Yes, You Can Tell From His Face What Your Dog Is Feeling
Mal, In Various States of Concern Tina Bloom and Harris Friedman/Behavioral ProcessesPeople can correctly identify a wide range of dog emotions by sight. People can reliably read a dog's facial expressions, suggesting humans are finely tuned to detect emotions even in other creatures. Behavioral scientists have long known that people can accurately read other humans' emotions, but this study suggests our empathy extends to other members of the animal kingdom. While a Ph.D student at Walden University in Florida, Tina Bloom worked with Harris Friedman and a dog named Mal at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Mal, a 5-year-old Belgian shepherd and trained police dog, was subjected to a variety of stimuli, and the researchers took pictures of his reactions. For instance, in one experiment the researchers praised him, trying to elicit a happy reaction; Mal looked at the camera with his ears erect and tongue lolling. Then they reprimanded him, and...