You look at your dog and suddenly your pooch is cracking a smile. Are you in doubt? Is the dog’s displaying a power to disrupt the stability of your world? Is that a dog’s way of keeping entertained? Do dogs smile with their mouths closed? To speculate into such a phenomenon, it’s worth pondering a bit what must sit behind a pair of curved lips for us to refer to them as a smile.
For us humans, smiles do not stand for the same thing. Culturally, we may think that those who smile are more likeable, welcoming, friendly even attractive. But not all cultures think so. In Russia, too much smiling is seen as evidence of stupidity. In Japan, polite people smile lifting their cheeks while tightening their lips downward. It’s referred as “smiling with your eyes.”
So, what is a smile that we would attribute it to our dogs?
According to Dr. Harry Witchel who presented results at the European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics from a study on why people smile, “a genuine smile reflects the inner state of cheerfulness or amusement.” So, the real question is whether dog smile with their mouths closed to display an inner state of cheerfulness or amusement.
Do Dogs Smile With Their Mouths Closed Because They’re Happy?
Dr. Witchel explained that during the experiments, it was observed that smiling is not motivated by happiness. Instead, it is a one-sided attempt to engage with a situation that powers the lips’ behavior. In other words, a smile is a coping mechanism to deal with a situation, whether happily or not, similar to a reflex reaction. Whatever they communicate could be open to interpretation.
So, how should we interpret a dog’s own labial mechanism for coping with whatever situation prompted what seems to be a simile with their mouths closed?
Well, take a look at some of the following doggy smiles and ask yourself, “What is the dog reacting to?” Are all of them reacting to the same thing?
Dog behaviorist specialist, Kim Brophey, argues that dogs develop a natural social skill to express actual emotion, which raises the question over what is a dog emotion? “Though it’s fun to think about dogs as smiling deliberately, the reality is that there are very complex evolutionary forces at work.”
In short, no one thing explains what sits behind that closed-lip smile from pooch. This is not to say that dogs don’t feel. Of course they have sensations and react to them. This is enabled by a highly perceptive doggy limbic system. But connecting behavior with intentional purpose is the difference between reason and instinct.
So, do dogs instinctively smile with their mouths closed, despite this behavioral trait not necessarily amounting to happiness or any other intentional emotion?
Do Dogs Smile Simply Because They’re Intelligent?
Dogs have cognition. This does not mean they can reason in abstract terms. But they have awareness of space. They can understand hundreds of words. They are cognizant of word and phrase tone that conveys meaning, which allows them to sense whether someone may be friend or foe. They have short-term memory can dream and covet and seem to have a sense for what is valuable and worthy of protection. In this sense, they’re obviously more complex than a fish. But does this mean that they can smile with acumen, with intellect?
Well, in the world of dogs possibly so. But in that of humans, they’re at a disadvantage because we cannot ask them and get a straight answer about it. Until then, we may need to settle with mere speculation or, as Dr. Rachel Barrack of Animal Acupuncture in New York City once put it, “Just as it’s impossible to read another person’s thoughts, it is impossible to speculate exactly what a dog is thinking.” Unless you’re a dog, we suppose. For now, just keep them enjoying your company. Get them outdoors and let them play with doggy toys that will make you crack a smile instead!