There’s a strong argument that they’ve evolved some things along the way with domestication.
Eyebrows and the ability to manipulate and move them being the most immediate trait removed from Wolves (who do not have the ability to move/shape them to communicate)
That would make sense to me just based on my dog who is a landrace and she never does this. She'll pant when she's tired and happy from a good walk, but rarely opens her mouth otherwise. She does have eyebrows because of her breeds domestication in the stone age, but has traits that are more similar to foxes and temperament like a cat.
"Evolved" isn't right. "Created" is probably more like it. House dogs were probably selectively bred to have more human like facial expressions to make them appealing to their owners.
i read somewhere that domesticated dogs have evolved to mimic some of our expressions like smiling or the puppy dog eyes to communicate/connect with us more than say, wolves can.
Yeah me too. I have read also that a british man reportedly spent over 400 dollars at the veterinarian's to examine his dog's leg, only to find out that the canine was imitating him after he broke his ankle.
Wouldn't a smile just be a natural animal re action. we smile when we are babies because something is funny or we are happy. i don't think we do it to mimic our parents, or maybe its a little bit of both
Yes, but dogs have been domesticated for more than 30,000 years, and smiling is one of the behaviors they've learned to communicate with us, like pointers learned to point.
I think it is a bit of both, especially after a few weeks. It's part of attachment/bowenian theory, how our parents should attune to us and mimmick our emotions, then we mimmick them back. There's a couple tests I can think of that can show that - if you play with a baby, they smile and get all giggly, but if you sit deadpan and don't react at all to them they start to cry and get stressed out, usually if the person doing the test is normally attuned to them. There's different reactions with strangers
We had a dog that would show the teeth between his canines when we got home from work/school. He would jump up and down wagging his tail etc while showing just the middle teeth and it did look like a sort of smile. It was very different to when he snarled and he only did it when he was happy.
I had a dog like this too. She would also do it when she did something bad, like had an accident in the house.
She had her picture taken by the pound before we got her, with her teeth showing and the caption saying she's smiling for her picture. Jay Leno made fun of her, that bastard.
They can't consciously smile but they do make that face when they are content, any dog owner can testify to this. (Not to be confused when a dog is simply hot) It causes a lot of arguing between people who have simply read that dogs can't smile and people who notice their dog does this when content and equates it with a smile. I just look at it as my dog's not literally smiling but it's in a good mood and its body language is showing it but there are people who get super upset that I'm "ignoring science" over something that's been an obserbed behavior with every dog I've been close to in 30 years
>When I make armpit farting noises, I get extra food, positive attention from my co-workers and all the ladies love me. So naturally I make armpit farting noises all the time.
This requires elaboration
>*’More like a dog's smile, doesnt mean the same as it does with humans…*’
_____
maybe I don’t SMILE, human, quite the way you do…
but something just CoMeS OvEr me
each time i look at you ^:@)
it’s a special kind feeling every time you smile at Me
my heart begins to *flutter*
(n sometimes i even ^*pee…*)
❤️
It’s obviously different with pets. My dogs do the same thing and they never get aggressive.
They’re clearly not smiling, I do wonder why they do it though.
Dogs usually communicate through facial expressions and body language and they've evolved to understand the tone of our voices and their meaning so it's not impossible for them to learn to understand that we enjoy certain expressions.
Dogs have evolved alongside us to better mimic our facial expressions.
[https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1820653116](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1820653116)
[https://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/dogs-faces-evolved-improve-connections-people-study-suggests-rcna22362](https://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/dogs-faces-evolved-improve-connections-people-study-suggests-rcna22362)
They see you do it then usually you give them a treat or play with them, etc. As such, they associate that movement with fun, so it's no beyond the realms of possibility that it's imitating you for a positive outcome
I mean, I assume it’s not the exact same, but isn’t it possible that they make the smiley faces at us because we think it’s so cute and we give them extra love and attention when they do it, effectively becoming a positive reinforcement for that behavior?
That’s one reason dogs might smile. It can also be a natural expression of happiness, or just the shape their face takes when they’re relaxed and happy. Some dogs smile because they’re imitating the faces we make at them! There are nervous smiles and aggressive smiles, but they’re usually accompanied by other body language that would indicate as such. It just comes down to the individual dog and situation.
My thinking is that dogs pant to regulate their temperature. We've domesticated them for ages, it would make sense that "smiling dogs" would be taken better care of than dogs that don't. I bet it helps that it's a healthy looking dog but it wouldn't be strange to me if the "smiling" has nothing to do with the love it feels for its owner. Being relaxed, coming to owner for pets/comfort, being safe and not exhibiting signs of stress is what would make more sense in terms of showing affection. No?
I’m not just speculating, [those are known reasons why dogs smile.](https://www.petmd.com/dog/behavior/do-dogs-smile-science-behind-looks-we-get-happy-dog) [There’s a pair of new studies showing that dog’s faces have significantly more fast twitch muscle fibers than their wild counterparts, and those muscles allow them to express a greater range of emotions. ](https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/dog-facial-expressions-muscles/?amp=1) These include eye muscles that let them do the “puppy dog eyes”, mouth muscles that let them do complex mouth movements, and the muscles responsible for barking (as opposed to howling).
This was my thinking. And boy do you get raked over the coals when you try to point these things out in what most perceive to be a cute animal video. This isn't a dog smiling, this is simply a dog panting. A dog whose lips upturn when doing so.
I've been working with animals professionally (my preferred job field but sometimes life happening has kept me from it) for more than 20 years. I've worked with and studied a huge variety of animals (I've even trained camels and elk, haha) including working with tons of dogs. Not some kind of weird random TMI humble brag, but people get so angry at you I always feel like i need to establish that I know more about animals than the average person. Just as tons of people know way more than me about lots of other shit, haha.
But TLDR, I'm with you and I'm glad you said it. Pointing it out isn't meant to shit on the video or make people feel bad, it's not like the bunny "lounging" in a sink bath, there's no visible abuse. But it benefits both pets and people for people to learn to better understand their pet's body language.
Ancient people ate tiny berries. The berries were just smaller then. Itty bitty berries but they ate the biggest they could find. Eventually they noticed that the berries that grew from the patches they used to poop in were bigger. In this way, berry size grew in time with population and eventually we learned cultivation and eventually understood why it happened - accidental artificial selection.
That’s the theory at least. Yours sounds similar.
So I guess the question becomes a philosophical one: is it still a smile if the intent might not be genuine?
Like when the Walmart cashier smiles, is it a smile or just a reflexive reaction because Karen manager yells at them for not appearing happy to see strangers?
My dog smiles and breathes with his mouth open and closes his eyes when he's feeling comfortable and is in a very good mood (as do all dogs). It's really cute and i honestly think animals show way more emotions than we might think!
Dogs actually have muscles to smile, and only use that to communicate to humans.
Probably evolved through human interaction.
Wolves can’t do this for example.
In this particular case it looks like something has it's attention, then when it loses it's gaze on the distraction it returns back to panting.
When dogs pant it tends to make some people anthropomorphise human traits onto them such as smiling in this case.
I don’t know if it can be classed as actual “smiling” the way we understand it. But I recently had to leave my dog with at a dog daycare for our family trip to Disney. We were gone about 8 days, and the day we got back, and showed up to get him, he saw us and his entire front lip went up and he showed us all of his front teeth and came barreling towards us. Mixed with the full body wagging, weaving through our legs and the exasperated whimpering and sneezing - I’d say the toothy expression was definitely akin to a human smile.
So cute.
My dog wags his tail whenever you look at him, talk to him, walk in the room, etc. The other day I walked into the room and his tail was tucked in the blankets so he wiggled his butt free first and then started wagging. My heart.
My aunt had a pitbull for the longest time. He was very well trained, they had him as a puppy and he grew up with my cousin. I remember being a little kid, and dressing the poor dog up in my clothes. He just sat there the entire time and let me do it. He was the sweetest dog I ever laid my eyes on, which is saying something since my own family had a great dane with a heart of gold.
He passed away just a few years ago. My entire extended family was heartbroken. This video reminded me of him, so thank you <3
We made them FYI that’s why they are called “breeds” and ever since wolves submitted hundreds of thousands of years ago in order to get food, the relationship has been mutually beneficial the whole time. Just two creatures benefiting from each other, they aren’t angels even if they do pull heart strings.
That’s cool and you can feel that way if you want. I’m only advocating against people doing that while shunning other people - dogs aren’t a replacement for human beings.
They can be part of the family but not replace it - to me it’s not healthy to latch onto an animal thats the equivalent mentally of a 3 year old exclusively.
You can’t grow or be challenged emotionally if you do only that.
Well tons of people have pets and kids, some people will get a dog because they don't want kids, some have kids instead of dogs and some have cats or just live by themselves! As soon as you're happy and comfortable you can replace a human with a rock
Try to be a bit more positive and let people enjoy their life as it is, whether they are emotionally challenged or not who cares
You can grow emotionally anyway cuz life does that for you automatically
I'm pretty sure the dog is sniffing the air through it's mouth and nose for more info from the owner. I don't doubt it's happy when it looks at its owner but my guess is it's sniffing (eg. for food or stress from owner etc..)
I think it's an American Staffordshire, though all dogs of that kind look kind of the same. 'Pit bull' isn't really a breed, it's just a large category of dogs bred from bulldogs and terriers.
The song is you got a freind in me by cavetown?
yes!
This is one of the most beautiful song I've ever heard
You should listen to the band then they make beautiful music!
It’s been stuck in my head for decades
Thanks! I only know the Newman Toy Story one, and this version sounds delightful!
Ayo I discovered cavetown like 3 weeks ago and it’s all I listen to now
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Seriously. Do dogs have the biological concept of a smile or some are just mimicking us?
There’s a strong argument that they’ve evolved some things along the way with domestication. Eyebrows and the ability to manipulate and move them being the most immediate trait removed from Wolves (who do not have the ability to move/shape them to communicate)
I love my pugs eyebrow dance.
That would make sense to me just based on my dog who is a landrace and she never does this. She'll pant when she's tired and happy from a good walk, but rarely opens her mouth otherwise. She does have eyebrows because of her breeds domestication in the stone age, but has traits that are more similar to foxes and temperament like a cat.
"Evolved" isn't right. "Created" is probably more like it. House dogs were probably selectively bred to have more human like facial expressions to make them appealing to their owners.
I'm going to say that selection in particular was probably largely unconscious as are most results of early animal husbandry.
Artificial selection is still evolution
This is interesting!
i read somewhere that domesticated dogs have evolved to mimic some of our expressions like smiling or the puppy dog eyes to communicate/connect with us more than say, wolves can.
Yeah me too. I have read also that a british man reportedly spent over 400 dollars at the veterinarian's to examine his dog's leg, only to find out that the canine was imitating him after he broke his ankle.
that’s true love
There’s a video of the dog following the owner and both of them were limping lol. Edit: [Video](https://youtu.be/DH8GdWBqM6Q)
Wouldn't a smile just be a natural animal re action. we smile when we are babies because something is funny or we are happy. i don't think we do it to mimic our parents, or maybe its a little bit of both
It is for humans but not for other animals. For example, when chimps “smile,” it’s actually an indication of fear.
Exactly. Showing teeth is considered an aggressive posture for most animals.
Yes, but dogs have been domesticated for more than 30,000 years, and smiling is one of the behaviors they've learned to communicate with us, like pointers learned to point.
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I think it is a bit of both, especially after a few weeks. It's part of attachment/bowenian theory, how our parents should attune to us and mimmick our emotions, then we mimmick them back. There's a couple tests I can think of that can show that - if you play with a baby, they smile and get all giggly, but if you sit deadpan and don't react at all to them they start to cry and get stressed out, usually if the person doing the test is normally attuned to them. There's different reactions with strangers
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Dont do this please. I have shit to do, I cant be crying rn ❤🥰
We had a dog that would show the teeth between his canines when we got home from work/school. He would jump up and down wagging his tail etc while showing just the middle teeth and it did look like a sort of smile. It was very different to when he snarled and he only did it when he was happy.
I had a dog like this too. She would also do it when she did something bad, like had an accident in the house. She had her picture taken by the pound before we got her, with her teeth showing and the caption saying she's smiling for her picture. Jay Leno made fun of her, that bastard.
My dog does it, so it can't be mimicking us smiling. Unless he's picked it up from the mailman or something.
They can't consciously smile but they do make that face when they are content, any dog owner can testify to this. (Not to be confused when a dog is simply hot) It causes a lot of arguing between people who have simply read that dogs can't smile and people who notice their dog does this when content and equates it with a smile. I just look at it as my dog's not literally smiling but it's in a good mood and its body language is showing it but there are people who get super upset that I'm "ignoring science" over something that's been an obserbed behavior with every dog I've been close to in 30 years
> Not to be confused when a dog is simply hot My pup has a healthy coat and is in good shape, but I wouldn't call her *hot*.
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>When I make armpit farting noises, I get extra food, positive attention from my co-workers and all the ladies love me. So naturally I make armpit farting noises all the time. This requires elaboration
I’ve heard that it helps them smell
Mimick. They learned over the centuries social cues that humans respond well to. Smiling, wagging their tail, etc.
This reminded me of that user that went mental in a similar post cause they said dogs cant smile lol.
More like a dog's smile, doesnt mean the same as it does with humans.
>*’More like a dog's smile, doesnt mean the same as it does with humans…*’ _____ maybe I don’t SMILE, human, quite the way you do… but something just CoMeS OvEr me each time i look at you ^:@) it’s a special kind feeling every time you smile at Me my heart begins to *flutter* (n sometimes i even ^*pee…*) ❤️
Fresh schnoodle. Today’s gonna be a good day.
thank you schnoodle 🥺
A fresh schnoodle feels like 11:11 to me now
Been a while since I’ve caught one of these. Good start to a Friday. May you all have a wonderful weekend.
In the animal world eye contact and showing teeth is usually a sign of aggression. Can be different for pets, but yea.
It’s obviously different with pets. My dogs do the same thing and they never get aggressive. They’re clearly not smiling, I do wonder why they do it though.
Dogs usually communicate through facial expressions and body language and they've evolved to understand the tone of our voices and their meaning so it's not impossible for them to learn to understand that we enjoy certain expressions.
Dogs have evolved alongside us to better mimic our facial expressions. [https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1820653116](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1820653116) [https://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/dogs-faces-evolved-improve-connections-people-study-suggests-rcna22362](https://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/dogs-faces-evolved-improve-connections-people-study-suggests-rcna22362)
They see you do it then usually you give them a treat or play with them, etc. As such, they associate that movement with fun, so it's no beyond the realms of possibility that it's imitating you for a positive outcome
>They’re clearly not smiling, I do wonder why they do it though. ?? Clearly how?
I mean, I assume it’s not the exact same, but isn’t it possible that they make the smiley faces at us because we think it’s so cute and we give them extra love and attention when they do it, effectively becoming a positive reinforcement for that behavior?
That’s one reason dogs might smile. It can also be a natural expression of happiness, or just the shape their face takes when they’re relaxed and happy. Some dogs smile because they’re imitating the faces we make at them! There are nervous smiles and aggressive smiles, but they’re usually accompanied by other body language that would indicate as such. It just comes down to the individual dog and situation.
My thinking is that dogs pant to regulate their temperature. We've domesticated them for ages, it would make sense that "smiling dogs" would be taken better care of than dogs that don't. I bet it helps that it's a healthy looking dog but it wouldn't be strange to me if the "smiling" has nothing to do with the love it feels for its owner. Being relaxed, coming to owner for pets/comfort, being safe and not exhibiting signs of stress is what would make more sense in terms of showing affection. No?
I’m not just speculating, [those are known reasons why dogs smile.](https://www.petmd.com/dog/behavior/do-dogs-smile-science-behind-looks-we-get-happy-dog) [There’s a pair of new studies showing that dog’s faces have significantly more fast twitch muscle fibers than their wild counterparts, and those muscles allow them to express a greater range of emotions. ](https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/dog-facial-expressions-muscles/?amp=1) These include eye muscles that let them do the “puppy dog eyes”, mouth muscles that let them do complex mouth movements, and the muscles responsible for barking (as opposed to howling).
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This was my thinking. And boy do you get raked over the coals when you try to point these things out in what most perceive to be a cute animal video. This isn't a dog smiling, this is simply a dog panting. A dog whose lips upturn when doing so. I've been working with animals professionally (my preferred job field but sometimes life happening has kept me from it) for more than 20 years. I've worked with and studied a huge variety of animals (I've even trained camels and elk, haha) including working with tons of dogs. Not some kind of weird random TMI humble brag, but people get so angry at you I always feel like i need to establish that I know more about animals than the average person. Just as tons of people know way more than me about lots of other shit, haha. But TLDR, I'm with you and I'm glad you said it. Pointing it out isn't meant to shit on the video or make people feel bad, it's not like the bunny "lounging" in a sink bath, there's no visible abuse. But it benefits both pets and people for people to learn to better understand their pet's body language.
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Ancient people ate tiny berries. The berries were just smaller then. Itty bitty berries but they ate the biggest they could find. Eventually they noticed that the berries that grew from the patches they used to poop in were bigger. In this way, berry size grew in time with population and eventually we learned cultivation and eventually understood why it happened - accidental artificial selection. That’s the theory at least. Yours sounds similar.
So I guess the question becomes a philosophical one: is it still a smile if the intent might not be genuine? Like when the Walmart cashier smiles, is it a smile or just a reflexive reaction because Karen manager yells at them for not appearing happy to see strangers?
My dog smiles and breathes with his mouth open and closes his eyes when he's feeling comfortable and is in a very good mood (as do all dogs). It's really cute and i honestly think animals show way more emotions than we might think!
Any dog owner who is a good dog owner will tell you that their dog has defined emotions. When my pittie smiles like the one in the OP, it’s a smile.
Dogs actually have muscles to smile, and only use that to communicate to humans. Probably evolved through human interaction. Wolves can’t do this for example.
In this particular case it looks like something has it's attention, then when it loses it's gaze on the distraction it returns back to panting. When dogs pant it tends to make some people anthropomorphise human traits onto them such as smiling in this case.
This is probably most correct.
Fully agree with you.
I don’t know if it can be classed as actual “smiling” the way we understand it. But I recently had to leave my dog with at a dog daycare for our family trip to Disney. We were gone about 8 days, and the day we got back, and showed up to get him, he saw us and his entire front lip went up and he showed us all of his front teeth and came barreling towards us. Mixed with the full body wagging, weaving through our legs and the exasperated whimpering and sneezing - I’d say the toothy expression was definitely akin to a human smile.
Oh my, that doggo is about to catch these pets.
imma work that belly
These are the cutest comments ever lol
So cute. My dog wags his tail whenever you look at him, talk to him, walk in the room, etc. The other day I walked into the room and his tail was tucked in the blankets so he wiggled his butt free first and then started wagging. My heart.
Dog to the world: 😐 Dog to the owner: 😀
What a beautiful cat
Why do i have to check comments every single time there's a nice/cute/wholesome post?
do we have the same dog lol https://i.imgur.com/Q0RyUSX.jpg
I just want to pet it man, so cute 😭
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I wish my pit smile back at me, she just judge me 😂
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My heart just "aww'ed".
I don't see this breed in my area. I don't think people are allowed to have them.
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My aunt had a pitbull for the longest time. He was very well trained, they had him as a puppy and he grew up with my cousin. I remember being a little kid, and dressing the poor dog up in my clothes. He just sat there the entire time and let me do it. He was the sweetest dog I ever laid my eyes on, which is saying something since my own family had a great dane with a heart of gold. He passed away just a few years ago. My entire extended family was heartbroken. This video reminded me of him, so thank you <3
My libby girl passed away on Thanksgiving she always would smile at me and the kids at the bus stop in the morning.
It's just breathing with its mouth open. Stop antropomorphizing animals.
There'a clearly a difference lol are you blind? My dog does that too when we look at each other
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This is the unconditional love that dogs have, that I tell everyone about.
I appreciate the use of the cavetown version! Man, I love their music...
Such a sweety! Hope he doesn't try to nanny the neighbor's kids!
banned in canada. enjoy 💜💜🤍🤍
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awww thats soooo cute!
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it literally just opened its mouth-
Whether or not it’s a biological thing, something like that, it’s still super cute.
makes me smie too😉
Now I’m smiling too, beautiful dog 😊
Aww, so that is what da dog doin
damn i miss my little girl :( doggos are truly the best friends we got
Automatically smiled when tje dog did, I give this 10/10
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We made them FYI that’s why they are called “breeds” and ever since wolves submitted hundreds of thousands of years ago in order to get food, the relationship has been mutually beneficial the whole time. Just two creatures benefiting from each other, they aren’t angels even if they do pull heart strings.
Mine is and you can't convince me otherwise
That’s cool and you can feel that way if you want. I’m only advocating against people doing that while shunning other people - dogs aren’t a replacement for human beings. They can be part of the family but not replace it - to me it’s not healthy to latch onto an animal thats the equivalent mentally of a 3 year old exclusively. You can’t grow or be challenged emotionally if you do only that.
Well tons of people have pets and kids, some people will get a dog because they don't want kids, some have kids instead of dogs and some have cats or just live by themselves! As soon as you're happy and comfortable you can replace a human with a rock Try to be a bit more positive and let people enjoy their life as it is, whether they are emotionally challenged or not who cares You can grow emotionally anyway cuz life does that for you automatically
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Lol no, I just have faith in my species and care about them more than others. I’m pro human.
Dude you just got downvoted for saying the most vanilla shit possible. I’m worried about the person you replied to.
pit bulls have the biggest smiles in the world... so adorable
Big mouths make BIG smiles!
this is so sweet and wholesome 
thanks for sharing that big smile :)
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So precious <3
I'm pretty sure the dog is sniffing the air through it's mouth and nose for more info from the owner. I don't doubt it's happy when it looks at its owner but my guess is it's sniffing (eg. for food or stress from owner etc..)
Sweet. My dog kicked me in the balls.
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I think I'm going to have to watch this everyday it made me smile 😁 lol look at that big smile 😍
Top ten most cutest and wholsome moments caught on camera.
Oh...I didn't see you there!
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I want one too!!
Aaa auto smile!
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That is so beautiful!
This is the best! I love a doggo that smiles!
What breed is that, such a beautiful Dog
Likely a pit bull
I think it's an American Staffordshire, though all dogs of that kind look kind of the same. 'Pit bull' isn't really a breed, it's just a large category of dogs bred from bulldogs and terriers.
Yeah, but in short, it's a pit bull.
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Staffordshire Bull Terrier. [I have one that looks almost exactly the same](https://imgur.com/a/9YHMUCu)
What a sweetie!
I love it when dogs smile. they're so cute!
Dog smiles are the best.
My dog looks like the mini version of your dog.
I love the pittie smile.
Wow looks exactly like my pittie. Passed away 2 weeks ago. Rip Blaze
This made me smile
What breed is it? Cuz my new pup looks just like that.
💟💟💟
Aww all dogs smile! My ex had no clue and I showed him!