Dog Expressions Explained
Jolanta Benal, CPDT-KA, CBCC-KA
Dogs make plenty of different facial expressions. If you can decode what they mean, you’ll be able to better understand your dog.
It’s All in the Eyes
- Lack of blinking signifies tension.
- Squinting reflects happy excitement.
- If you can see the whites, the dog is anxious–only approach if you have a desire to be bitten.
Talk To Me: The Mouth
- Movement from open to shut or vise versa may mean that the dog is at the end of his self-control and may lunge.
- Corners of the lip move forward right before an explosive release of energy.
- Tensely closed mouth may indicate discomfort.
- Closed shut even to food? It’s often a worried dog who won’t eat outdoors, or who swallows treats mechanically without seeming to notice them as they go down.
Lips and Drooling
- A quick in-and-out flick of a dog’s tongue over her lips is an appeasement signal
- appeasement gestures delivered over and over and over again, in any context, tell you that something in the situation is producing an unhappy dog.
- Acute atypical drooling may indicate significant fear
Happy Dog Face
And the happy dog face? Think relaxed, smiley, squinty, blinky. In sleepy contentment, your dog’s facial muscles will be soft and quiet, never tense and stiff. In happy excitement, her face may be full of movement. Does somebody want to play? Have her ears mooshed? Or just say hi? Who’s got a big old face right on the end of her head?
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Jolanta holds professional certifications in both training and behavior counseling and belongs to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. She also volunteered with Pet Help Partners, a program of the Humane Society of the United States that works to prevent pet relinquishment. Her approach is generally behaviorist (Pavlovian, Skinnerian and post-Skinnerian learning theory) with a big helping of ethology (animal behavior as observed in non-experimental settings).