What do dogs mean when they "smile?" Do they smile in the way we understand smiling?
Does this picture of Four-legged-friend sniffing the air expectantly make his eyes look happy? Is this the beginning of a smile?
If you are a cartoon loving, pet obsessive who speaks a running commentary of what you think your mutt is saying, then you are probably of the firm opinion that when his/her jowl drops open lazily, at an angle you interpret as being jaunty, with just sufficient tension left at the corners to turn them up slightly, he/she is smiling at you. Yes! (gently deluded pet obsessive nods vigorously) Definitely smiling!
Four-legged-friend and Bertie Baggins do 'smile,' very convincingly, when lying on their backs having their tummies rubbed. But when did you last examine a dog's lips? Relax the canine body - totally - in a I-love-having-my-tummy-rubbed-and-if-I-lie-very-still-you-might-continue sort of a way, and the lips become flabby and fall away from the teeth, leaving a broad open curve that, topped with the dilated eyes of pure tummy-rubbing pleasure, looks exactly like a wide grin. But in reality, it is just a big, open, relaxed mouth.
I confess to occasional pet obsession. No, I do not think my dogs smile. But Four-legged-friend does express, helpless, you-have-got-to-be-kidding disdain - particularly when you hold the back door open for him and outside there is a near-gale howling and snow on the ground: "Do you seriously expect me to go out there with bare paws; in a coat recently thinned by we-thought-it-was-Spring-so-moulted-and-oops-we-got-that-wrong-because-it's-freezing-again? And after you refused to buy me one of those plug in heated dog beds, so I don't even have anything warm to look forward to coming back in to, which might just have made it worth while going out there in the first place!"
Bertie-Baggins isn't mature enough to be disdainful; everything is far too exciting, in a bouncy sort of way. Instead, he frowns, a lot.
Frowns, however, are fleeting. And impossible to catch on a mobile phone camera that has a built in time delay (...why?). Frowns are associated with the following - see food, sit for food; hope that food is coming my way; worry that it might not be; worry more, deepening the furrowed brow; yes! Yes! The food is mine; no! No! No! It isn't, because there's a camera in the way; sigh as the brow relaxes ..................... and the camera clicks (...eventually!).
Mostly, Bertie Baggins frowns when his humans are eating and he is shoo-ed out of the kitchen and has to sit, drooling, on the step
... or if the step is too uncomfortable, on his much softer uncle
Bertie Baggins to FLF - "Well, if I sit on you, that guarantees you don't get to the food first." Which, I suppose, proves my cartoon-loving, pet obsessive, deluded enjoyment of anthropomorphism.
Does this picture of Four-legged-friend sniffing the air expectantly make his eyes look happy? Is this the beginning of a smile?
If you are a cartoon loving, pet obsessive who speaks a running commentary of what you think your mutt is saying, then you are probably of the firm opinion that when his/her jowl drops open lazily, at an angle you interpret as being jaunty, with just sufficient tension left at the corners to turn them up slightly, he/she is smiling at you. Yes! (gently deluded pet obsessive nods vigorously) Definitely smiling!
Four-legged-friend and Bertie Baggins do 'smile,' very convincingly, when lying on their backs having their tummies rubbed. But when did you last examine a dog's lips? Relax the canine body - totally - in a I-love-having-my-tummy-rubbed-and-if-I-lie-very-still-you-might-continue sort of a way, and the lips become flabby and fall away from the teeth, leaving a broad open curve that, topped with the dilated eyes of pure tummy-rubbing pleasure, looks exactly like a wide grin. But in reality, it is just a big, open, relaxed mouth.
I confess to occasional pet obsession. No, I do not think my dogs smile. But Four-legged-friend does express, helpless, you-have-got-to-be-kidding disdain - particularly when you hold the back door open for him and outside there is a near-gale howling and snow on the ground: "Do you seriously expect me to go out there with bare paws; in a coat recently thinned by we-thought-it-was-Spring-so-moulted-and-oops-we-got-that-wrong-because-it's-freezing-again? And after you refused to buy me one of those plug in heated dog beds, so I don't even have anything warm to look forward to coming back in to, which might just have made it worth while going out there in the first place!"
Bertie-Baggins isn't mature enough to be disdainful; everything is far too exciting, in a bouncy sort of way. Instead, he frowns, a lot.
Frowns, however, are fleeting. And impossible to catch on a mobile phone camera that has a built in time delay (...why?). Frowns are associated with the following - see food, sit for food; hope that food is coming my way; worry that it might not be; worry more, deepening the furrowed brow; yes! Yes! The food is mine; no! No! No! It isn't, because there's a camera in the way; sigh as the brow relaxes ..................... and the camera clicks (...eventually!).
Mostly, Bertie Baggins frowns when his humans are eating and he is shoo-ed out of the kitchen and has to sit, drooling, on the step
... or if the step is too uncomfortable, on his much softer uncle
Bertie Baggins to FLF - "Well, if I sit on you, that guarantees you don't get to the food first." Which, I suppose, proves my cartoon-loving, pet obsessive, deluded enjoyment of anthropomorphism.
"If you are a ... pet obsessive who speaks a running commentary of what you think your mutt is saying..." Yes, I do! I do! Except that I like to think of it as them channelling their thoughts through me... #sad, but entertaining for others? Ha ha.
ReplyDelete