Every dog owner recognizes the telltale manners of their furry companion, from tail wags to perked-up ears, but another, more subtle behavior likely won’t be caught at first glance: blinking. A dog’s blinking may not seem like a noteworthy function, but a recent study has found that it could actually reflect a subconscious way that dogs socialize, opening scientists’ eyes to a new perspective on canine communication.
The research, published in Royal Society Open Science, shows how dogs mimic each other when blinking. Facial mimicry in canines is not a new revelation; scientists have previously studied how dogs’ emotion is conveyed when they copy yawns or match each other’s play faces. The new study proposes blinking — much less noticeable than yawning or playful faces — as yet another visual cue that helps dogs bond.Â
A Dog’s Need to Appease
With their shared evolutionary history, dogs and wolves both display visual cues that are believed to potentially act as appeasement signals in uncertain social situations. They may resort to these subtle signals, like eye blinking and nose licking, to advertise non-aggression when approached by another member of their species or, also in the case of dogs, a human.Â
Blinking also plays a role in social communication among humans, as well as other primates; previous studies have shown, for example, that humans coordinate the timing of their blinks with social partners. The researchers wanted to see if a similar outcome could be observed as a form of social communication in dogs.Â
To test this, the researchers created separate sets of 12-second videos, each with one of three actor dogs — a terrier, a cocker spaniel, and a border collie. One set of videos, the control group, featured the dogs staying still and looking at the camera with an attentive, still-looking face. A second set of videos showed the dogs licking their nose, and a third set showed them blinking. The researchers then edited the videos together into sequences in which one of the facial signals would be displayed every four seconds.Â
Read More: We’re Only Beginning To Understand Dogs’ and Cats’ Facial Expressions
Bonding With Blinks
Fifty-four dogs were brought in to watch the videos and fitted with a heart-rate monitor so that the researchers could track their cardiac activity. The dogs were also filmed to capture their facial cues in response to the videos.
Although some dogs fell asleep while watching the videos, those that didn’t doze off blinked about 16 percent more on average when watching the blinking sequence compared to the other two sequences. The nose-licking sequence, on the other hand, did not cause a significant increase in nose-licking behavior in the dogs, suggesting that it does not serve the same mimicking purpose as blinking in this instance. The dogs’ heart rates remained stable throughout all sequences, meaning they likely perceived the video test as a non-stressing situation.Â
Blinking in dogs, as seemingly confirmed in the study, is a way for them to communicate without even knowing; like blinking in humans at times, this is considered a reflexive behavior since the dogs in the test did not appear to deliberately blink more often on purpose, but rather, as an automatic reaction. The researchers state that future studies are needed to understand how dogs synchronize blinking, as the timing of their blinks may provide more insight into this curious form of communication.
Read More: Do Dogs Have Long-Term Memory?
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Jack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.
