Angry or
happy? Dogs can tell the difference by looking at people's faces. But, do they
understand what the expressions mean? Dog owners believe this to be the case,
but there is no scientific proof.
Deutsche Welle, 19 Feb 2015
 |
| Angry or Happy - For the Dogs it's like a quiz: The winner gets a treat. |
Mailmen and
dog-owners are well aware of the fact that an angry face or friendly smile can
trigger very different reactions in dogs. A team around veterinarian Corsin
Andreas Müller has published a new study in "Current Biology" -
describing an experiment that makes use of human facial expressions. The researchers
showed that dogs are able to differentiate between two distinct human facial
expressions, one being "angry" and the other being "happy".
 |
| Professor Ludwig Huber supervised the study |
But for the
experiment it was not enough to bring an angry or happy man together with a
dog, says Professor Ludwig Huber, who supervised the study and holds the chair
for Comparative Cognition at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.
"Dogs smell and hear very well, but their vision isn't so good. So it's
possible they perceive the moods of humans not visually, but in other ways. We
know, for example, that humans can also convey fear to other humans by emitting
pheromones."
So the
scientists had to make sure the dogs participating in the experiment would not
be distracted by any smells, sounds or movements. The solution: Touchscreen
monitors, on which the faces would be displayed. "The dogs had to touch
the screen with their snout to get a treat," Huber explains. "So the
dogs had to find out, which of the facial expressions would deliver the food –
and most of the dogs found that out in training."
Not just
smiling teeth
 |
| Dogs that were trained with smiling mouths, later recognized happy or angry faces by just looking at the eyes. (photo: Clever Dog Lab Vienna) |
But to make
thinks more difficult, the researchers presented the dogs with a mere
cross-section of the face – either the area around the eyes, or the area around
the mouth. This was to make sure the dogs didn't simply learn that a smiling
face with shiny white teeth– resembling a long horizontal white bar – meant
food.
Instead the
dogs had to learn to read the entire facial expression with all its details.
"We didn't just show the dogs new faces and cross-sections. They even
passed the most difficult test: Dogs that were trained with the lower half of
the face around the mouth were subsequently presented with the other cross
section and had to differentiate between "angry" and
"happy" – only by seeing the area around the eyes."
In other
words: The dogs had to draw conclusions about the smile just by seeing the
eyes. This was only possible, because the dogs were able to imagine how the
other half must have looked like. "The explanation is: Dogs that remember
angry or happy human faces from their day-to-day-life fill in the missing
cross-section automatically," Huber says. "They clearly draw on such
memories in the tests. So they must be capable of distinguishing between faces
and facial expressions."
 |
| Dr. Andreas Corsin Müller - lead author of the study |
Do dogs
understand the meaning of a smile?
But one big
question remains: Do our four-legged friends only distinguish the two, or do
they also understand what the expressions actually mean on an emotional level?
The experiment was not conclusive on this count, but some observations of the
scientists suggest that dogs do understand more than meets the eye: Dogs that
were tasked with touching the "happy" faces were much less hesitant
to do so.
"It
took us almost three times as long, to train the other group of dogs to make
contact with the 'angry' ones," Huber recalls. "The task for both
groups was essentially the same, but the dogs were reticent to touch the angry
face on the touchscreen – and that suggests that they are capable of perceiving
emotions and interpreting them." And if you ever lived together with a dog
– you would probably not doubt that.
Related Article:
Question:
Answer: Thank you,
dear one, for this question! This attribute of vibrating higher actually goes
both ways with animals. It really depends on how you're vibrating at the
moment. Sometimes your light shines so brightly that everyone notices: the
animals, the security people in the airport, etc., etc. [Kryon humor] Truly,
you can set meters off and blow out lightbulbs in some cases. In those states,
animals only see you as powerful and unusual among Humans.
When you
"pull in" from power mode, you present yourself as neutral to an
animal, and therefore are very safe. An animal will then see you as allied with
nature, and no threat at all. What you have to learn is what mode you're in,
and how to control these things. Try using the "rainbow filter"
that's described in this teaching by partner Jan Tober:
(Page 339 -
Kryon Book Nine - The New Beginning)
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