Science Confirms Pets Have Facial Expressions For Human

Science has shown that puppy dog eyes are a legitimate thing that exists - honest - after they discovered that dogs produce more facial movements when a human is paying them some attention. This includes making their eyes appear bigger and raising their 'eyebrows'.

The research contradicts the idea that their facial expressions are largely subconscious - reflecting their internal feelings as opposed to a way of communicating.

"Facial expression is often seen as something that is very emotionally driven and is very fixed, and so it isn't something that animals can change depending on their circumstances," Bridget Waller, professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Portsmouth, and an author of the study told the Guardian.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, had researchers using a video camera to record the facial movements of 24 dogs over a series of experiments. They saw a human either facing the animal, or facing away, and presenting the dog with a tidbit and then not doing that.

The research indicated that when a human was not watching the animal, they didn't make facial expressions.

Dog cognition expert Dr Juliane Kaminski to the Telegraph that: "We can now be confident that the production of facial expressions made by dogs are dependent on the attention state of their audience and are not just a result of dogs being excited.

"In our study they produced far more expressions when someone was watching, but seeing food treats did not have the same effect.

"The findings appear to support evidence dogs are sensitive to humans' attention and that expressions are potentially active attempts to communicate, not simple emotional displays."

Anyway, with that in mind lets take a look at loads of pics of dogs in pubs....

Credit: Great British Pub Dogs, by Paul Fleckney and Abbie Lucas

For the photos, London-based film-maker Abbie Lucas and journalist Paul Fleckney travelled the country to document the dogs that love hanging out in pubs across the UK. Now their work has been collected in a brand new photo book, the helpfully-titled Great British Pub Dogs.Featured Image Credit: Pixabay

Topics: Dog, World News, UK News, US News

James Dawson

James Dawson is a Journalist at LADbible. He has contributed articles to LADbible’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU’ series on the EU referendum, the 'Electoral Dysfunction' series on the 2017 general election, the ‘U OK M8?’ series tackling mental health amongst young men, and for its ‘Climate Change’ initiative in partnership with National Geographic.

@thejaytoday