“When a Dog approaches a strange Dog or man in a savage or hostile frame of mind, he walks upright and very stiffly; his head is slightly raised, or not much lowered, the tail is held erect and quite rigid; the hairs bristle, especially along the neck and back; the pricked ears are directed forwards, and the eyes have a fixed stare. These actions follow from the Dog’s intention to attack his enemy, and are thus to a large extent intelligible. As he prepares to spring, with a savage growl, on his enemy, the canine teeth are uncovered, and the ears are pressed close backwards on the head. Let us now suppose that the Dog suddenly discovers that the man whom he is approaching is not a stranger, but his master; and let it be observed how completely and instantaneously his whole bearing is reversed. Instead of walking upright, the body sinks downwards, or even crouches, and is thrown into flexuous movements; his tail, instead of being held stiff and upright, is lowered and wagged from side to side; his hair instantly becomes smooth; his ears are depressed and drawn backwards, but not closely to the head; and his lips hang loosely. From the drawing back of the ears the eyelids become elongated, and the eyes no longer appear round and staring.”
And again, “when a Dog is on the point of springing on his antagonist, he utters a savage growl; the ears are pressed closely backwards, and the upper lip is retracted out of the way of his teeth, especially of his canines.... If a Dog only snarls at another, the lip is generally retracted on one side alone, namely, towards his enemy.”
“The feeling of affection of a Dog towards his master is combined with a strong sense of submission, which is akin to fear. Hence Dogs not only lower their bodies and crouch a little as they approach their masters, but sometimes throw themselves on the ground, with their bellies upwards. This is a movement as completely opposite as is possible to any show of resistance.... A pleasurable and excited state of mind, associated with affection, is exhibited by some Dogs in a very peculiar manner, namely, by grinning.”[102]
It is extremely interesting to consider the means by which these various expressive movements are produced. If the skin be removed from the head of a Dog, there will be seen, lying beneath it, a quantity of red flesh, intermixed with a good deal of fat and fibrous substance. If this latter be carefully dissected away, the red flesh will be seen to resolve itself into a number of muscles, very definitely arranged, and each one designed for some special movement. There are, first of all, muscles which move the eye. One set of fibres closely encircle the aperture of the eyelids, and, when they act, close the eye, either entirely, as in actual sleep, or partially, as in that half sleepy state a Dog loves to be in on a hot afternoon, or before a blazing fire. Another set of eye muscles have an entirely different action to these. They radiate from the eyelids to the surrounding parts of the head, and when they act, “draw back the eyelids from the eyeball, and give a sparkling fierceness to the eye.” From this reason Sir Charles Bell, who first described them, called them scintillantes, or sparkling muscles. The ears have a number of muscular bands attached to them, some drawing them forwards, some backwards, others sideways. These are, therefore, highly important muscles, for a Dog hardly passes a moment without moving his ears. We ourselves possess representatives of these muscles, but in an entirely useless state in most persons, very few having the power of moving their ears. Other very important muscles pass from one of the face bones in front of the eye, and are attached to the lip just above the canine teeth. When these act, they draw the lips back from those teeth, thus baring the Dog’s chief weapon, and producing a snarl; they are, therefore, called the ringentes, or snarling muscles; and one has only to irritate a Dog to see their effect in altering the animal’s expression. Lastly, there are muscles which draw back the corners of the mouth and produce a sort of grin, an action which seems to be almost normal in the Wolf, but which is also frequently seen in Dogs. It will be readily observed how important these muscles are, and how every expressive look in a Dog’s countenance can be referred to the action of one or more of them.
MUSCLES OF DOG’S HEAD. (After Sir C. Bell)
a, Circular muscle round the eyelids; b, d, scintillantes; f, g, h, muscles of the ear; i, k, ringentes; m, circular fibres of the mouth; n, muscle drawing back the angle of the mouth; o, cutaneous muscle, for moving the skin of the neck.
There can be no doubt that Dogs are perfectly capable of communicating their thoughts to one another, and of understanding one another’s meaning as well as that of their masters. One often sees two Dogs, after a friendly sniff, carry on a small conversation, before trotting on their ways, evidently quite as fond of a little chat as Burns’s celebrated “twa Dogs,” who
“Foregather’d ance upon a time
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