely smart enough to pick up on our moods... including smiling! My dog is happier when I am happy. Another thing that helped me was using this Charlotte Dog Training company. If anyone in the southeast is having dog problems I would recommend the Dog Wizard!

[kblover]

I'm not surprised, in fact, I'm almost like "duh" because dogs are masters of body language. That makes it no surprise to me that a dog can tell one person's smile from another.

There's probably other factors involved too like scent, overall look of the face (like Wally could probably tell me from a bunch of light-skinned people just by the color of my skin), and probably subtle things we aren't aware that we even give off.

It's great to have scientific validation, but it's more a cause of confirming what I already know/believe instead of a new discovery for me :)

[dog agility training]

First of all let me say that this is a Great write up and I appreciate your work. Frankly speaking I didn't needed any Animal Cognition report to prove that dogs can actually recognize their pet owners smile. I own a 3 years old labrador who has been very responsive to me looking at the expressions that I have on my face. He certainly understand what I am trying to express and he feels the same way. Although it will be rude of me not to appreciate the work dome by the community. Thank for the post! Anna Taylor