Differences in facial expressions during positive anticipation and frustration in dogs awaiting a reward

Facial expressions are considered sensitive indicators of emotional states in humans and many animals. Identifying facial indicators of emotion is a major challenge and little systematic research has been done in non-primate species. In dogs, such research is important not only to address fundamental and applied scientific questions but also for practical reasons, since many problem behaviours are assumed to have an emotional basis, e.g. aggression based on frustration. Frustration responses can occur in superficially similar contexts as the emotional state of positive anticipation. For instance, the anticipated delivery of a food reward may induce the state of positive anticipation, but over time, if the food is not delivered, this will be replaced by frustration. We examined dogs’ facial expressions in contexts presumed to induce both positive anticipation and frustration, respectively, within a single controlled experimental setting. Using DogFACS, an anatomically-based method for coding facial expressions of dogs, we found that the “Ears adductor” action was more common in the positive condition and “Blink”, “Lips part”, “Jaw drop”, “Nose lick”, and “Ears flattener” were more common in the negative condition. This study demonstrates how differences in facial expression in emotionally ambiguous contexts may be used to help infer emotional states of different valence.