Developing the Dog Facial Action Coding System

Footage from 28 privately owned dogs of varying breeds (approximately 8–10 hours) from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology DogLab was the primary source for DogFACS development. In addition, we sourced approximately 100 clips from www.youtube.com (permission granted from the copyright holder of each clip) and used ad hoc footage from 86 dogs at four dog shelters (Portsmouth City Dog Kennels; Wood Green, The Animal’s Charity in Cambridge; The Dog’s Trust, West London, Harefield and RSPCA Southridge Animal Centre, London). Each facial movement was documented by appearance changes, minimal criteria for identification and comparison to other species, in line with FACS terminology (Table 1). The muscular basis of each facial movement was verified in light of dissection of a face from a specimen of a domestic dog (AMB) as well as previously published dissections [25] . The manual is freely available and requires certification to use (www.dogfacs.com).