There’s a lot you can tell about someone from their facial expression. Whether they’re happy or sad or pissed off in general, a person’s facial expression can say a lot about them. When people ask you about your day, and you try to play it off as though it went well, when in reality it could not have gone any worse, no matter how hard you try, your face can give it all away.

Looking at dogs, many of us tend to think that dogs cannot express their emotions because well, they’re not like humans, they’re faces can’t seem to move and figure themselves the way that ours can. That’s why it was so intriguing for me to find out that dogs CAN have facial expressions, just not in the way that we would characterize facial expressions. It’s amazing how a dog’s ears can tell you how they are feeling, what they may be thinking, when words just aren’t enough.

Sometimes we humans have a hard time expressing our feelings, not because we don’t want people to know how we feel, although that can certainly be the case, but because we don’t know how to express our feelings. We don’t know how to communicate with others on an emotional level because for some, showing emotion or expressing feelings can be a sign of weakness. We expose ourselves to the world, show our vulnerabilities, and bring out a side of ourselves that we may not be so keen on expressing. While sometimes this is true, being able to express our feelings is how we differ from animals. We have the ability to communicate our thoughts and feelings in coherent fashion and we must not take this ability for granted. There are many people out there who do not have the ability to speak for themselves, to express themselves, to contribute their ideas toward society. Therefore, we should take any opportunity that we can to express ourselves and share our ideas.