Dog people worse at reading dog expressions than non-owners

Dog lovers should feel vindicated now that scientists believe they really can communicate with their pets. A recent study showed that volunteers could correctly spot when a dog was happy, sad, angry, surprised or scared, when shown a picture of the animal’s face, suggesting that humans are naturally attuned to how animals are feeling.

“There is no doubt that humans have the ability to recognise emotional states in other humans and accurately read other humans’ facial expressions. We have shown that humans are also able to accurately – if not perfectly – identify at least one dog’s facial expressions," said Dr. Tina Bloom, the psychologist who led the study, published in the journal Behavioral Processes.

A five-year-old Belgian shepherd police dog named Mal was photographed as he experienced different emotions. Surprise was captured using a jack-in-the box. Medicine that Mal didn't like triggered disgust, and nail trimmers, which Mal also disliked, were used to create fear.

Photographs were shown to 50 volunteers, who were split into two groups according to their experience with dogs. 88 percent of the volunteers correctly identified happiness and anger was identified by 70 percent. About 45 percent of volunteers spotted fear, and 37 percent identified sadness. Hardest for humans to identify were surprise -- 20 percent -- and disgust -- 13 percent.

The study found that people with minimal dog experience were better at identifying canine disgust and anger. Researchers believe this may be because reading dogs' faces comes naturally and isn't a learned skill, and it's possible dog owners convince themselves their dog is not aggressive and the associate angry expressions are seen as "just playing."