

Dogs Showing Emotions
Studies have concluded and owners have known forever, that dogs have and express many of the emotions that humans do. Dogs can feel and express:
Sadness
Being scared
Feeling nervous
Feeling confused
Feeling inner happiness
Being content
Feeling love (at the very least in the form of extreme devotion, loyalty and bonding with their owner/s)
Let's discuss this in more detail, so that you can better understand your Maltese dog.
A Maltese can cry; this is proven clinically. A dog will cry under several circumstances such as:
An owner must keep in mind that their Maltese does and will
feel these emotions. A Maltese should be
treated as important members of the family.
While an owner should not over-spoil their Maltese, care should be taken
to keep their Maltese happy, just as a child would be taken care of.
This brings us to a very interesting question: Does a Maltese smile? Is a Maltese capable of smiling? And this brings us to a very interesting
answer! Charles Darwin who studies
emotions of both human and canine came to a conclusion regarding this
matter. After much research, he
contended that dogs can smile. In doing
so, they will retract their upper lip, which exposing the top canine
teeth.
This action is also done when a
dog is growling; however the dog’s behavior did not point to a state of
aggression and the environment did not provide one; therefore he concluded that
a Maltese, or other dog breed can and does indeed smile!
Patricia Simonet, a canine researcher from
Dogs, do however show joy in many ways, such as body
language and barking. And the next time
you think you see your Maltese grinning at you or chuckling, you may just be
right!