Dogs have evolved 'face reading' skills to detect if their owner is happy or sad

DailyMail.uk ^ | 30th October 2008 | David Derbyshire

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Well, the parasite worked its way in, for sure, but I still thought of him as a pig with fur.

[RepoGirl]

Heheh, your PLJ sounded like quite the character. My father had a Golden Retriever -- smart dog (when he had to be) but a real card -- total clown. He too had a thing for toilet paper.

But his big trick was "walking the girl". My dad would say, "Tycho, walk the girl!" and Tycho would look up at me with this expression on his face that seemed to say, "Isn't this hilarious?" Then, he'd take my hand or wrist in his mouth and lead me around the room.

The last year of Tycho's life overlapped with the first year of my rottweiler's life. They were smitten with each other, and they used to play and nap with each other. To this day, Ursa has a very gentle nature, with traits that sometimes remind me of Tycho. I wonder, especially considering the differences in each breed, if some of Tycho rubbed off on her. Sense of humor, sweetness, and a bizarre love of paper products.

[MortMan]

Learning is not evolution, IMO.

[Snurple]

Suzie is real good understanding the kids moods. If they are in a bad mood she makes them forget it.

[GladesGuru]

Cat in the Kettle

Did you ever think when you eat Chinese,
It ain’t pork or chicken but a fat siamese
Yet the food tastes great so you don’t complain
But that’s not chicken in your chicken chow mein
Seems to me I ordered sweet and sour pork
But Garfield’s on my fork
He’s purring here on my fork

There’s a cat in the kettle at the Peking Moon
The place that I eat every day at noon
They can feed you cat and you’ll never know
Once they wrap it up in dough, boy,
They fry it real crisp in dough

Chow Lin asks if I wanted more,
As he was dialling up his buddy at the old pet store
I said not today, I lost my appetite,
There’s two cats in my belly and they want to fight
I was sucking on a Rolaids and a Tums or two
When I swear I heard it mew, boy
And that is when I knew

There’s a cat in the kettle at the Peking Moon
I think I got to stop eating there at noon
They say that it’s beef or fish or pork
But it’s purring there on my fork
There’s a hair ball on my fork

[tpanther]

yup, in essence evolution itself IS intelligent design.

[JoeProBono]

The results are in for the "My Dog Looks Like Obama or McCain" Photo Contest!

[CSM]

“Now for the sad news (somewhat off-topic): I had to euthanize my old dog Rupert today.”

I’m sorry to hear about your loss. My Mocha Girl Dog will say a special woof prayer for you tonight after I break the news to her. Someday you will rejoin Rupert at the golden bridge.

I know you provided a wonderful life for Rupert and in time you will celebrate the good times. Until then, mourn for your loss......

[CSM]

Dang, you have a gutsy boy! My girl wouldn’t be anywhere near such a scary thing as the vacum cleaner.

[xsmommy]

oh i am so sad for you!

[ClearCase_guy]

You brought up the topic of dogs and wolves. I have zero interest in that. I posted here on the topic of dogs and human facial expressions. Care to discuss that?

[rintense]

Yeah, he chewed the cord off so I had to buy a new one. Last night, he was chewing on the old one again. He just started doing it so I’m really confused why.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

When it comes to animal pets, I'm starting to believe in reincarnation.
Old Prior Lake Jake lived to be about eight years old and then developed a fast growing cancer on his lower jaw which was inoperable. We kept him home in his last winter and when the ice finally went out on Prior Lake, he got to have one last cold swim before the Saturday morning we had the vet put him down.
Our summer was long and lonely without him and we were still missing him at Christmas when wife brought home a big Christmas tree, grown in Michigan. Christmas morning, wife asked if I was pulling some kind of trick; there was a medium sized tree frog that had thawed out when we brought the tree inside, and he was jumping from one ornament to another.
I caught him and took him downstairs where he nestled into the Bermuda grass plant, next to old Jake's bed. The frog spent the winter with us, sometimes on the window soaking up sun, sometimes burrowed into the Bermuda grass. The following April, I collected the frog and introduced him to the Minnesota outdoors where he (she?) and progeny continue to live to this day.

[Lady Jag]

Dogs are much smarter than humans give them credit for. Even those who don't look too smart.

[Lady Jag]

God bless you, what a heartwarming story!

[CSM]

Is it a large dog? If so, is he 2-2.5 years old? If so, then my guess would be rebellion. If not, then I have no clue....they might be able to read our minds, but I can’t read their minds.

[allmendream]

You posted your objection to the use of the term evolution about dogs.

Evolution is the only available scientific explanation for how wolves became dogs.

You obviously cannot supply an alternate explanation, yet object to the scientists use of the common explanation.

Do you withdraw your criticism? Do you offer a different explanation? Or do you think scientists shouldn’t use scientific explanations that offend you?

[rintense]

He’s still a pup, 10.5 months. Its an attention thing, I’m sure of it.

[Daffynition]

It goes deeper than facial expressions ...

[TASMANIANRED]

Dogs didn’t evolve.

Dogs are breeding experiments conducted by humans to pull the traits out that they wanted from Wolves.

Dogs are genetically engineered.