Hi all, this is my first post here despite reading for many months.
My question is does a dog smile?  I have Googled on this and the 'experts' say no.  However, Im sure they do.  I had a lab, who when happy, with good friends etc would burst into a big grin.  My current GSD puppy has started doing this too.  When we are having good fun of just when I laugh at her antics she cracks a smile too.  I'm sure this is not an agressive baring of teeth, she actually seems to smile.
Any thoughts or similar stories.  I'd love to hear.

It's well-known feature of many breeds; dalmatians in particular (see here and here) are renowned for it - I myself have seen labradors do it too. :)

Well my Malamutes do :D

Not ALL dogs smile, but quite a few of them do, some more than others. Some breeds do not smile because they are not physically built to do that, gundogs do it quite a bit as they have the muzzles which lend themselves to doing this.

My Dalmatian gives a great big grin. He has been known to scare the odd person who doesn't know him.  :D  My old Border Collie did too, but my current one doesn't.

Aussies are renowned for their "grins" - here is one reference to them :- http://pawvillage.com/articles/131petstd.asp

Difficult to describe - but the side of the mouth lifts & twitches - certainly not in an aggressive way - and you just KNOW that they are laughing - generally at you!

Margot

Margot

That's a hilarious link :D Mostly describes Tara to a 'T' :D

She definitely smiles - usually when she shouldn't :D

Daisy

Missy my ESS has started to smile recently - now she's more confident, I suspect it's an appeasement gesture as it usually happens when she's been pushing her luck and I've had to persist in making my point - she'll respond with an exagerated drawing back of the lips in the corners so it really looks like a smile, and much short fast tail wagging.....

My old collieXlabrador used to smile alot when he was happy or when he was greeting us. It definitely wasnt a snarl, more of an excited smirk I'd say! Really used to show his front teeth and his tail never stopped wagging!

Yes indeed, I do believe they do.  The mouth is open and the corners of the lips lift with a happy expression in the eyes.  I have 2 GSD's that are constant smilers, especially when we are interacting with them in a fun way and being clowns.  :-D  

My Ridgebacks have two different sorts of smiles - one involves drawing the edges of the lips back, like a human smile, usually with "silly ears" and sometimes a squint, the other type looks more like a snarl, with the lips over the front teeth lifted.  They either do one or the other.

Belgian Shepherds are notorious for very big, obvious, toothy smiles :D like that!  They occasionally do the one side of the lips grin but more often than not are too full on in the humour department to contain themselves to subtle gestures :P 

They curl their upper lip right back - can look similar to a non doggy owners to baring of teeth but it's clearly different to anyone with regular canine contact and they go all soppy when they do it, so not much likeliehood of anyone feeling threatened.   My first boy used to do it on command and I know a few others who've been trained to that also.  I love it!  Lots of Greyhounds do it too ;)

I have one who grins and one who ha sa full on smile!

My Staffie smiles :)

My staffie smiles too. :D

Gordons smile!

I caught my JRT doing what I believe (in street jargon) is called "sucking his teeth" earlier today!

I knew a Jack Russel who couldn't be Photographed without a 'smile' for the camera - she looked really odd :D and only did it when she was really happy and also posing for the camera :D

My old AfghanX used to smile when he was having his tummy tickled :D - a big crinkly-eyed grin :D  He also loved wearing sun glasses in sunny weather, he'd spend ages looking thru then over the tops, then thru then over the tops then thru......:D

Two of my Pomeranians used to years ago.  Anton does a half smile (my Spanish Water Dog) and looks like Elvis :d

What a silly question DO DOGS SMILE?

Of course they do, my lab did and she cried aswell. My friends Jack russel did everytime we turned up with my littlens. They also smile with there eyes too.

A fair few dobes smile as well - right now I'm clicker training Remy to do it, he usually gives a tiny grin before he licks my nose so I'm clicking that whenever I can do it fast enough!

My australian red cattle has the biggest smile most cattle dogs do have large smiles.

A definate YES!! Two of my four are "smilers". One does an Elvis and only lifts half a lip the other gives a full on toothy! Scares some people who think he`s showing his teeth in an agressive way. It usually is reserved for people they know well or if they think they`ve been naughty!!!! Also when they are really pleased to see you.. like first thing in the morning! It`s fab. Quite a few in my breed do it.Enjoy.

My Border Terrier smiles every single time you fuss him - he loves it!!

His lips go back and he shows his teeth and his eyes melt a little - just the same as us when we smile!!! 

My 2 definitely smile. The "evil one", 1yr old mad as a hatter girlie does it more frequently than my boy. She manically chatters whilst she's doing it.

In fact to the uninitiated, she looks positively evil with black hairy lips curled back against her head, brilliant white pearlies on show with a huge pink lolling tongue hanging out the side of her mouth :D :D

Murf always does it when I sit in front of the fire, he lays his head in my lap and grins up at me with that blissful look that only he has perfected.

I have a westie and a weimaraner, my weim definitely smiles, it kind of looks like hes growling without showing his teeth, its really cute, his little face scrunches up, he does it everytime he sees me when i come in from work or when i get up to greet him in the morning. My Westie doesnt smile though lol:rolleyes:

I have a labrador who smiles everytime I return (even if I only popped out for a minute). He only does it to close family members but to strangers he'd look quite scary as he shows all his teeth in a huge grin but the wiggly bum and tail are a give away.

My cheeky 1 year old border collie grins when she's happy, it's adorable!

my boy rottie smiles, i groom a bichion who if u talk to him he will smile at you

Both of my BCs smile when they are excited...This smiling is usually accompanied by lots of panting noises...So do they laugh as well?

When my parents got thier first Belgian Shepherd, a few hours after he'd settled in we were all sitting around him playing and generally marvelling at how gorgeous he was and then all of a sudden he lent back, showed us his belly and gave us all this HUGE toothy grin. This was thier first belgian and seeing that row of pearlies for the first time was quite a shock - we all let out this involuntary 'oh' at the same time and nearly fell backwards. We quickly got used to it - he was such a funny boy!