When Baker is especially happy to see someone, stranger or not :), he smiles. His lips start moving all around & the big, white puppy teeth all show. A friend of ours has a goldendoodle with the same father & she smiles too. Is this a doodle thing?
Yep, Gracie does too. When she is real excited, she curls her lips back and bears all her teeth. I had a photo that a friend saw and commented "You let your dog act like this towards you?" She looks ferocious but is only smiling....
the type of lip curling smile you are referring to is a sign of stress and mild fear anxiety.
I know some will say... but my dog is so happy when he does this...
Imagine being on a game show and you know the answer, lights are bright and shining in your face and you are so excited but your hands are sweating, you stutter the answer, you giggle a bit as you talk, get fidgety... YOU'RE NERVOUS~ it is anxiety!
Permalink Reply by Lori on September 10, 2009 at 2:25am
Our 9 1/2 week old puppy smiles. As does our nine year old Shih Tzu and our Pekingnese who is "older" but we don't know how old. I can alway tell when the Shih Tzu is enjoying the romp with our Doodle, Leo, by whether or not he's smiling. When he's not smiling, he is only playing to get away from Leo who is annoying him. If he's smiling, he's in the game! When he stops smiling I'll rescue him by pulling him up on the couch or letting him into one of the close-off bedrooms so he can get a break.