Dogs have amazing abilities and thanks to these abilities, they can understand the world they are in in great detail. It is a known fact that dogs change their behavior according to their owners’ mood changes. They can also understand changes in tone of voice and body language and act accordingly. One of the biggest reasons why dogs are people’s best friends is that they can understand people and reflect this in their behavior.

Dogs are happy when the people around them are happy, and they provide this when they need security. The fact that dogs can understand whether people are happy or unhappy brings with it different questions. Is it possible for dogs to understand whether a person is good or bad when they are so good at expressing people’s feelings?

Signs for Perceiving Good People

Dogs can understand whether someone is good or bad. However, they do not do this by looking at the purpose of people’s behavior, in other words, they cannot understand whether the purpose behind the behavior is bad or not, they make inferences by looking at the person’s mood and behavior patterns. Although they cannot understand the purpose, they can understand tension, fear, anger and danger instead. Dogs can notice a few specific things about people that other people don’t. Dogs can notice when an angry person looks away too much during a conversation, when their muscles tense up, or when they start to sweat. They use their keen sense of smell and ability to read body language to decide how to react in such a situation.

Many species have difficulty recognizing the facial expressions of species different from themselves. However, dogs can easily read human facial expressions. They tend to examine every detail of a person’s face to predict the outcome of a person’s action. It is a known fact that dogs can tell whether a person is a threat just by looking at their eyes.

Dogs’ reactions to emotions vary depending on their breed or personality. When they perceive a threat, dogs bark, jump, or show their teeth. Some dogs are known to frown and watch this threat closely.

On the other hand, dogs have a more relaxed facial expression when they see a good person. In such cases, it is possible to see dogs with their mouths open and their tongues out. They also usually have a calm stance and wag their tails. This is a sign that the dog feels safe. A dog that feels safe is a happy dog. Dogs also approach well-intentioned people differently. Dogs tend to stay close to and follow someone they perceive to be good.