Now, I have written about smiling dogs before– it is either an appeasing gesture or an imitation of the human smile. I have yet to make up my mind on what it is, even though some literature (particularly Stanley Coren) very strongly makes the case that this is an appeasing gesture.
I still think one cannot discount the imitation theory, simply because dogs are very good at imitation human actions (see Vilmos Csanyi’s book.)
I have seen several dogs perform this particular behavior. My golden boxer was notorious for showing her teeth like this, and because she looked so fierce, people thought she was a maneater.
However, I’ve never found a smiling dog as freaky as this one.
Yes, that’s a blue merle Australian shepherd with blue eyes.
My rat terrier smiles. When she does it, it seems to be an appeasing thing. She will do it when she thinks she’s in trouble, or if people are being noisy. I knew a yellow lab that did it, but it was on command.
My dogs always did it as a greeting behavior. Both my show-type golden and my golden boxer would do it. The field golden thought they were morons. And compared to her, they were!
Very common in Dobes and greyhounds. This can be startling, because these dogs have little in the way of lip to begin with. I always have a brief second of uncertainty the first time a given dog does it to me.
My two ES bitches (mother and daughter) do it as a “sneer” — we call it a “snile” — sometimes with one lip lifted ala Elvis. When the lip is up, there is an element of sarcasm in the display. They are lampooning the idea of an appeasement display, making a joke about their own insincerity when aping “submission.”
I had a foster once who had been passed down the food chain of increasingly crappy owners and finally landed in the pound as “vicious.” He was shipped some distance because it sounded as if he could be a real problem dog that I would have to really work with. When he arrived, all I could see was a quiet, very mild-mannered, low-key, low-status dog. Very inhibited. A few days later, as he started to feel more relaxed, he was playing outside with Moe and ran inside to to see me in an excited state. He smiled at me BIG. I had an instant of “Oh crap,” then it all became clear. The “viciousness” had been smiling — and he’d smiled to appease when people were angry at him, or (we found out) when kids threw rocks and shot bb’s at him for jollies.
My standard poodle, Tucker, smiles. Yes – it can look like a snarl to people who don’t know. But those who do know immediately recognize it for what it is – absolute joy upon seeing “his” people, which includes all the vet techs at the vet’s office, my BFF, and my sisters – and me, of course. I can get him to show more teeth if I give him an exaggerated smile, so I lean towards a sort of imitation. In spite of all his health problems (Addison’s, SIBO, chronic pancreatitis, etc.), he’s a very happy boy – http://www.flickr.com/photos/luvlymikimoto/263180349/in/set-72157594188166947/
I’d agree that it’s appeasement behavior. The “shaking out tension” that happens a few seconds in points to the fact that the dog is nervous, not just excited.
We had a flat-coat that would occasionally smile and her daughter and other offspring smile even more than she did. They use it when greeting people, when they are exceptionally excited to see someone. I have never seen them smile at another dog in this way. A friend of mine managed to capture one of these smiles, in this case she was smiling at a beer can! http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackdog_whitedog_us/2459461720/
I have another, unrelated flat-coat that smiles when he is told off – both by us and by other dogs. I think in his case, it’s very much an appeasement behaviour. I have never seen him smile as part of a greeting.
That’s such a sweet Aussie even the cat knows it!
A friend of mine has a wirehaired dachshund male, already a senior, and he smiles wonderfully and especially to nice human ladies. And it is not pathing but serious smiling!