One of the most dominant relationships in nature is man and dog, partners since the first dog was ever domesticated. This relationship is complex, and both species cohabit, with socialization involved. This relationship is 40,000 years old and one of the rarest amongst species. There have been studies to investigate this co-dependence.
The co-domestication hypothesis describes how dogs can understand humans, in many ways. It enabled both to develop special signals and cognition, that allows both to interact without speaking. Loyal dogs are at our beck and call, that shows dogs can indeed understand human words and voice. Everything from gestures, signs, including voice tone, and facial expressions. Everything points to their ability to understand human feelings and emotions too.
If only more would try to decipher what canines feel, with their facial expressions as well. Dog lovers are aware of it, surely the majority will understand. One study made by Federica Amici and Juliane Bräuer, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, set out to study dog emotions and people. Hopefully, this study will give more clarity and insight into how it works.
Test subjects looked at pictures of a dog's facial expression, to see if humans can guess what dogs feel. Test subjects were classified by and age, and other factors that included having dogs as pets. Each person was tasked to identify what a chimp, dog, or human was feeling in a collection of photographs.
All pictures shown was judged if the dog, chimp, and human were displaying fear, anger, sadness, or happiness. Another aspect of the experiment is the context of how the picture is taken. One of the assumptions from the data collected is that dog emotions were not easy to guess. It came from close proximity to dogs, another factor is age and experience. If adults grew up in an environment that favored dogs, they understand them, even if dogs were never owned.
To know the facial expressions of dogs, individuals must live in a dog accepting environment. Interpreting everything in dog-positive context, where both are exposed to each other a lot. Increased chances of getting familiar and knowing a dog's facial expressions better. Researchers made the observation when with dogs is not it, there is more to it. A big factor is how humans consider dogs and culture.
Age and experience do not matter because all participants can tell anger and happiness without a problem. It might be that the co-domestication theory is the reason why dog emotion is so obvious to participants. Can it be that identifying these dog expressions is learned fast, even with less exposure to dogs? It seems children cannot reliably read a dog's expression, but noticed fewer emotions in chimps. Another insight is that dog facial expressions are readable and depends on the person mostly.
Scientists who conducted the study will consider what cultural factors can help read a dog's emotions. Including real-life interactions to make the experiment more interesting. The objective of the study is to give more insight on how to understand facial expressions of dogs, get to understand man's best friend.
Related Article: Humans Can Read Dogs' Facial Expressions, but They Must First Learn How
