Do Dogs Smile?

The answer to this question is yes! Dogs do smile. Experts believe that they have learned how to smile by copying humans.  When they lift their lips in a smiling fashion, they tend to get rewarded for that body language, so they repeat it to conciliate their owners. Studies have shown that it has become a form of submission and a definite sign of happiness. Smiling evolved as a learned behavior by dogs. Dogs can read a human smile and can read an angry human face. They have learned that a smile is positive, and a frown is negative. 

Dogs have been domesticated for 30,000 years and have been bred by humans to form creatures that do not exist as wild animals. Have you ever seen a poodle in the Sahara Desert or Amazon Jungle? Dogs have evolved to be undoubtedly dependent on humans and have developed to communicate with them. Over the long centuries, dogs were shaped as a result of selection, based on human preferences. 

You can tell when your dog is sad after being scolded by seeing their droopy eyes that refuse eye contact. You can also tell when they are smiling by their lifted mouths and tails wagging. Dogs do not have as many facial muscles as humans, and therefore cannot form the complex expressions a human face can. While their facial muscle anatomy is not as powerful as humans, it is significantly more substantial than their close relatives, the wolves. Behavioral data shows that dogs produce more intense eyebrow movement and use their facial cheek muscles more often than wolves. There is no doubt that a smile or a slight grin is visible when your pup is happy.

If you want to test out this theory. Give your dog a delicious Fully Bully Stick and see how wide they smile. Play with them, cuddle them, and reward them. As they learn your facial expressions and know it is time to play, you too can learn their facial expressions and know when they are happy and smiling.