Research shows that dogs have lost their ability to convey facial expressions, compared to their wolf ancestors, due to domestication
Most dog owners will insist that they can only tell what their dog is thinking by looking at their faces.
But man’s best friend was even more expressive, according to a new study.
Researchers have found that the domestication process has resulted in the loss of certain communication skills in today’s dogs compared to their wolf ancestors.
The University of Durham team used a ‘Dog Facial Action Coding System’ to analyze video recordings of captive wolves and domestic dogs.
This was both during spontaneous social interactions and during responses to external stimuli, for example a squeaky toy.
Domestication and selective breeding have limited the ability of domesticated dogs to use facial expressions to convey emotions as effectively as their ancestors, say experts from the University of Durham.
It is thought that selective breeding has limited the ability of domestic dogs to use facial expressions to convey emotions as effectively as their wolf ancestors (pictured)
The researchers identified nine different emotional states – including anger, fear, curiosity, fear, friendliness, happiness, interest, joy and surprise – that could be predicted with 71 percent accuracy from wolves’ facial movements.
However, accuracy dropped to just 65 percent for domestic dogs of different breeds.
The confusion was especially high between positive states such as friendliness and negative states such as fear.
The researchers suggest that the different facial structures resulting from selective breeding, such as shorter snouts, floppy ears, drooping lips and excessive wrinkles, have limited the ability of dogs to produce the same range of facial expressions as their wolf ancestors.
In fact, dogs with short, broad skulls, floppy or semi-floppy ears, or droopy lips were associated with nearly 80 percent of cases in which a dog’s facial expression did not match its perceived emotional state.
Pictured here are the gray wolf (A) and the ‘wolf-like’ Finnish Lapphund (B), along with three dogs that are less adept at conveying emotion due to unusual facial structures resulting from selective breeding – Rottweiler (C), Pug (D ) and the almost comical Komondor (E)
Dog Facial Action Coding System (DogFACS) is an observation tool for identifying facial movements in dogs
According to the authors, this confusion between positive and negative states could be harmful to dog-human interactions and even pose safety risks if people misinterpret anxious or aggressive behavior in dogs as friendliness.
They suggest that domestic dogs can compensate for limited facial expressions by vocalizing more than wolves during social interactions.
Lead author Elana Hobkirk, from the university’s Department of Biosciences, said: ‘This study shows how important it is to be able to observe fine details in behaviour.
‘Such observations have allowed us to see how communicatively complex and conscious wolves are and how domestication can affect our social bonds with our companion dogs.’
Co-author Dr. Sean Twiss said: ‘Our research team focuses on individual differences in animal behavior, and Elana’s work adds an exciting new dimension to this, revealing how individuals differ in their ability to communicate their emotional states, and what that could mean for successful communication – or not – within social groups, including people and their dogs.’
The findings have been published in the journal Scientific Reports.