This is an interesting article from the Manuka Vet Hospital blog. It’s called You Can Identify Your Dog’s Emotions Through Its Facial Expressions.
It shares some helpful tips on how to read your pet’s facial expressions. This quote gives us a succinct summary:
The study used photographs of a police dog, as it experienced different emotions. To trigger a happy reaction, researchers praised her. The result was the dog looking straight at the camera with ears up and tongue out. They then reprimanded the dog to produce a “sad” reaction, causing the animal to pull a mournful expression with eyes cast down. Surprise, generated using a jack-in-the box, caused the dog to wrinkle the top of its head into something akin to a frown. Medicine that the dog did not like was produced to stimulate disgust – flattened ears. For anger, a researcher pretended to be a criminal. The dogs teeth were bared in the beginnings of a snarl.
The rest of the piece is full of important information so do check it out.
Read the source article at Manuka Veterinary Hospital > Home