What kind of faces does your dog make?
It may sound like a silly question but think about it for a moment. Haven’t there been times when you could swear your dog was smiling at you? Or, depending on what he had just done, grinning at you?
Now, I’m only talking about dogs here. I don’t want to hear about how your parakeet seems to perk up when you enter a room or how your turtle yawns when you talk to it. And don’t even get me started on cats. Cats are inscrutable.
I bring all this up because of something that happened the other day with our dog, Ichabod. Michelle and I both decided on the dog’s name but I’m proud to say that I am the one who gave him his middle name, Tyberious. So our dog has the regal-sounding full name of Ichabod Tyberious Smars. (I did it for the acronym, I must admit…)
We were in the living room, watching tv. Ichabod was sprawled out on the floor near the patio door, snoring away. He suddenly roused, stood up and shook himself awake. Michelle called him over to her, saying “Come here, Ichabod!” Instead of obeying Michelle he turned and jumped onto the couch next to me, plopped himself down and looked over at Michelle.
“Well, fine. Be that way!” Michelle said.
Ichabod continued to stare back at her and I laughed a little. Then Michelle said “Don’t give me that look!”
It might just be proper husband training or natural instinct (I’m not sure which) but I assumed Michelle’s remark was meant for me, so I said “What look? I didn’t give a look!”
“Not you,” said Michelle impatiently. “The damn dog. He gave me a dirty look!”
“What?” I cried.
“A dirty look,” Michelle said.
“Really?” I said. “A dirty look from the dog? What kind of dirty look?”
“After he ignored my command and jumped up on the couch he turned around, looked at me and raised an eyebrow!”
Fortunately I was too busy laughing and was able to suppress the natural urge to pat the dog on the head and say “Good boy!” I was in enough hot water by laughing and taking the dog’s side. If I had added praise for the dog into the equation, I’d have been a goner, for sure!
I guess I had never considered the idea of dogs having facial expressions. That’s probably due in large part to the whole “blind guy thing”. I mean obviously I’m not going to SEE the facial expressions. But I have noticed some of Ichabod’s physical reactions to certain situations. This would include his joyous “welcome back” routine he performs whenever we come back home after what he considers long absences, like when we go grocery shopping or run errands or visit friends or take the garbage out.
I’ve also noticed a reaction from him which I can only describe as disgust, like when we try to feed him vegetables or when I fart on him. Oh yeah, I have farted on the damn dog, and proud of it! Serves him right, sometimes! There have been times when we’re both sitting on the couch and, if I’m leaned up against the arm of the couch, I’m pointed in just the right position. I let one loose and wait. Sure enough, in less than a minute he gets up off the couch with a “huff” sound and goes off to lay on the floor. Like I said, I can’t see the look on his face but his reaction smacks of disgust. But I will not be fart-shamed by a creature who digs in the garbage and licks his own “nether regions”. Nope! Not happening!
All of this made me wonder if there had ever been any zoological studies or scientific research into the question of canine facial expressions. Of course, being the nerd I am, I had to look it up on the internet. The internet and search engines are what turned me into a nerd. I’ve always been curious about weird things since I was a kid. But being curious about silly questions back in those days meant having to go to the library and plod through heavy, boring books and tomes to search for answers, which snuffed out all of my curiosity on the subject at hand. (Note for all readers born after 1992: back in the stone age, a.k.a. B.G. – Before Google – the only way to do research was going to an actual, physical building outside of the home where they kept a bunch of books).
So I did a search for zoological studies on canine facial expressions and, you know what? There have been quite a few of them! Feeling that my nerdiness was now well-justified nerdiness, I checked out a couple of these studies. The first dealt with the divergence between wolves and domesticated dogs at the following website:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-61110-6
I think this was a study done in England or some European country because I noticed that my spell checker was going crazy over words like ”colored” and “behavior”. The English/Europeans like to add a “u” into those words (i.e. “coloured” and “behaviour”). The auto correct also didn’t like how they would use an “s” instead of a “z” in words like “contextualised” and “emphasise”.
Anyway, this particular study pointed out the differences in how facial expressions originated and were used by wolves (Canis lupus) and domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). With wolves a lot of the expressiveness relied on head shape, shape of the neck, mane, eyes, ears, muzzle, lips, slope of the neck and coloring (oops, sorry, my Brit friends, I meant “colouring). The same factors applied to domestic dogs but once they diverged into different breeds with cross breeding and genetic mutations some of the facial expressions and meanings for them were radically different from their wolf ancestors. To quote from the study:
“For example, Rottweilers and Pugs have flopped ears, brachycephalic faces (short, broad skulls and shortened muzzles) and pendulous lips. The eyes of the Pug are also relatively larger in proportion to the size of its head, and the forehead of the Pug is greatly wrinkled compared to the wolf. In addition, the visibility of the main conveyers of facial expressiveness of dogs such as the Komondor is greatly diminished as they are mostly hidden beneath their dreadlock fur.”
Whoa! They said a mouthful there, didn’t they? But it makes sense. I mean, a poodle is descended from wolves but obviously the facial expressions of Mitzi the Wonder Poodle are going to be a tad different than those of White Fang!
The other study I looked at was trying to determine if dogs facial expressions were different if being presented with food or a treat alone or if, while it was being offered, the human presenter was in direct visual contact with the dog. I found this study at:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12781-x#:~:text=Dogs%20produced%20significantly%20more%20facial,attempts%20to%20communicate%20with%20others.
I’m not going to do a spoiler alert here with the findings from this study, even though I know you’re all dying to know! But I can only base my opinion on my personal experience with our dog, Ichabod.
Here’s an example: I trained Ichabod to eat his dinner first before he gets a treat. One of his favorite toys is a plastic rollerball mounted inside a plastic ring. The rollerball opens up and that’s where I put the treats in (i.e. jerky treats, biscuits, liver snaps, etc. I close up the rollerball, throw it down the hallway and he runs to snap it up. He proceeds to roll it along the floor, trying to get the delicious morsels to fall out of the hole in the rollerball. Yum, yum!
If he brings me his rollerball and he hasn’t eaten his dinner, I look at him, point to his food bowl and say “You have to eat your dinner first. Go eat.” The only reaction from him that I can personally attest to is that he drops to the floor, lets out an audible “huff!” and lies there, pouting. Michelle has confirmed that Ichabod is giving me the stink eye when this happens.
I look at Ichabod as he lays there, pouting and ask him “You eyeballing me, boy?”
No response from the dog, he continues to pout. I turn my back and walk away. Michelle starts laughing and says “He’s looking at you as you walk away. And he’s smiling!”
Damn dog.