I know dogs do. What about any other animals?
Chimpanzees, for one. And dolphins don’t, they only have that single expression.
You’re going to have to defne what you mean by “grin”. If you mean grin as an expression of pleasure, neither dogs nor chimps do so. For them exposing the teeth is a threat display, pure and simple. What we call a snarl.
It is true that some dogs and chimps can be trained, often unintentionally, to grin because humans want them to, but it isn’t a natural doggy or ape expression of pleasure. That is a lot like saying that humans aren’t the only animals to ride bicycles because we can train dogs and chimps to do so. And if we are allowing trained animals then I suspect that almost any mammal could be trained to grin with alittle patience.
I can’t think of any species that naturally show their teeth as an expression of pleasure or genial greeting.
Y’know, if yuou look at a cat’s face centered, they seem to have a sad little frown, but in profile, they seem to be grinning.
I just love cats.
I have to disagree. My dog definetly has an expression of pleasure, his mouth is wide open and it sure looks like a smile to me. He puts on this expression when he is pleased, never when upset…so I have to conclude he is smiling.
Simply anthropomorphism.
Your dog hasn’t raised his lips and exposed his incisors and canines, which is what characterises a grin in humans :D. He merely has his mouth open.
It looks like a smile to you because you know that he adopts that expression when he is pleased, but it is in no way similar to a human grin in terms of facial configuration or the muscles being used.
When a dog does use the same muscles that a human uses to grin and adopts the same facial configuration as a grinning human there is no way that anyone familiar with dogs would mistake it for a grin.
Our dog raises his top lip to show his teeth and grins. It’s not a threat, he does his typical cowering, humble posture with his head low, and he wags his tail and dances a little while he does it (oh, and it also makes him sneeze). These days he does it to con biscuits out of my mother’s friends, but the first time I ever saw him do it was when he was a ten week old puppy, the first morning he was in our home. He came running out of his bed as soon as I opened the door to the room he’d slept in, and there was no doubt that it was a grin given in pleasure rather than a silent snarl made in anger. I doubt I have a picture of him doing it because he fears the camera, but I’ll take a look and see if we’ve managed to catch it.
For bonobos, this site indicates that a grin is a sign of submission to a superior. I’ve also read somewhere that this was also originally true with humans, but the material I was reading was vague as to when that might have been. It said “in very early times”, but I have no idea what that meant, exactly.
I’ve also read that an open-mouthed, somewhat smile-like expression, but without the teeth bared, can be used by chimps to express joy or excitement.
I think it’s been mentioned before, but is it established that humans naturally smile, rather than get “trained” to do it by their caregivers/society?
I don’t think the OP means literally smiling by showing lifting lips and showing teeth-- that’s too narrow an interpretation. I think a better interpretation is “facial expressions to indication pleasure.”
Dogs DO smile – it’s a very canine expression, and there’s no mistaking a doggy smile for any other doggy facial expression. They’re social animals, and give physical cues of all kinds to humans and other dogs. Smiling is one of them. Here’s my girl smiling for the camera.
My dog also typed my post for me!
On a related note, I believe it is true that some animals get sad, angry, and frightened. But I do not believe any animal (other than human) laughs. Is this true? If so, humor must require a very sophisticated though process.
As my Kzin friend will tell you, smiling is freeing your teeth for battle.
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This Seattle Times article indicates that it’s possible dogs laugh.
I’d love to see a follow-up on this.
Another article on animal laughter in Science News
Huh. I guess doggy laughter isn’t contagious.
Probably. A human child will start smiling within a month or two after birth. It’s possile that that is some trial-and-error action, but unlikely-- especially since it happens in every culture throughout the world.
As for the OP, there is no question that other animals, especially social pirmates, communicate emotions through facial expression and vocalizations. This is well documented in the literature. There is also little, if any, question that chimpanzees experience a range or emotions similar to humans. However, we express those emotions in somewhat different ways, and it’s unlcear if a chimp even has the ability to smile like a human if it was trained to do so.
It is with my dogs. If I mimic their “laughter” back at them, they get even more excited.
They also very clearly smile.
In that case can you actually name an mammal that doesn’t grin? Cattle, pigs, horses, kangaroos, and rats all use distinct “facial expressions to indication pleasure”. I am hard pressed to think of a single mammal species that doesn’t “grin” by this defintion, and even many other animals such as octopuses and cockatoos “grin”.
That dog isn’t even showing any teeth in the upper jaw. That is not by any stretch a smile or grin.
And as I say, if all you mean by smile is any facial expresion indicating pleasure then can you name a single mammal species that doesn’t “smile”? Every single species that I am familiar with uses facial expression to indicate pleasure.
I know that was an awesome typo – hence me saying my dog typed it for me.
Frankly, I doubt I can back up what I am trying to say to a degree you’ll find satisfactory. I know how to read pleasure in cats and birds, but I wouldn’t argue that they have the equivalent of a smile. I don’t know enough about chimpanzee or other social mammals to claim what a smile equivalent would be. That said, animal species that depend on complex physical cues to communicate and thrive in their societies likely do “smile.” I am defining smile as a facial expression intended to show pleasure and invite interaction. Dogs do this, and anyone with even passing experience with dogs can identify it when they do. The mouth is open, the lips are pulled back somewhat at the corners of the mouth, the ears are in a relaxed position and they make the distinctive panting sound being called laughter in the articles I linked to. It’s unmistakable.