We can tell what dogs are thinking by looking at their faces

[minkee]

The topic may seem like an obvious statement, but according to this article, science has pooh-poohed the idea for decades. So a team of prison scientists (???) have set out to prove that actually, we do understand our dogs.

http://www.pethealthnetwork.com/lifesty ... og-feeling
and the actual paper is here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 5713000326

The interesting part, I thought, is this:

This study found that people with minimal dog experience are better at identifying anger and disgust than more experienced dog lovers.

They thought that perhaps people who DO know dogs were quicker to write off anger as 'play'.

[JudyN]

The interesting part, I thought, is this:

This study found that people with minimal dog experience are better at identifying anger and disgust than more experienced dog lovers.

They thought that perhaps people who DO know dogs were quicker to write off anger as 'play'.

I really should read the papers before commenting but I'm meant to be working However, what struck me, is how did the experimenters decide that what they were seeing in the dog really was anger/disgust? Or maybe non-dog lovers are quicker to interpret something as anger/disgust (excluding wagging tails which even dog lovers interpret as a happy dog far too often).