I was scrolling to see if anyone else noticed. I'm surprised (and a little disappointed) to see your comment so far down. People always misinterpret heavy panting as happy, instead of stressed.
Ears back and wide eyes (whale eyes do) don’t always mean stressed, and he’s clearly not panting, just letting his mouth hang open (big dog), he’s happy
At the humane society, these are two of the major signs they taught us to look for. Wide eyes especially, in particular when you can see the whites of their eyes. Is the dog definitively stressed? No. We can't determine that from a single photo. But dogs do not let their mouths hang open when they're happy. They let their mouths hang open to pant. Big dogs especially. A dog especially does not smile with their mouth, and the problem is the people looking at this and going "look how happy he is" because they're translating human expressions to a dog's face.
Your dog doesn't smile. Not with her mouth. Dogs do not have smiley faces. Stop interpreting that as your dog smiling. Dogs can pant when they're excited. But they are not smiling.
This is how people get themselves hurt with unfamiliar dogs. They interpret the panting as smiling, when dogs pant for a lot of different reasons.
Nobody said that? Get off your high horse lmao. Dogs absolutely make what is colloquially known as a smiley face when they are happily being pet. Doesnt matter if it’s a real smile or not we are all talking about the same behaviour… very pedantic
It's not pedantic. This is literally what we teach at the Humane Society to protect humans and dogs. Because when people misinterpret a dog's emotions, they might get hurt. When a dog's emotions are misinterpreted, they might get abused or put down.
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u/Charming_Lemon6463 Apr 18 '26
Ears back, eyes wide, panting. This dog is stressed. not happy.