Posted on 12/12/2018 2:52:09 PM PST by ETL
One of the things that makes dogs so special is the myriad ways in which they manage to communicate with you. There’s the way they stare at you when you’re eating dinner, the speedily wagging tail when you come home after a long day, and the goofy grin they give you when that belly rub truly hits the spot. But why dogs smile actually has more meaning than you might think.
According to the experts at the ASPCA, a dog’s smile can be characterized as a display of the front teeth, normally paired with a lowered head, wagging tail, flattened ears, a “soft body posture,” or squinty eyes.
While a dog’s smile could indicate that they feel happy around you, according to the experts, in most cases, it actually means that they are showing their submission to you.
In fact, according to doghealth.com, a dog’s smile is merely a gesture of appeasement or nervousness as they attempt to tell you that they like you enough to give you full control over their well-being. In other words, they are indicating, through that smile, that they will not challenge your authority because they like and trust you.
Aside from communicating a sense of fulfillment, a dog can also learn to smile from you, a phenomenon called laughter contagion.
In most cases (whether or not you take notice), according to Purina, your canine pal will often reciprocate your own smile at the moment, grinning back at you to communicate the fact that they consider you a companion.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I love dogs! ...AND this is exactly the type of hard-hitting journalism I’ve come to expect from Yahoo News. Great report Ashley!
Do dolphins “smile?”
there was a saying “never trust a smiling dog, for he will turn on you in a time of need “ back when I was 19 or 20. I still did and found it’s pretty true in male dogs almost never true with a female that considers you hers.
Borrowed the teeth from the new congressperson from NYC...
AO-C.
That’s a bunch of baloney. Anyone who’s seen a dog in a very happy moment smile at you knows it’s not some sort of weird submission thing.
The following is attributed to Lewis Grizzard...
So, Ugga ran out to the middle of the football field during the big Georgia Tech game and sat down right there on the 50-yard line and commenced to lick his private parts. Up in the stands Billy and Jimmy were watching the whole show with their binoculars and Billy says to Jimmy “whooowee! Sure wish I could do that” and Jimmy replied... “That dog would biiite you...”
Adorable Bookmark
: )
Dogs smile because a loyal dog has total love to their master. If their master is wise he knows the dog is their loyal companion and he is not a master but their loyal companion also.
Just tonight I had two of the most gentle and loyal dogs on my couch with me before I put them out for the night in their heated room for the night. They were 80 pounds of love each. If a bad person chose to attack me at first they would be confused for a few seconds. Once they determined it was a bad person, each would be 80 pounds of jaw and fury on a bad person.
Dogs are smart. My dogs do not even bother my two cats. They know they are part of the household. Sometimes they sleep together on their separate blankets but one foot apart.
I like my dogs.
“The more I get to know some people, the more I love dogs.”
Dogs are honest, pit bulls excepted. Pits are breed for violence and just do what they were bred for. They are a bad breed and a breed made by man.
I had a brutally abused Ibizan Hound rescue who trusted only me.
She was otherwise “shut down” for the rest of humanity.
She would come over to me, smile, wag her tail and audibly “chuckle” with happiness.
Literally a “ha ha ha ha” sound.
Craziest thing I ever heard.
Pookie was a Good Girl.
They get paid big bucks to tell us all stuff we either have known forever...or know is crap.
:)
Hrafn comes up and wraps his neck around mine and presses his snout into my neck and sighs.
He’ll stand there doing that forever, until I start to get a neck ache.
I think it’s as close to a “hug” as he can get.
:)
I took my girl Dobe to PetValu tonight and she went into Protect Mom Mode and tried to “kill” the stuffed toy dog wearing a Thunder Shirt display....because dire threat?
She’s very “special”.
:D
Our last dog was a Boston Terrier mix that loved to ‘hug’. She would crawl right on top of you and put her head on your shoulder by your neck and force you to hug her. The one we have now, a 50 lb. mix breed, will force herself under your arm to make you hug her.
It's like smiling at your boss!
Lol! Or, maybe the nervous smile is because they feel guilty and embarassed about sponging off of you for so long.
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