Science Confirms Your Pooch Is Making “Puppy Dog Eyes” Just For YouPet dogs communicate with specific facial expressions when their owners are looking at them, according to a new study.By Joshua A. Krisch Published October 19, 2017.
https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/science-confirms-pooch-making-puppy-dog-eyes-just/Pet dogs communicate with specific facial expressions when their owners are looking at them, according to a new study, and not just because they’re excited about the possibility of food. Researchers found that dogs move their faces in direct response to the human gaze—usually producing so-called “puppy dog eyes”—even more than when they are presented with a treat.
“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,” said coauthor on the study Juliane Kaminski of the University of Portsmouth, in a statement. She says this demonstrates that “dogs are sensitive to humans’ attention and that expressions are potentially active attempts to communicate, not simple emotional displays.”
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