An evolutionary biologist at the University of Parma in Italy found that your dog’s blinks could be a form of communication, kind of like how a cat’s blinks could say a lot about their affection toward you.
Animals, like dogs, cats, and even cows, have much more developed communication skills than we give them credit for. They don’t just use actual words to tell you what they’re feeling. Instead, they express themselves through physical movement that can only be noticed after extensive close observation, combined with a whole lot of pattern recognition skills for good measure.
The researchers observed 54 dogs as they watched a series of videos starring other dogs performing various doggy actions like blinking and licking their noses.
They started to notice that when the dogs were watching footage of other dogs blinking, they started blinking more often. “They” being the dogs, not the researchers. The dogs were mimicking what they were seeing on screen, a lot like how humans in one-on-one conversations tend to unconsciously sync their blinks.
The researchers theorize that blinking in response to another dog’s blinks is a subtle way to communicate nonaggressive intentions.
In different contexts, the researchers found that dog blinks could also be signs of other emotional states, like frustration. That would go hand-in-hand with a different study that found a link between blinking and frustration.
No matter which emotion was being expressed, it’s clear the scientific community is discovering that a dog’s blinks serve a much larger purpose than simple biological maintenance of the eye.
Maybe dogs, like us, can use multiple parts of their bodies to express themselves, to empathize, and to convey information. Maybe dogs are more than barks and wagging tails. Maybe every time your dog blinks, they’re trying to tell you something.
Exactly what that is, we don’t know yet, but it could be something as simple as expressing comfort in your presence or frustration because you’re just staring at them, watching them blink like you’re some kind of idiot when all they want is food.
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