Dogs are excellent communicators, which is one of the reasons they make such excellent friends. They express their feelings significantly more openly than most other animals.
As it turns out, they do this because they are aware we are watching them, and we have established that humans are visual beings who respond to facial clues.
Dr. Juliane Kaminski filmed dogs in different situations at the University of Portsmouth’s Dog Cognition Center to see how much their facial expressions changed when people were around.
“The findings appear to support evidence dogs are sensitive to humans’ attention and that expressions are potentially active attempts to communicate, not simple emotional displays,” Kaminski said in a statement.
If dogs made facial expressions when they were excited, for example, Kaminski expected to see them when they were given food treats.
However, Kaminski shows in Scientific Reports that the 24 dogs in her study demonstrated no difference in facial response when given food while no one was looking.
On the other hand, when dogs are aware of human attention, they raise their brows, which makes their eyes appear larger and more attractive. Dogs that were aware of their surroundings also displayed their tongues and vocalized more. They were, however, no more likely to sit or stand.
Kaminski conducted her study on a variety of dog types and ages to ensure that her findings are representative of all canines. She filmed the dogs on a lead with a person standing a meter away, occasionally staring at the dog and occasionally distracted by something else, so they faced away.
DogFACS, a coding system that tracks canine facial muscle movements, even those that aren’t visible to humans, was used to keep track of the canines’ reactions.
Domestication has altered both dogs and humans over thousands of years. As a result, they are significantly more receptive to human interaction than other animals.
Previous studies have shown that dogs are more likely to steal food when a human’s back is turned, and they can only follow a human’s gaze if eye contact is made first.
In this context, it’s unsurprising that dogs alter their facial expressions in order to provoke a human response. Even said, some human facial expressions are involuntary, and it has generally been assumed, even by Darwin, that animals’ facial expressions are determined by their internal condition, not their audience.
Domestication, on the other hand, is not essential if an animal is sufficiently intelligent. Certain apes have been observed to vary their facial expressions depending on whether they know anyone is watching.
Credits to: IFLS
