Are you readily able to understand the expressions your dog makes? The answer is more likely to be “yes” if your dog has a plain face of a single color rather than a face with more than one color or a lot of markings. So say the results of a study of more than 100 dogs and their people called “What Is Written on a Dog’s Face?”
Led by researchers at The George Washington University and published in the journal Animals, the study protocol had people video their dogs while making eye contact with them and not saying anything; while uttering familiar phrases in a slightly excited tone meant to elicit a response; and while saying unfamiliar things in a neutral tone, such as “Ancient Egyptians built enormous pyramids to honor the pharaohs.”
The upshot: Those people with plain-faced dogs more accurately assessed their dogs’ expressions than those who had multi-colored dogs or dogs with various coat patterns. Thus, if you have a dog with a face that has a lot of markings and colors, you may have to work a little harder at discerning your pet’s expressions.
Note: Senior dogs were found to make fewer facial expressions than young and middle-aged dogs. The researchers assume it’s because older dogs and their people already have a strong communication system in place, so geriatric dogs don’t feel the same need to make their feelings known on their visages in order to be understood.
