Can dogs laugh and smile? Can they show states of happiness?
I suspect as much. My Border collie, Rocky does. He straightforwardly greets individuals he knows and loves with a wide happy smile; an exceptionally generous swagger of his body and a ‘happy’ guttural noise that sits somewhere between a low snarl and a yap. It is his way of laughing. He does this to family members and friends.
He does it consistently when we are out walking and when he meets humans he knows and loves. And trust me; he is really happy to see them. He gets a pat and some caring words which seem to be reward enough.
Next time you take your dog out for a walk; take a gander at its facial expressions. Are its ears standing erect? Are its eyes enlarged? Does it lick its mouth or yawn? These are not all expressions of bliss but rather maybe in combination they mean something else. Going around aimlessly or charging to the entryway or the car and back, tail wagging and in any event, howling are all signs that your dog is encountering fervor and happiness.
And yet when we approach a wary dog smiling, baring our teeth it can misconstrued as a threat. This may be because the dog does not know us and does not understand that we mean it no harm. We actually behave in threatening ways towards dogs when we welcome them. Why do dogs smile? We stare straightforwardly at them, we thrust our hands towards them, sometimes we grab them around the neck and squeeze!! All signs that we want to dominate them and take their toys and bones away. (Dogs do not understand that humans are not interested in smelly old bones and half bit toys – to them, they are their treasures.)
Most dogs, especially our own, have learnt to overlook our bad behavior and accept and love us anyway. Dogs are excellent in this respect.
At the point when I take my dogs to training once seven days, they start to squeal and howl in energy. I drive a van with steel crates toward the back and the noise of tails banging on the side of the steel crates is very noisy. There are also no windows in the van so I’m not sure how they know where they are but rather they do. And are they happy? Are they exuberant and revealing to me that they are pleased with what is about to happen? Definitely!!!
We changed the scene of my training community and six months later I drove back to the old grounds to meet a customer. I had the dogs in the van. At the point when I arrived I had no intention of allowing them to out because I did not want my customer’s dog to be overpowered. My customer could not accept the noise and the way the dogs were behaving. They were exceptionally happy and had not failed to remember how much fun they’d had at this particular place.