People know what their dog is feeling, a recent study shows.

Do you think you know how your dog is feeling? I know I've felt that way sometimes. Our German shepherd, Apache, displays a range of emotions. She is happy when praised, given a treat, or asked to play a game. She is sad when reprimanded. She is afraid of loud thunder, evident not only by her expression, but by the fact that she hides under my desk. Until now, if I told you that I could accurately read her emotions, you may think I'm just a crazy pet owner. A recent study shows, though, that humans can predict a dog's emotions by looking at its facial expressions.

Researchers Tina Bloom and Harris Friedman at Walden University conducted a study to find out if humans could read the emotions of dogs. The dog was a five-year-old Belgian shepherd police dog named Mal from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Fifty test subjects were chosen. Some of them were experienced dog owners while others had minimal experience with dogs. Researchers first worked with the dog to elicit several emotions. These were photographed, and the pictures were shown to the test subjects to determine the dog's emotions.

The findings were that happiness was the easiest emotion to read with an 88 percent success rate. The happy face was elicited with praise and is evidenced with an ears-up, tongue out, bright-eyed stance. Anger had the second highest rate of detection at 70 percent. The angry emotion was elicited by one of the researchers pretending to be a criminal. The other emotions were more difficult to discern with fright at 45 percent, sadness at 37 percent, surprise at 20 percent and disgust at only 13 percent.

Surprisingly, those with minimal experience with dogs more accurately judged the emotions of disgust and anger. Researchers believe this may have occurred because dog owners are less likely to read a stance as an aggressive one, often confusing it for play.

Dr. Bloom wants to conduct further studies to see if humans can accurately judge the emotions of other animals, or if it is exclusive only to dogs because we have evolved alongside each other for the past 100,000 years.

Have you thought you could accurately detect your pet's emotions? Share your experiences in the comments.

Photo copyright of Walden University.